With the Big South conference looming closer, the UNC Asheville Esports team for League of Legends has been hard at work ensuring their five person team and 2 substitutes can compete. 

“For us, we will always be at a disadvantage because we’re a small university. The pool of players we can pull from isn’t as big or diverse as larger schools,” said Mike Islas, a member of the campus League of Legends team. 

As the unofficial team captain, Islas said he has years of experience under his belt, having played the game competitively for the last several years as well as having spent countless hours in game learning tactics, strategies and playstyles. 

“Players deserve recognition for their hard work and dedication. I’ve been playing Esports at a competitive level since 2019 and I’ve always enjoyed it, so being able to compete at the Big South is going to be a lot of fun,” Mike said. 

As a team-based five vs five game, complex strategy and tactics must be employed if a team wants to take home victory. This leads to many exciting moments during a game similar to other popular sports as both teams vie for dominance of the battlefield.

“The clips and the plays that come out during a game are the best. You want to get recognition for your skills, and having shout-casters call out your plays during tournaments feels very rewarding,” Mike said. 

Since much of the game requires teamwork, having a sense of trust in your teammates is vital if you want to succeed. Every player on the team has to perform to the best of their ability, with little room for error as new characters and abilities are added with every patch. 

“It’s going to be hard since they’ll keep on improving on the game, adding new characters, items and abilities. You constantly have to be playing and learning, or you’ll start to fall behind,” said Solomon McDonald, a member of the League of Legends Esports team. 

The upcoming Big South conference is looking to be exciting, especially now that Winthrop University, the best team in the conference, has dropped out of the conference. This was in order to perform in the LCS Challengers League, which conflicts with the Big South.

“We can absolutely take 1st place since Winthrop University has dropped out of the conference,” Solomon said. “The team synergy is fantastic, we know when to go on the offensive or defensive and we all trust each other to make the right decisions.”