Wayland Baptist University eSports kicked off its inaugural season Saturday afternoon with a match in the Meadows Lab, lovingly referred to as the Mothership by the Pioneer gamers due to all of the Alienware it holds. The match was a preseason qualifier in Overwatch against Becker College (Mass.) in best-of-3 format.
Brodie McAfee ("Canonn") captained the WBU squad and played tank in a 2-2-2 team comp with two DPS, 2 Tanks and 2 Support. The first match featured the Busan map, which emphasizes control or domination of a particular area of the field. The play of Zach Neeley ("Luck") of Reinhardt was noteworthy, shielding the archers and healers for Wayland.
The second match was played on the King's Row map and was a hybrid contest combining control with an Escort map, requiring one team to protect a moving vehicle through the map. In this contest, Wayland's support players,
Daniel Ratliff ("Ratattack") and
Leonel Falcon ("Lion2535"), were called upon early to heal damaged players, keeping them in the game.
Ultimately, the Wayland six fell in two straight to a seasoned Becker squad.
Evan Puckett ("Mandalf") and Enoch Jones-Narty ("Epoch") rounded out the squad at the DPS position of attackers.
"All in all, I am very proud of the team and look forward to their growth over the season," WBU eSports coach
Duncan Sweeney said.
Wayland eSports will host its next contest in Smite on Saturday, Sept. 28 beginning at 9 a.m. in the Meadows Mothership.
