USC ESPORTS WRAP-UP #1
By: Richard Wang
Heya USC Games! This week, the USC Esports team ran their first trial media day at Leavey: Staff members got their headshots done, the production team gave casters a rundown of the library’s streaming space, new members got to meet the old team, and tryouts for the League of Legends competitive team were simultaneously held. As our other USC teams begin to wrap up their try-outs as they plan out their individual timelines and rosters for the fall semester, feel free to join our official discord (https://discord.gg/jreKJXcwAC) for any further updates!
Meet the teams:
Geneho Hong — League of Legends
Meet Geneho, a Masters Jungle player in LOL. According to him, it is the ‘ultimate team game.’ Recruiting for the competitive team just concluded this week, but for prospective players looking to join in spring, look out for more information on the Discord around Winter Break. As such, he’s excited to meet and coach the new players. Timeline-wise, both the JV and Varsity teams will play in NECC (National Esports Collegiate Conference) and any potential CLOL Fall warm-ups this semester, in addition to the official college circuit in spring.
Edward Wang — Valorant
Meet Edward, president of the USC Valorant club and a junior in CS Games. Valorant, to him, uniquely blends the diversity of a hero shooter with the gunplay of a tac shooter, which makes for engaging competitive play. As the manager for both the Cardinal and Gold teams, he’s excited to see how this year’s team can one-up the previous team; with big milestones like winning the CVAL West Conference last year, it’s definitely a high bar to meet. While their final roster is still being finalized as tryouts have just ended, the Valorant team has an exciting year ahead for them!
Patrick Zhang — Overwatch
Patrick is the manager for the Overwatch team, the longstanding 5v5 hero shooter that has been in the global competitive environment for a decade. Patrick is particularly excited to help new players reach their full potential in a collaborative environment, echoing that “talent can be blended to produce results greater than the sum of their parts.” Even though most of the Varsity and JV rosters graduated last year, the team has a new pool of talented players to pick from as tryouts just concluded this weekend.
Arielle Choi — Marvel Rivals
Meet Arielle, English major and events director on the Esports team. As a former player on the Overwatch competitive team, they picked up Marvel Rivals quickly. While the team is relatively new, kickoffs from last semester like PUGs, LAN tourneys, and Talk with T500 have made it the community that it is today. Arielle is excited to take the team to national tournaments; however, they also want to keep the team as involved as possible through communal, team-building events. Want to make new friends? All information will be either on USC MR discord or USC MR instagram (https://linktr.ee/uscmarvelrivals).
But that’s not all our TMs: As it is still week 1, Hannah Shen (Tetris), Catherine Chen (Rocket League), and Jaden Fragoso (Smash Bros) are still wrapping up their team tryouts / planning out preliminary timelines. We hope to hear more from them and their teams in next week’s wrap-ups!