Last weekend, the Michigan Tech. League of Legends club held a tournament for everyone here at MTU who enjoys the competitive multiplayer online battle arena video game. Much like the tournament they hosted back in the fall, the day one of the tournament was held in Wadsworth Cafeteria.
Two long rows of tables lined more than half of the entire length of the cafeteria. Nine of the ten teams who registered for the tournament showed up, with their laptops or desktop setups. Mid to full size towers were lined up side by side, glowing with every neon color in the spectrum.
The tournament began at 8 p.m. Friday night, with the first games of each of the three pools facing off against one another. The brackets were set up to have three pools with three teams in each pool.
The three teams face off against every team in their pool, with one “interpool” game where two teams from different pools could face each other on the rift. The top team in each pool got to advance to the finals, along with one wildcard team.
The four teams that advanced were Trginitas, Dynamo, The Bone Zone and a thrown-together team of players who’d joined the tournament as individuals. Rather than have the players stay in the tournament area until very late in the night, like they had before in years’ prior, the e-board decided to carry on the tournament the following night, and moved the location to the additional space next to the Campus Café.
The final four teams had to play the best of three rounds between their final match ups The four teams, Dynamo, Solo Team 2, Trignitas, and the Bone Zone, met there the following night, to determine who would be walking home with the grand prize of first place, which was around $13 in in game currency, a different costume for a champion that is only unlockable through winning a competitive tournament, and a new random profile icon. Dynamo defeated Solo team 2 with two wins and no losses. The Bone Zone also won in their semifinal bracket, 2-1, losing one game against the Trignitas. The Bone Zone and Dynamo faced off in the last match of the tournament, and Dynamo took home the gold, with 6 wins and no losses in total.
Be on the lookout later on this year for the next tournament, and make sure that if you’re interested in getting involved in the League of Legends community here at Michigan Tech, check out their organization on involvement.mtu.edu, or on their Facebook page, facebook.com/groups/ lolmtu/.
