UCO’s Esports Team Scored 2-4 in Regional Tournament

The University of Central Oklahoma Esports team competed in the Regional Marvel Rivals Tournament against Tokyo this Tuesday at the Co-op Gaming Center on campus.

The game took place in a custom tournament lobby where the teams competed in a best-of-7 series, and the Bronchos ultimately finished with a score of 2-4 after six hard-fought rounds.

“This tournament will be the final game of the season for us,” said Seth Wedland, Assistant Coach for the team.

“I believe our record is 6 to 1 for this season, and the team we lost to didn’t make it to the playoffs, so we weren’t worried going into this one,” he said 

The custom tournament lobby allowed for a feature during the ban phase called saves, which is not accessible in the base casual or competitive game modes, and adds a unique element to early game strategy.

The ban phase is a relatively new feature in competitive gaming that allows teams to select one or multiple heroes to remove from the game or ban. However, the new save feature does what the name says and saves heroes from being banned. 

Each round took place on a different map, consisting of a different kind of gameplay, causing each team to make necessary switches to the team composition for each game.

 “I think we’ve had to play different heroes every round,” Wendland said. “ It can be tough when you can’t rely on your main pick.”

The Bronchos were held 0-2 for their first game.

Round one was on a domination map, which means that in order to win, the team must capture a point on the map and hold it for two minutes. Domination rounds also have their own rounds in order to get the game itself to last longer than two minutes.

However, it is only the best of three, so even the longest games in this mode are only about eight to ten minutes long.

Our Bronchos were able to turn it around during the second game in the series, beating Tokyo 3-1.

Instead of Domination, this game was on a hybrid map, which means there are two objectives to complete before you can win. You need to capture a point on the map, much like Domination. This time, taking the point, the team then gets access to a payload vehicle that you are then responsible for escorting to the finish line.

The Bronchos pushed their payload all the way to the end, while Tokyo was stopped immediately after capturing the payload. However, Tokyo was able to push its payload to the end in the third game.

This game was on a push map, which is the last type of game mode that is in competitive play.

It is essentially a hybrid map without the first point. The game simply starts with the vehicle immediately outside of spawn, and the team must walk it to the end while the other team defends it. 

The Bronchos were held 3-4 during their push round, but still had 3 more games to play.

The last 3 rounds were again a domination round, a hybrid round, and a push round. After losing 1-2 in the domination game, the team secured another 2-1 win during the hybrid game, leaving the teams tied 3-3 with one game left.

The Bronchos battled to the end, but ultimately Tokyo was able to pull out the final win, securing their title as Regional Esports Champions

“Even though we lost, I still think we can bounce back next time’’ said Spencer Womack, a Broncho damage player

The Broncho Esports team will be playing again next semester, where they will be looking forward to a rematch.