Reported By: Jacques Masangkay
The beginning of the year has been quite eventful for the organization so far. Under the new management of Latte Esports president, Ken San Nicolas, the months to follow look good for the organization and those involved, with many events planned for the semester.
“It’s a busy year, and there’s a lot to do moving forward. The first two years of the program was kind of more of an orientation. We were trying new things to what sticks- now that we’re a few years in, we have a clear direction on where we want to go, and now it’s just trying to make it to the finish line for the goals we’ve set.” San Nicolas explained.
Among the many events planned for this semester, the most significant is a month-long series of weekly tournaments to be held in March to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the University of Guam. The tournaments will be open to all and will be free to enter, encouraging everyone interested in joining to participate. Along with the tournaments, Fridays are also scheduled to showcase games to promote the organization’s athletes by competing in exhibition matches against some of the island’s best players.
Prizes for tournaments are still to be announced, but San Nicolas hinted that they will be big and definitely something to look forward to.
The new National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) season has also begun, and the University of Guam’s varsity esports teams will be competing in Counter Strike, Smash, and League of Legends. With Valorant not being one of the games this season, some of the members of last semester’s Valorant team switched over to CSGO but they are set to transition back to Valorant in about two months, said San Nicolas.
Now that the organization has pushed its teams to compete full-time at NACE, competing at the collegiate level can be intimidating.
It is usually the first few games of the season where nerves are at an all-time high.
According to Jonah Hermosilla, “It was a surreal experience for me since it was my first time competing against another collegiate team. We ultimately lost due to nervousness and not enough confidence.”
Although the League of Legends team did not win their first game of the season, they still has their heads high and are doing a lot to improve their game moving forward.
“The team’s plan moving forward is to improve continually each week both in-game and as student-athletes in our respective communities.” League of Legends team captain, Ivan Rosell said.
The athletes are looking forward to another semester of competition and enjoy the challenges that competition brings.