Ryerson’s Overwatch team was eliminated from an international competition earlier this month in a disappointing end to their season.
The team had eight wins and two losses before the tournament, but lost in the first round against other post secondary institutions in the Tespa National Swiss Tournament, where a first place win means $7,000 in scholarship money per player.
A huge mural dedicated to the video game Overwatch is in progress on King Street West. The mural of Zarya, a central female character from the first-person shooter game, can be seen on the side of Los Colibris. (Photo by Ammi Parmar)
Ryerson lost every game in the tournament over the November 11 weekend, landing them in 42nd place. They failed to qualify for the next round, to which only the top 40 teams advance. There were 52 teams who competed, according to Tespa’s website.
Ryerson played and lost against University of California San Diego, Michigan State University, Boston University and University of Washington.
“It was probably the lack of practice coming back to bite us. Honestly, the other teams just played better than us. We made some really stupid mistakes. It was just really unlucky,” said Antony Xia, captain of the team.
Xia said some members of the team did not follow his instructions for where to place themselves during the game.
“The whole team gets punished for that,” he said.
Xia said the use of each player’s most powerful attack (called an “ultimate”), which can only be used once, was also poorly managed.
“Because it takes a while to build them up, you want to use them correctly,” he said.
Xia said they used too many ultimates in one fight, leaving them without any high-powered attacks.
With no games left to play this school year, Xia says he plans to rebuild part of the Overwatch roster, looking for players who have more free time to dedicate to the team.
“Right now, it’s a pretty hectic time for school,” said Xia. “People were unavailable way too often.”
Morgan Bocknek is a teaching assistant focused in investigative journalism at Ryerson University, where she is also in her final year of study. Most recently, she was a reporter for part two of the unprecedented Price of Oil series. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Moncton Times & Transcript, Snapd Newspapers, Today's Parent Magazine, Huffington Post and more.
