Esports Team Qualifies for Overwatch Finals

ACIT Defeats Cedar Creek and Absegami to Advance to Finals

Screenshot+of+ACIT+Overwatch+team+%28outlined+in+red%29+competing+against+Absegami+%28outlined+in+blue%29.

Sebastian Reyes

Screenshot of ACIT Overwatch team (outlined in red) competing against Absegami (outlined in blue).

Aiden Stratoti, staff reporter

At the start of this year, ACIT’s Overwatch team entered into its second year in the Garden State Esports (GSE) Overwatch League. The team has been competing for the last 7 weeks against many other schools across Atlantic County with the desire to improve upon its 8th place finish from last season.

Currently ACIT’s Overwatch team has a record of 6-1 with some of their more recent matches ending in victory against schools such as Cedar Creek (February 9), and pushing them closer to qualifying for finals. This was the team’s 5th win, ranking them 3rd in the Cape Atlantic Conference.

“During the match against Cedar Creek our Tanks protected the team well and allowed the DPS to get eliminations.” said Joey Woodruff, ACIT Esports Club president. “Our healers also did a good job at keeping our team alive. ”

Tanks are characters with large health pools sometimes carrying barriers. DPS is also known as the Damage role of the game; these characters have high damage outputs with versatile abilities (flight, rockets, traps, etc.). Healers will provide buffs such as speed, healing, and damage boosts.

Each match of the GSE begins on Kings Row which is a hybrid map. This means the attacking team will have to capture a point and then push the payload-or objective.

ACIT started the round on offense, stumbling to capture their objective at first; but, eventually, the team was able to push Cedar Creek’s defense back. With the momentum, the team’s DPS and Tanks were able to push through the first two checkpoints, momentarily being halted at the third.

This didn’t prove to be a major deal for the team, however, as they were able to push through and complete the attack, gaining a major advantage and ending the attack with over 3 minutes left on the clock. After the offense was complete, teams swapped sides (meaning ACIT would now be on defense). ACIT would end up holding Cedar Creek back completely for the entirety of the half-round, securing one win for the team.

“[Cedar Creek] fought well,” said Vincent Bove, ACIT’s Overwatch team captain. “But we had the upper hand thanks to our regular practicing and communication skills.”

The second round would be played in Blizzard World, another hybrid map within the game, with ACIT again starting on offense. Similarly to the first round, ACIT would push through, quickly eliminating any enemy in their path. They captured the first point and were able to push the Objective with ease, ending their attack with a time of 4:03 remaining on the time bank.

On defense during the next half of the round, Bove, who plays a tank character in the game, showed his strength in teamwork, saving a support teammate from being hooked in by the enemy team.

“I feel that our backline was much more protected than theirs,” said Logan Goldenberg, a support player for ACIT. “This allowed us to survive and keep the team alive.”

ACIT was able to secure the win (and gain a record of 5-1) against Cedar Creek before moving on to their next match against Absegmai on Feb 17.

UPDATE

The Feb 17 match against Absegami only lasted 2 rounds with ACIT coming out on top after a long-earned victory. This is the 6th win for ACIT, which places ACIT in second above Absegami, qualifying ACIT for finals taking place in late March.