ETSU’s Esports ‘Overwatch 2’ team started their season after waiting for the ‘Overwatch 2’ update in early October. On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the team played against Iona University in the fifth match of the season.
“It’s definitely been a big transition. Suddenly every player on the team has a significantly higher impact because there is less of a diffusion of responsibility. We’ve been training as much as we can to get ready for the season going forward,” said senior Ryan “Sponk” O’Connor (Johnson City, Tennessee).
The team played against Iona University, winning 3-1 to bring their overall record to 4-1 for the season.
Round 1 resulted in a Buccaneer win 2-0 on the Lijiang Tower map where ETSU came out strong. Team captain sophomore Zachary “Xenon” Strunk (Scott County, Tennessee) aced the opponents in the second game.
“One of our core, fundamental theories as a team is we always want to be engaging first. We are a very aggressive team, so our goal is to be as aggressive as possible and go after those wins as quickly and efficiently as we can,” said O’Connor. “Sometimes that’s planning out beforehand and executing and sometimes it can be more spur of the moment- I see an opportunity. It’s very important for each of us to recognize and trust that that opportunity exists and act on that.”
Round 2 was played on the King’s Row map where freshman Jared “Source” Schnall (West Islip, New York) earned ETSU another full team kill in game one and the team won 2-1.
Iona’s support was absent for most of the game, granting ETSU the chance to increase their aggressiveness.
“When they are off, it allows us to play a lot more aggressive because if you play more passive when they are off like that, it allows them to make up for their disadvantages. So, we took advantage of them being off,” said Strunk.
Iona got the win in Round 3 on the Circuit Royal map. ETSU Buccaneers came back in round 4 to take the win 1-0 on the Colosseo map.
The third full team kill of the night was made by junior Nate “Senorlol” Williams (Kingsport, Tennessee).
“Games like this are opportunities for the team to practice playing looser, playing more comfortably, taking risks and gaining more confidence in their ability that when they take those risks, people don’t freeze up and are able to make some of those more aggressive calls and decisions,” said Jeff Shell, head coach for the team.
The ‘Overwatch 2’ team will take on Edgewood University next on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Cave, which will also be streamed live on Twitch.
