ESPORTS LEAGUE OF LEGENDS VARSITY SERIES

Guam’s interscholastic esports scene was treated to its largest League of Legends Esports event to date over the weekend as Latte Esports, with the support of the University of Guam (UOG) and the Guam Department of Education Interscholastic Sports Association (GDOE ISA), hosted the first round of matches in its Varsity Series.

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game that consists of two five-man teams going head-to-head. The goal of each team is to destroy their opponent’s towers and subsequently their base.

“We are excited to see the level of enthusiasm during this first week and to see interest in esports continuing to grow among our students,” GDOE Superintendent Jon Fernandez said. “I would like to thank Latte Esports and most especially our students and coaches for their teamwork and collaboration and we look forward to the rest of the season.”

There were 14 teams from around the Marianas that competed fully online in the popular esports title, League of Legends, and although there were a few bumps, the competition’s first round went well. “As you can imagine, six games playing concurrently is a monumental task to facilitate and the teams exhibited great patience and understanding with this process,” GDOE ISA Esports Commissioner and Latte Esports founder Ken San Nicolas said.

The league is broken down into two groups. The first is a scholastic group comprised of students from educational institutions around the region, including Tiyan High School, Simon Sanchez High School, John F. Kennedy High School, Okkodo High School, George Washington High School, and Marianas High School in Saipan. Students from Father Duenas Memorial School, Harvest Christian Academy and St John’s School are also represented among the teams. The second group is comprised of recreational players from around the region.

In interscholastic play, the FD Flakers made quick work of the Tiyan High Ronin behind Sean Lacdoo’s commanding performance. Aimless Uprising, a team comprised of students from George Washington High School and John F. Kennedy High School, surprised Okkodo High School – which is a team made up of veterans of previous League of Legends Esports competitions.

The University of Guam’s Triton Esports used a team-based strategy led by Daniel “Thresh Chobo” Lee in order to carry them to victory versus the “Leonautics” from Marianas High.

“I’m happy to see students from 10 different schools represented among the seven teams in the interscholastic group, but I am very impressed that seven other teams signed up for the recreational group stage,” San Nicolas said. “I imagine that it will continue to grow in the future.”

Full results from Week 1 can be found online here: https://challonge.com/guamlol2020.

Action will continue on November 7 with six more matches, most of which are streamed live at twitch.tv/latteesports.

The competition opens up opportunities for budding commentators. “We stream three of the six matches played every week. We are holding auditions for aspiring commentators who want to grow their craft by commentating over replays of the remaining three games over the course of the week,” San Nicolas said. Anyone interested can reach out to Latte Esports via social media or via the discord.