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Maryville Esports Wins League of Legends National Championship

Maryville ends its C-Star League Division 1 season with a 40-0 record

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In its first season in the C-Star League Division 1, Maryville University’s Esports club team captured the League of Legends championship at Dreamhack, held in Austin, Texas, considered the biggest tournament in North America history. Maryville ended the season undefeated, with a 40-0 record.

Student-athletes Andrew “Cackgod” Smith, Cody “Walrus” Altman, Tony “Saskio” Chau, John “Papachau” Le, and Marko “Prototype” Sosnicki comprise the winning team. They defeated McMaster University – Canada in the championship round on Sunday, May 8. Earlier, they defeated the University of Waterloo – Canada. The best of three match-ups were held back to back, and involved a total of four consecutive hours of play.

“A big shout out to the players for putting the work all season long,” said Dan “Clerkie” Clerke, team coordinator. “It’s hard work to be a professional gamer and go to school. They put in 14 hours a day, practicing every spare minute.”

A group of faculty, staff and parents accompanied Maryville’s team to the grand finals, including Jarrett Fleming, coordinator of Athletics and Recreation.

“This is a huge boost for our growing club sports program, and we’re just getting started,” Fleming said. “Dan and the Esports team have worked hard to help build a successful program. Their championship really puts us on the map in Esports.”

“We’ve put in a lot of hard work setting up Esports at Maryville University, and it feels great to finish up with the season with a championship,” Clerke said.

The tournament was broadcast online at www.twitch.tv, a website that caters specifically to the Esports industry covering the top players, tournaments, and leagues. The Esports industry is estimated to soon be a $1.9 billion worldwide endeavor.

Maryville University was one of the first schools in the country to offer scholarships for Esports.

Thank you Rene Knott of KSDK Newschannel 5 for dropping by and interviewing the team!

A few tweets from the big day:

 

This story also featured in the Fall 2016 edition of Maryville Magazine.

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