Since its inception at the University of Texas Austin in 2012, Tespa has been an undisputed leader in collegiate esports. What began as two brothers looking for fellow gamers on their campus has become a global collegiate events and support network. Tespa supports a wide variety of games, including Rocket League, Overwatch, and Hearthstone. Overwatch, in particular, has been making news headlines this past year with its inaugural season of the Overwatch League. For the general public, the sight of fans packing the Barclays Center was mind-boggling, pushing large corporations and sports teams to further their investments in Overwatch. As esports becomes more mainstream, universities are beginning to take notice. The advent of collegiate esports is now.

Blizzard’s Overwatch League Grand Finals @ The Barclays Center

In past years, Tespa has awarded a prize pool upwards of $120,000 in scholarships for the fall semester. The following spring semester offered students the chance to compete for “Blizzbucks”, online currency that can be used to purchase in-game content for any Blizzard game. Due to the contrast in prizing, many teams preferred participation in the fall semester with some even opting out of the spring competition. After looking over the format, Tespa recognized the importance of building up storylines and letting teams gain chemistry through a preseason, regular season, and playoffs. While I will miss the old one, I must admit that this new tournament does make more sense.

If you are a newcomer to collegiate esports, you might want to browse the most recent standings to see how your team (university) is doing. But for this article, I’ll be taking a look at the top five teams from the preseason.

#1 Maryville University

From previously not having a team to placing 1st in the preseason, Maryville’s ascension onto the collegiate stage has been nothing short of meteoric. What shocked me the most was the fashion that Maryville dominated the competition. On their way to the top, the team went undefeated, not dropping a single map.

Maryville University Varsity Overwatch Team

Maryville’s coach, Tristan “TWISTan” Van Wieringen, is no stranger to the upper echelons of the Tespa rankings. Coming from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, he led his team to a 2nd place finish in the previous spring tournament as the captain and hitscan. With scholarships offered for Overwatch esports, it is no surprise that Maryville attracted top players from around the country and abroad. With such a stacked roster, captain and main tank player Conor “Hypnott” O’Rourke is nothing but confident going into the regular season.

“Anything less than first without map losses would’ve been a disappointment”. — Conor “Hypnott” O’Rourke, Maryville University

They are unapologetically straight to the point and have a no respect playstyle to back it up. Let’s see if the boys in red and white continue their dominance in the upcoming season.

#2 Arizona State University

Last spring season’s champions, Arizona State University, fall just short of their goal at number two. Outside of Maryville, ASU is still Tespa’s top dog with a 8 man roster of players who have made deep runs in both the Overwatch Open and Contenders Divisions. Captain and flex DPS Sameer “Chumcha” Zahir is confident that “Maryville is the only competition”. With certainty in their words and tenacity in their play, you can’t help but feel that ASU will be back on top.

The Spring 2018 Arizona State University Overwatch Team

In competitive Overwatch, a shot caller is the player on a team who analyzes the match mid-game, develops a potential path to victory, and dictates it to the rest of the team. For ASU, the departure of ChroNoDotA to Australian Contenders Team, the Sydney Drop Bears, was a blow that left them feeling unlike their usual selves.

“I feel like ASU has a number of issues we as a team need to address, especially with the departure of our main tank, ChroNoDotA, to Sydney Drop Bears. Second place is great, but it’s not at all what we expect of ourselves. Once we fix these issues over the season, we fully expect to bring home a championship.” — Jacob “spades” Copley, Arizona State University

In spite of these issues, Arizona State University Esports Association marketing director, Danielle George, says she believes the team is “getting things in order for pre season but will always come out with a bang.”

#3 Rutgers University

You may remember Rutgers University from their nearly perfect run in the 2016–2017 Overwatch Collegiate Championship LAN. Since then, the team has remained close to the summit of collegiate esports. With a 3rd place finish this preseason, the Scarlet Knights have shown that the epicenter of east coast esports is still a threat for the national title. After a convincing victory over NJIT at the NYXL Collegiate Invitational LAN, the Rutgers Overwatch manager Kenny “Beaniez” Small stated that “the team this year seems like the best group of six we’ve had at Rutgers”.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights Overwatch Montage

While talking with the Scarlet Knights manager, I got a feeling that they were on a mission this season.

“Our philosophy this year has been to build our team brick by brick. By that we mean our success isn’t going to come easy, it’s going to be a long grueling process… The philosophy has created a team that will show everyone we deserve #1.” — Kenny “Beaniez” Small, Rutgers University

The Scarlet Knights are aiming to show that even with three new freshman and no assistance from Rutgers University, they can still be champions. With senior captain and hitscan Stephen “chknNwaffles” Bartos and head coach Aziz “LLamuh” Rahman leading the charge, this upcoming season may be one that the Scarlet Knights achieve just that 1st place finish that has been eluding them for years.

#4 University of Toronto

The University of Toronto has been consistently at the top of the Tespa collegiate Overwatch standings since 2016. With two appearances at the annual Overwatch Collegiate Championship LAN, the school is undoubtedly a national powerhouse. It’s a breeding ground for Overwatch League level talent, producing Boston Uprising analyst, Mohid “MrBleeple” Asjid and former Florida Mayhem academy head coach, Ronald “Renanthera” Ly.

Blitz Esports Interview with MrBleeple, main tank for the University of Toronto

But all is not as it seems at the UofT, as the “D Team” actually are not the official University of Toronto’s Overwatch team. Flex tank player Jiwoo “yeonwoo” Kim explains how the unlikeliest of scenarios led to the rise to the highest ranked unofficial team collegiate Overwatch may ever see.

“Well, the “D Team” is comprised of Overwatch players from UofT that didn’t want to play on the main roster so we just got together to play for some lanyards and ended up with an undefeated record”.—Jiwoo “Yeonwoo” Kim, University of Toronto

This wittingly named band have casually left their “A Team” (Rank 56) brothers in the dust. Without staff and barely any practice under their belt, this group of players is reminiscent of an older time in esports.

#5 Carleton University

Carleton University fills out the top five just one spot shy of their Canadian sister school. This student-funded club team has only played their full starting roster twice this preseason. Everyone who has ever played Overwatch knows the difficulties that come with suddenly switching heroes. If you compound that with a tournament setting and a schedule full of school and work, there are not many students who could pull off such a feat. Despite that, a combination of good team chemistry and flexibility has not only kept Carleton afloat but atop the standings. This gritty team has yet to show their true potential.

In speaking with Tespa Carleton’s Overwatch manager and coach, Hamzah “lafon” Mostafa, he conveyed his utmost faith in the squad.

“My team is looking to win first place, obviously, and we’re doing everything we can to make that a reality. We take pride in being one of the higher ranked teams in collegiate.” — Hamzah “lafon” Mostafa, Carleton University

Let’s see if the fluidity of Carleton’s roster holds up against the solid starting six of these other powerhouse schools in the upcoming regular season.

The Fiesta Bowl Collegiate Championship 2018 Finals

When the lights go out and the 2018 spring semester is done, we will have crowned another championship team. Will it be one of these five or possibly the two-time reigning champion, the University of California, Berkeley?

Thank you so very much for reading. I hope you all enjoyed this or at least found it somewhat informative! I really appreciate all of those who helped contributed. Happy Holidays and #6 to #10 will be out tomorrow.