Originally Posted December 7, 2018 by Jacob Gorn
The Boston Uprising returns to Beantown this week to visit their fans and home city, but another event garners their attention. The Boston Uprising Collegiate Cup, a first time event hosted by the Uprising group which has taken select teams from across New England in a grand tournament where the winning team will get flown out to Burbank, California to watch the Uprising play in the upcoming Overwatch League season. Out of the many teams which entered the tournament, the final four remaining are Northeastern University Esports, Boston University Gaming Club, University of Connecticut Gaming Club, and Emerson Esports.
Northeastern University Esports is the name to look out for. Among one of the highest ranked TESPA teams this season, they are a clear favorite to win the tournament. Captain Matt Lucido, better known by M4TT by his battletag, talks about the team’s history in an interview. “Our core [team] has been together since January, and we’ve been practicing as six multiple times a week since May. We’ve had a lot of success in TESPA this year, we’re currently top ten [seventh place currently], looking to make a run even higher.”
Lucido also gave his insights on how he viewed the other teams, as well as his on perception on how his team would perform this upcoming weekend. “Northeastern has been dominant in the Boston scene for so long,” Lucido comments. “That we’re almost concerned that the other teams are having a lot of time to do catch up. We’re having so much trouble finding teams of our level, especially collegiate, to scrim in the area that now that we’re coming into this tournament, we’re thinking that other teams are going to be investigating our strats. Overall though, we’re super confident going into this tournament, we’ve beaten every other major team going into this LAN already, so we’re expecting another victory to be coming out of here.”
The Northeastern University Esports Overwatch team posing in front of their headquarters
Boston University Gaming Club is the home team of this tournament. Wielding the home name of Boston in their university’s title, they are planning to do everything in their power to win this collegiate cup for the sake of Boston. Captain Joseph Yeb, or Tico by his battletag, passionately talks about his team in an interview. “More than anything,” Yeb comments. “We’re just a team of friends, playing together on ladder and scrims having a good time together.
“This is the third year of Overwatch existing as a varsity team here at BU,” Yeb said as he talked about the history of Overwatch at Boston University. “For the first two years it was actually operated by our off-tank player Victor, but he actually passed over the reigns of captain to me. But more than anything, we’re just trying to foster the sense of positive energy around and make sure it’s just a group of friends as opposed to a team.”
Yeb also talked about how it felt to be the home team. “Overall, representing Boston University, Boston, Boston Uprising, it means a lot to us to be able to play in this competition and represent Boston as a whole because it’s in our name, as opposed to these other schools. We’re the Boston home school, and they should know that.”
BU Gaming Club Overwatch Team Captain Joseph Yeb
University of Connecticut Gaming Club are the outsiders coming into this tournament. A giant, dominating school which has taken over their own state in terms of Overwatch competition, is now coming to Boston to seek further victories. UCONN captain Ryan Marsh, known by his battletag Rhino48, gives his thoughts on how it feels to be the outsiders for this tournament. “Being an outsider in this tournament feels like a pretty big opportunity to show teams outside of Connecticut that we’re one of the best teams in the northeast. We haven’t had too much of an opportunity to play against other teams in the northeast region in something like this, so with the combined effort of the UCONN team, I think we have a chance.”
Eben Prostak, or EbenFlow by his battletag, one of the DPS members of UCONN’s team gives his input as to his team’s standing in the tournament. “We’re here to show all of Boston that UCONN is a big force. We’ve already taken over Connecticut and we’re coming to Boston to show them how we play Overwatch.”
(From left to right) Sean Carreras, Eben Prostak, and Captain Ryan Marsh of UCONN’s Gaming Club come to Boston to scout out the competition
Emerson Esports are the last of the four teams heading into the tournament. Hailing from the smallest school of the four teams, they are the featured underdogs. One of the tank players for Emerson Esports, Curtis Oviatt, better known as Burnpups by his battletag, talks about the history of Overwatch at Emerson, and how it affects them going into this tournament. “When I came here, the org was fairly new, but it really started to kick off spring semester of 2016 and we started to compete in TESPA, we got our jerseys, we started to make connections with the esports industry itself, as a result we were able to get involved in a lot more tournaments.”
Oviatt also gives his take on what it means to be the underdog of the tournament. “We’re excited to be the underdog, other teams aren’t ready for us, nobodies been watching us. We worked hard together, but we know we don’t stand much of a shot in this, but we’re ready to win, we’re ready to lose, we’re ready to get there and do our best in this competition together. We might not have the history of winning like these other teams, but we have to start somewhere, and who says history can’t start here today.”
Emerson Esport’s Overwatch team poses in one of Emerson’s gyms before they head off to skrims
The Boston Uprising Collegiate Cup will be hosted in Laugh Boston this Saturday the 8th at 11:45 AM EST, streaming on the front page of Twitch to determine who the greatest collegiate team in the northeast shall be.
