February 29th, 2020 marked the end of the season for FAU’s League of Legends A-Team. The team, consisting of Tavis Hom, Christopher “Carson” Troeh, Tyler Kurtz, Ethan Trieu, and Alex Kurtz, left off in a pretty good spot. In their first competitive season, they ended up placing third overall in their division in the Collegiate Starleague competition.
The Boca Raton Owls, a name chosen due to it’s humorous acronym BRO, formed in September of 2019. In their mere 6 months of competing, they’ve come a long way, having bested 12 competitive games and 6 preseason games. No small task, considering they began playing together as a team in the same month the season began. It definitely didn’t come without any challenges.
“One of the hardest aspects is just that everyone is in college and kind of doing their own thing, so it’s really hard to schedule practices and get everyone together,” said Hom, also known as Tavis King in-game. When the team was able to get together online, they would primarily practice by playing in scrimmage matches with other universities and amateur competitive teams. They would try to make time every week to do so. Some of the members also engaged in duo games, where they played in pairs to practice their cohesion. This helped them build up a number of team-wide strong points.
“We’re really decisive as a team. When we have an idea, we’re pretty good at sticking to it and playing it out,”said Trieu, or ngocvun in-game.“Our synergy was well developed considering we were pretty much thrown together last minute.” This synergy seemingly translated into friendship, as the group also enjoyed hanging out together when they weren’t practicing or preparing for a competition.
However, with strong points come a share of weak points, and the Boca Raton Owls are well aware of what they need to work on. On top of it being difficult for them to put together set practice times, it was also noted that as a team, they tend to lose sight of win conditions. They were prone to not capitalizing on the mess-ups of their opponent teams.
The team would majorly practice together online, and meet up in person to discuss the results of their practice games. Their hope is that, with the opening of the much anticipated eSports arena, they will be able to partake in more face-to-face game time. “We’re looking to play in person next season, and once the arena opens, that will be possible,” Trieu said. That is not the only hope for the arena; the League coaches are also looking to use it as a set meeting place for practice game reviews.
In their final game against Purdue University’s Competitive League of Legends team, the Boca Raton Owls were off to a good start, with an ending play that had them in the lead 1-0. However, Purdue managed to prevail, beating out the Owls 1-2.
“We didn’t expect to win,” said Kirk Sookhoo, one of the League coaches and team coordinator. “But we thought we would do better than we did. But it is what it is, that’s life.”
While the group was inevitably upset by the loss, they know that their final rank is nothing to scoff at, especially for a first season team, and their conditions upon forming.
“I think we had a good standing for the first FAU season and as a beginning team. Considering other teams have been together longer, and have actual coaches, it’s a good start,” noted Tyler Kurtz, otherwise known as propancake.
“As a team thrown together last minute, I think we did pretty well. Third in our division isn’t bad,” Hom also commented. “We’ve only been playing together since September, which is about six months…compare that to other teams who have been playing together for a year.”
With the first season out of the way and over, the A-Team is now looking ahead to next season. They have some things to work on, and much more to look forward to. With the arena on the way to being officially opened, their spirits for it are high.
“I think overall gametime will improve our cohesion,” Sookhoo said. “This is where we fall behind compared to our other teams, like Overwatch. Their players just have more free time, and have less scheduling conflicts. But once the arena opens, we hope to be able to fix that.”
The new season also brings up some prospects of recruitment. With a solid placement under their belt, the League group is now looking to open up tryouts for the purpose of forming other competitive teams. While still being discussed, the goal is to concentrate on the quality of players who try out, and create teams based on the turnout. They hope to form another A-level team, so both teams will have the ability to practice in scrimmage matches with one another.
“There is a spot for everyone, because we can build as many teams as we want. Georgia Tech has 7 to 8 B-Level teams. We can be on that level,” Sookhoo said.
And so, while FAU’s first League season comes to a close, things have only just begun for our League players. Good things are in store for the team, and the organization as a whole.
-By Lindsey Cartwright
Official Blog of FAU eSports 