Huskies esports teams compete at Frag for Cancer

Last weekend, Saint Mary's Huskies esports teams competed in the Frag for Cancer, Atlantic Canada's largest video game tournament.

Two League of Legends and two Valorant teams competed in the event, which was held November 18-20 at Dalhousie University. It marked the first competition of any sorts for the Huskies esports teams.

"Not only was it our first competition, but it was a LAN (Local Area Network) event, so it was great to compete in-person with our team and see how we work together," said Connor Miller, head coach of the Huskies esports League of Legends team. "It was very gratifying to see these students in a competitive environment. They represented Saint Mary's in a very positive way, in both how they played and conducted themselves, and I was really proud to see what they were able to do in their first ever competition."

"Even though the results weren't exactly what we wanted, the team left inspired and it highlighted a lot of areas where we need to improve," added Miller. "This event was a very positive influence on our staff and our players, left us hungry and wanting more to improve our team."

"For our first time going out and competing, we feel like we performed over expectations, especially with the teams only really being made a month ago," adds Forrest Kroll, head coach of the Huskies esports Valorant teams which placed fifth and seventh overall.

"The biggest thing about this competition for us was it was a proof of concept," adds Kroll. "We may have just formed this team, but we can still come out and take matches off the top teams that have been playing together for months, if not years."

"It went really well," adds Aidan Sampson, manager of the Huskies Valorant team. "Both teams know what they did wrong, and I think going forward we'll be able to climb that Atlantic Canada leaderboard. But the best thing was getting a chance to meet other college teams and their organizers."

Both Kroll and Miller say they made important connections with other esports teams from across the province, and will look into some exhibition play and weekly tournaments. They both hope to have teams compete in the TomorrowLAN esports competition which will take place in Moncton this March.

"It was great to meet a lot of different contacts in the local esports community," adds Miller. "Meeting teams from different universities across Atlantic Canada will allow us to set up scrimmages, and determine seeding for big events."

"The guys are obviously playing with each other and getting practice together on their downtime, which is great to see," adds Kroll. "You can have five great individual players, but if they don't work well together it really doesn't matter much."

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