Best Of Five: The best and worst of esports today

Graphic by Quinn Sherer | Mercury Staff

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It’s a good day to be a fan of UTD esports. The Overwatch team is putting up undefeated scorelines, the Rocket League team is off to the races and the Smash team is showing results at Comet Clash, Freaks, Low Tide City and more. Let’s dive in!

Comets beat the Chads 2-0

In what could be a very funny analogy to the nerdy reputation of UTD, the Rocket League team took down a non-collegiate team named “The Chads” in a 2-0 series victory for the USO Invitational qualifier. While the Chads were able to get one point per game off the Comets, UTD held firm and repeated a 2-1 game score line to close out the series. This year’s Rocket League roster is super strong, so expect to see a deep run through both the qualifier and the tournament as the six-week event progresses.

LoL team loses opening UAL series 1-2

The League of Legends team unfortunately lost their opening series against USC for the UAL regular season. With starting midlaner GoodSir preoccupied, head coach Hemal had to sub in, and while the team was able to get one game on the board, USC ultimately outperformed the Comets in a close series. However, with their full starting lineup and plans to build up and run the upsurge tournament (see the Coach Check-in with head coach Hemal Salvi), the UTD LoL team will be going onwards and upwards.

GG EZ Café runs LANs for clubs

With the return of in-person activities comes the return of in-person club activities. And while you may not associate gaming clubs with in-person gatherings, the LAN competition is a long-lasting tradition in esports and local gaming organizations everywhere. Recently, a VALORANT LAN and a Teamfight Tactics tournament have been run out of the GG EZ Café, with a large turnout and a great time to be had. Hopefully, these LANs will continue throughout the year.

Pine and Jecse leave the Dallas Fuel

While this paper does not generally cover big tier 1 moves in esports, the loss of Pine and Jecse from the Dallas Fuel is one that hits close to home. With the impending release of Overwatch 2, it was natural that as the game turned into a 5v5 instead of a 6v6, cuts would be made. But Jecse in particular was a fan favorite player. You can read Sean Collin’s coverage about it in the Dallas Morning News, but here in this little column, I wanted to offer a moment of silence for the loss of some great players from the Fuel.

Low Tide City brings back in-person Smash in a tidal wave

Remember how LANs are back? Well, in Smash Ultimate they’re really back, with the first major regional happening in Austin this past weekend. Once again, I unfortunately have to write this column before the paper publishes and the event actually happens (darn you schedules!), but suffice to say, all the UTD and DFW participants ran the bracket for sure. If you didn’t watch one of the biggest tournaments in recent history, you missed out.


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