Overwhelming “Overwatch” Competitors
CSULB excels the nation’s best in Tespa tourney, impressing the Esports world
By Matthew Gozzip Athletics Editor
At the start of the competitive Overwatch season, no one knew about the eSports kohai’s from Senpai Notice Us.
SNU, an affiliate of the CSULB eSports association, came into the Overwatch Tespa Collegiate Series with little fanfare.
The student association is still a relatively unknown organization, save some deep runs in several CS:GO and “League of Legends” tournament runs.
Expectations were modest at best: a potential top 10 finish regionally, perhaps a few good games against top-tier competition and if anything, a great opportunity to learn competing with the best. Five games into the tournament, Senpai Notice Us is rocketing up the rankings faster than a Reinhardt charge.
At the time of publication, SNU is one of the highest seeds in the bracket stage, dominating much more established collegiate programs.
Fans and rivals alike have sung praises about the SNU being one of the biggest surprises of the tournament. Forget just ranking regionally; SNU might be one of the best Overwatch squads in the nation.
Two months ago, Senpai Notice Us didn’t even exist. The official team roster wasn’t set until a couple weeks before their first match and the players didn’t know each other, let alone played together in a proper scrimmage.
Team captain Daniel Kray (in-game name, Decca) hadn’t taken up a vocal leadership role before and knew he had his work cut out for him.
To make matters worse, SNU would be qualifying in the West Region, a hotbed for many collegiate eSports powerhouses.
“The first game we played, I would say there was some pressure,” said Michael Marandola (Purple), the team’s support specialist. “We had only been playing together for a week and it was stressful to be in the West [region]. Once we quickly sweeped our first game, we gained some confidence.”
And what a first game it was.
Against Cal State Los Angeles, SNU dictated the pace of the match from start to finish. On the Eichenwalde map, the dual “Aaron tanks”, Aaron Fong (Feefyefofong) and Aaron Chai (Chai), got the team rolling by immediately pressing the front line to their opponent’s spawn.
Fong played an optimal Reinhardt, clogging the first entryway while Chai peppered the opposition with savvy Roadhog and D.Va support.
CSULA barely captured one objective in the two games they played, a near perfect start for SNU in their match.
The scary thing is that SNU has only gotten better since then. The boys from The Beach didn’t concede a single point in their first four contests, tallying a 9–2 game record after group play.
Consistent growth and adapting play style that can combat a variety of strategies have become some of team’s trademarks.
In their match against Utah State, SNU stampeded through the enemy’s objectives with aggressive lineups. Possibly the most frightening composition was an assault group led by a Tracer-Reaper combo and a Lucio-Zenyatta attacking support that dealt an immense amount of DPS (damage per second).
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In the next contest, the strategy was centered around Kray’s Genji and the secondary support player, Eugene Park (TheFallenBum).
Park is a dedicated Ana that deals as much damage as he recovers with frequent nano boosts. The timely ultimates are invaluable to SNU’s economic style of play when they are reeling.
Much of this seamless fluidity is due to SNU’s uncanny ability to use a handful of hero compositions. Each player has a deep hero rotation of at least four different heroes that constantly keeps their opponents guessing.
Marandola, the team’s main Lucio, often is SNU’s support but actually has the 100 competitive hours logged as Genji. Kray second most used hero is Widowmaker, a character he has rarely used in the competition so far.
“Most teams either have the individual skill or teamwork…I think Senpai Notice Us has a bit of both that gives us a competitive edge.”
Danny Nguyen (Haiki), is the true jack-of-all-trades fpr this wildcard squad. Nguyen has used five heroes in the five games SNU has played without a skill drop off.
In their last game, Nguyen was the shining star as Hanzo, a precision defender not many players use competitively. Nguyen credits his versatility to playing Overwatch’s random competitive matchmaking.
“Playing solo queue requires me to basically play all heroes to a certain level,” said Nguyen. “I kept building up my skill on each hero and eventually I was capable of playing every hero at the same level. It also just has to do with game sense: knowing what to do and at what time to do it trying to win as a solo player.”
On top of possessing overall team utility, SNU’s has another hidden advantage most teams don’t have: a small roster.
SNU practices are conducted with more focus since the team is smaller, allowing for natural cohesion to blossom quickly.
Demyric Eliptico (RiceLover), the team’s lone substitute, may not be part of the main unit but is skilled in his own right. Eliptico played in two matches this season as a flex role and both were easy victories for SNU.
Despite not being able to invest as much time in practice, Eliptico still is considered a main component to SNU.
“I think this team has done well with working as a team and as a unit”, said Kray. “Most teams either have the individual skill or teamwork, not much have both. I think we have a bit of both which gives us an edge over most teams in the tournament.”
Constant communication has been the groundwork for SNU’s progress, no matter who is playing for the team and how well everyone is playing. From timing a rush or signaling retreat, SNU remains calm and continues their scripted calls.
Coordination is difficult when six different voices are barking callouts and it’s something the team definitely wants to improve on. Finding and nurturing specialized skills off-screen is just as crucial as using in-game abilities.
“We’re trying to transition more of the in-game calls to our supports Michael/Eugene, so Decca can focus on calling and killing targets”, said Chai. “I think Kray definitely has helped everyone to get better individually since has the most game sense out of the team. Everyone else is following suit.”
Kray’s stoicism mixed with the team’s burgeoning chemistry has heightened SNU’s play to near elite levels.
In their last match, SNU stole a game against top-ranked UCI, an established power in the collegiate eSports scene.
Though they ultimately lost the match, SNU showed that they are a group to be reckoned with in the bracket stage and beyond. The roster is talented and the group performance is matching the collective skill level.
It may be premature to crown Senpai Notice Us as future collegiate champions of the Overwatch world but that prediction doesn’t seem as farfetched as it did a couple months ago.
After going unnoticed at the start of the tournament, the team won’t be sneaking up on any of their future opponents. Sooner or later, everyone will be trying to get noticed by SNU.
All photos courtesy of Matthew Gozzip, Athletics Editor.
