The Miami Varsity Overwatch team won their first ever NACE National Championship last night and are, by virtue, the first ever collegiate Overwatch national champions.
I’m so proud of them, it’s kind of hard to put into words.
We’ve had a varsity program for just over 18 months. We have a dedicated arena, we have coaches and analysts. We have directors (Glenn Platt and myself), but the real engine of the whole thing, what runs the whole operation, is the player base.
We’ve had an Overwatch team as long as there have been Overwatch teams, and I watched the ragtag group we had grow from being “okay” in the most Okay sense of the word– a team of 8 with no recruits from outside playing a game that wasn’t more than a few months old, to being national champions and leaders in Esports.
In addition to their play in game, I’ve had numerous members of that team in my games classes (many of them are sophomores and juniors right now). They’ve always been studious, engaged and passionate.
Watching them finish out their last match last night, all I could think is that this was their moment, what they’ve earned for all their dedication and hard work. There’s never going to be another first division one varsity Esports team– that’s them. And there’s never going to be another first National Champion in Overwatch.
That’s them.
And on the wall in the arena, another of their lofty goals can be marked off as completed. Well played, gentlemen and lady. Well played indeed.
I hope you know how proud we all are. I wept a manly 40-something tear of joy for you.
Now let’s see that big trophy. Every tour that goes through the library will get to stop, look at it, and know that Miami is nothing to mess with.
So Glass, Tobi, Sue, Alex, Sean, Dough, Jarod, Ben, Emmanuel, Chad, Glenn, Matt, Matt, and the rest of the crew-congratulations!