Esports: Radiant and Immortal Division Runner-Up
Highlighting The Unversity of Alberta Esports Team
If you did not tune into the Radiant and Immortal Conference One Valorant finals this past weekend, the University of Alberta finished second, only losing in the final match to Carleton University. Though Alberta was ranked 11th in the tournament, they were no usual 11th seed.
The University of Alberta finished up Round Robin play with a 4-1 record. Though this was just average for the teams that made the tournament, there was something different about the University of Alberta’s 4-1 record. Alberta started the season with a loss to Cal Poly Pomona. They lost without even picking up a single match point. At this moment, people likely thought their Conference One season would be a lost one, but Alberta stuck with it. How could you not with such a star-studded team?
Talking more on that team: The University of Alberta is five strong. The team consists of Michael “whitr” Whitney, Daniel “jello” Zamoyski, Nicolas “YEGNick” Marotta, Ryan “ShimmyXD” Shimizu and Sajid “Sabbs4142” Hasan. Their players ended up with significant plays in their run from 0-1 to the finals. They did not even lose a match point from week two to the second round of playoffs. ShimmyXD, YEGNick and Whitr consistently put up highlight plays that were all over social media.
Entering the tournament weekend, the University of Alberta may have been a forgotten name, but they should not have been considering the run they were on. They had one bad week and never looked back. They took down UC Irvine, Mizzou and Northwood before losing to Tournament winner Carleton, in a best of five. The University of Alberta should be a name to watch next season to keep their team together.