Jon Dunning
Staff Writer
jdunning1@murraystate.edu
Murray State Esports participated in League of Legends matches, Overwatch matches and a 24-hour livestream fundraiser this past week.
League of Legends
In the Upsurge Junior League, Murray State defeated Old Man Gaming 2-1 on Friday, Feb. 21.
For game one, the Racers chose to run Ornn, Sejuani, Ortanna, Jinx and Senna. Old Man Gaming played as Shen, Olaf, Vel’koz, Ezreal and Yuumi.
Murray State took the first kill of the game at 3:36, putting the team ahead in gold 5.5k-5.0k, but Old Man Gaming immediately responded with a kill of their own.
With kills tied 2-2, Murray State took the first dragon objective by slaying a Mountain Dragon at 7:10.
At 12:33, Murray State slayed an Infernal Dragon to take the second dragon objective of the game. While the Racers led 2-0 in dragon objectives and 19.7k-19.1k in gold, Old Man Gaming held the lead in kills 6-3.
The Racers destroyed the first turret of the game at 13:52, giving Murray State another advantage.
Following their first turret score, the Racers delivered an unanswered performance. Murray State claimed victory in game one at 29:01, up 4-0 in dragon objectives, 24-14 in kills, 58.9k-45.7k in gold and 9-0 in turrets.
In game two, Murray State chose Gnar, Jarvan IV, Orianna, Vayne and Nautilus. Old Man Gaming ran Ornn, Lee Sin, Taliyah, Tristana and Braum.
Old Man Gaming took first blood 37 seconds into game two and got five more unanswered kills before slaying an Ocean Dragon at 6:35 to take the first dragon objective. Old Man Gaming led 6-0 in kills, 1-0 in dragon objectives and 11.0k-8.6k in gold.
At 15:56, Old Man Gaming took the first turret. This score put them up 1-0 in turrets, 2-0 in dragon objectives, 17-2 in kills and 29.3k-21.3k in gold.
In a total reversal from game one, Old Man Gaming completely dominated game two. They claimed victory at 22:57 with a score of 7-0 in turrets, 3-0 in dragon objectives, 26-4 in kills and 43.9k-31.7k in gold, making the match 1-1.
Moving into game three, Murray State ran Aatrox, Sejuani, Neeko, Jinx and Nautilus. Old Man Gaming chose Kled, Jarvan IV, Ahri, Xayah and Rakan.
Old Man Gaming took first blood at 4:00, putting them up 1-0 in kills.
The Racers completed the first dragon objective of the match at 6:56 with the slaying of a Mountain Dragon. Murray State then got its first kill at 7:52, tying the kill score at 1-1.
Old Man Gaming took the first turret of game three at 10:59 but kills remained tied 3-3, and Murray State maintained leads in dragon objectives 1-0 and gold 17.0k-16.4k. Old Man Gaming took their first dragon objective at 13:02 by slaying a Cloud Dragon.
Murray State took its first turret of game three at 14:23, tying the turret score 1-1. The Racers quickly took the lead in turrets 3-1 by 15:56.
Old Man Gaming managed to take another dragon objective and an additional Racer turret during game three, but it was not enough to stop Murray State from winning at 31:01. Murray State led Old Man Gaming in turrets 11-2, dragon objectives 3-2, kills 26-12 and gold 60.9k-47.1k. The Racers defeated Old Man Gaming 2-1.
Murray State staff adviser Sean Mitchuson believes that the Racers decided to go back to the basics of the game in order to win round three and take the match.
“Round three we stopped acting goofy and basically did not want to take any chance at losing,” Mitchuson said. “It was textbook League of Legends. They did everything right, and they did a good job.”
The win put Murray State in first place in their Upsurge Junior League division.
Murray State won by default on Saturday, Feb. 22 in the Riot Games College League, as the opposing team did not show up for the match. The Racers are currently 3-1 in the league this season.
Overwatch
Murray State Esports’ junior varsity Overwatch team, also known as Blue Squad, played its first match of the Overwatch Collegiate Championship on Sunday, Feb. 23, against Villanova University.
Game one took place on the control map Ilios. Villanova took the first control point, only allowing the Racers to gain 34% control over the objective point before Villanova took it completely.
Game two took place on the escort map Dorado. Due to an error on Villanova’s part when setting up the game lobby, they were forced to forfeit game two to Murray State. The teams entered game three 1-1.
Game three occurred on the hybrid map King’s Row. In round one of game three, Murray State pushed the payload 110.63m. Villanova managed to push the payload further in round two, giving them the overall win over Murray State Blue Squad 2-1.
Murray State Esports’ varsity Overwatch team, also known as Gold Squad, started their season in the Overwatch TESPA Varsity league on Tuesday, Feb. 25, against Shenandoah University.
Game one took place on the control map Ilios. Murray State took round one by taking control of the objective point, only allowing Shenandoah to take 76% control of it. In round two, Murray State completely dominated the objective point, not allowing Shenandoah any control of it.
In game two, the teams played on the escort map Havana. Murray State escorted the payload first, pushing it 88m. Shenandoah pushed the payload further during round two though, giving them the win and pushing the series into game three.
Game three also took place on Havana. Murray State was able to beat Shenandoah’s 67.69m run, allowing them to defeat Shenandoah 2-1.
Mitchuson said the game against Shenandoah was a tough one for Murray State.
“It will probably be the best game this season,” Mitchuson said. “It was back and forth the whole time. We were able to pull out the win at the very last second.”
24-Hour Livestream Fundraiser
Murray State Esports raised $430 in a 24-hour livestream fundraiser on Feb. 22 to purchase jerseys for each of the university’s competitive esports teams.
Students streamed all 24 hours of the event on the Racer Esports Twitch channel. Games featured during the stream included Minecraft, Overwatch, League of Legends, Hearthstone, Pokemon and many others.
Mitchuson said the students came up with the fundraiser idea on their own.
“When we are on stream, we want them to be a lot more presentative as a cohesive unit and not in their regular clothes, which is what they are wearing right now,” Mitchuson said. “The students got together and said ‘Hey, let’s do this 24-hour stream. We’ll play a bunch of different games on stream and try to raise money.’”
Murray State Esports’ League of Legends team will be back in action Friday, Feb. 28, against Meme City Esports in the Upsurge Junior League and will be facing Missouri S&T on Saturday, Feb. 29, in the Riot Games College League. The Overwatch teams will play again on Sunday, March 1, against to-be-determined opponents.
To keep up with all of Esports’ activities, viewers can subscribe to the team’s Twitch channel at RacerEsports and YouTube channel at RacerEsports.