By Marissa Scott – Managing Editor
Amidst the madness of March in collegiate sports, Mountain West Esports traveled to Sin City to fulfill a bracket of its own with San Jose State on top.
In the first-annual MW Esports Championship Tournament in the College of “League of Legends,” the Spartans took home the first place prize after a 2-0 win against Boise State in the finals.
The club received a $5,000 scholarship as a prize for the win.
“I think it went very well. Everything happened how it should have gone,” said assistant coach, Branson Lowe. “We had a little hiccup in our very first game but after that we didn’t end up losing at all.”
In the semifinals, the Spartans reverse-swept Nevada after losing their first and only game of the championships.
After the first loss, the team decided to switch up its game and stick with that strategy the rest of the competition.
And it worked.
After SJSU took the win against Nevada, they took on Boise State in the finals on Saturday.
The Spartans swept the Broncos 2-0 and became the first ever Mountain West Esports champions.
“It feels good to be a part of the leading team to get Esports into mainstream popularity,” said Hieu Than. “Winning this might make SJSU recognize us more and have Esports be a bigger part of SJSU’s identity.”
Just a mere eight months ago, the team was just starting up and over the weekend came back from a first-game loss to take the MW Championship title.
Esports isn’t often recognized as a sport, but the members hope that people across the country will recognize it as a competition that will raise in popularity for years to come.
“The biggest thing is how someone would define a sport,” Lowe said. “To me, the term sport is more of a skill competition.”
And one thing is for sure — the Spartans Esports team is definitely skilled at its craft.
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