Written by Stephanie Fletcher
The Esports and Game Design Collective (EGD) hosted an Overwatch 1v1 tournament on Friday, July 24th for a small and rowdy crowd. Three students from the University of Pittsburgh, one student from Ohio State University, and a member of EGD fought in a round robin bracket with best of three games in which the first to score five kills won each game. This was the first tournament of the Summer Series in which the EGD Discord voice chat was constantly talkative and filled with people bonding over the competition.
In the first round of the bracket, “Tolstoy” played a comical game against Armacade. Originally, Armacade was optimistic whenever he had previous experience with the random hero chosen for him. In the Moira matchup, he was jump-scared by “Tolstoy” and started yelling, “The suck! The suck! The suck!” referring to Moira’s right-click ability. “Sitcomedy” joined the voice chat for his matchup in the middle of the clamor as everyone was giggling, and laughed along. By the time organizers announced that contestants were waiting for the “Tolstoy” versus “Armacade” game to be over, “Armacade” had lost all faith in his ability to win a single round and later placed last place in the tournament.
“Shaq” began by easily defeating “Sitcomedy” who had just come back to Overwatch from Valorant to play for fun. “Sitcomedy” was unable to win a single round against “Shaq”. He then won a few rounds against “Armacade” and four against “Tolstoy”, placing him in second to last place. After the tournament, he told me that he would have much more fun participating in the Valorant tournament on Monday, July 27th if he could find a team, which he could not on such short notice.
Then, the closest matchup of the night began between “Shaq” and “Astro”, who received a bye. “Shaq” doubled his mouse sensitivity to give his friend a chance to win against him, even though the two were the closest in rank. “Shaq” is currently grandmaster and ranked 30th in the support role on American servers and “Astro” has peaked in masters on tank. During the first game in the best of three, “Astro” managed to win a round on “Baptiste”, one of “Shaq”’s mains, and also Zen which “Shaq” played competitively for seven Overwatch seasons. However, “Shaq” was able to outplay “Astro” on Roadhog, one of “Astro”’s mains, with a well-placed hook. “Shaq” also had a perfect round on Pharah without taking damage. The last match of the first game featured the two players facing off on McCree and “Shaq” ended up playfully “teabagging,” or repeatedly crouching, over “Astro”’s dead body. In another effort to make the games fair, “Shaq” changed his crosshair to mimic “Ta1yo”’s magenta, comically large crosshair. It is such a notorious symbol that “Ta1yo”’s previous team rebranded themselves to honor him. In game two, “Astro” refused to lose given the circumstances. “Shaq” once again had an easy win on Pharah. When asked how, he responded, “Carefully.” “Astro” then won the game thanks to the random hero selector choosing two tanks which he has a lot of experience playing, Orisa and Roadhog. In game three, “Shaq” won with very little health remaining since “Astro” was unable to hit his final shots. “Astro” showed his fatigue and only won two rounds as “Shaq” rolled him in the five others.
Unsurprisingly, “Shaq” won with 23 wins throughout the entire night, undefeated by any player other than one game against “Astro”. On average, he plays Overwatch five hours per day, although he has played up to ten hours per day in the past. He has discovered that there is a lot to learn outside of the game and watches “Lr1s”, who is supposedly “the best flex support in Overwatch right now” as well as “a wholesome person” according to “Shaq”. Practice and studying the game are not the only things that affect his gameplay. “Shaq” cites mentality as the factor with the most leverage over his performance, followed by whether or not he is tired or hungry.
There is still a chance to participate in EGD’s Summer Series tournaments! The second League of Legendstournament will occur on Friday, August 7th and the second Super Smash Bros. Ultimatetournament will be Monday, August 10th. Create an account, join the hub, and then click the links above to participate and earn some cash.