Ohio State Overwatch premier team defeated Florida Atlantic in the TESPA preseason tournament 2-0 Oct. 4. Credit: Lucas Lumbra | For The Lantern
Mixed-up Ohio State Premier Overwatch teams were met with mixed results over the weekend.
The Ohio State Premier Overwatch scarlet and gray teams both ended the first weekend of play 1-1 in the second TESPA preseason split tournament, after dealing with changes made to the roster right before the tournament.
Lucas Lumbra, a fifth-year senior analyst for the premier team, said the results were also met with great promise.
”I think we finally landed on the roster we’re committing to for the foreseeable future,” Lumbra said. “I think the potential with this roster is so high, we just haven’t had enough time with it yet.”
Scarlet saw its victory come against Vermont, while suffering a tight loss to Grand Canyon University. The gray team’s win came by forfeit against one of Minnesota’s four teams due to them not having enough players available to play, while it fell in its lone match to California Polytechnic.
Although the forfeit counted as a victory for the gray team, Jake Blitch, a senior analyst for the premier team, said that he wished they would have been able to play Minnesota in order to gain more experience playing together.
“They looked like they were going to be a pretty beatable team or a pretty competitive game. It seemed like it was gonna be pretty equal skill to our gray team,” Blitch said. “I kinda wish that we were able to play them and get a little bit more experience in-game since we haven’t had that much.”
The Buckeyes have been dealing with roster movement for nearly a week as players have been swapped around and one player left the program. Both scarlet and gray went through significant roster changes before their matches Sunday — with some decisions even coming as late as Saturday.
Lumbra said there has been lineup shakeup between the scarlet and gray teams, especially at the tank position.
Lumbra said Parker Monk, main tank for the scarlet team, suggested a movement to off tank and the promotion of Liam Evans, main tank for the gray team, from the gray team to scarlet.
“We were kinda debating it because it seemed like it would be a better option for us for the scarlet roster specifically to put forward our most competitive team,” Lumbra said.
For the scarlet team, it meant one newcomer to the team and a player switching positions, which would affect communications due to unestablished chemistry with the new main tank player, Lumbra said.
The gray roster, which has seen the most overturn of the two teams, received two new players and moved one of their current players out of his normal role. One of the new players, Yelin Kong — known as “Moony,” was picked up by the Overwatch team after they parted ways with a player from the program earlier this season.
Joining Kong on the gray team is Connor Stevens, also known as “FatConnor”, the former off tank player for the scarlet team. Justin Yancey, also known as “Yan”, switched roles from the off tank player to main tank for the gray team.
Blitch said the roster moves made to the gray roster caused some initial problems, but the players are fighting through them.
“I think the overturn was a problem at first, but I think a lot of them are embracing it, embracing the chance of moving up to scarlet or embracing the chance to get to play and show what they’ve got, kinda embrace the chaos a little bit,” Blitch said.
While both teams suffered an opening weekend loss in the tournament, it’s not the end of the road for either team. With so much happening in a short amount of time, Blitch said that moving forward they will benefit from the format of the tournament, which allows the gray team to gain more experience.
“I think this is a really good chance for the gray team to get matches in because it’s obviously hard to continually practice and not really play,” Blitch said. “Being able to play, see how good we are, get our energy in matches because it’s a whole different feeling playing a match versus playing in a scrimm.”
Each team is still alive in the tournament and, due to the Swiss format, will play teams that also hold 1-1 records. This format of facing teams with similar records will continue for two more weeks and then teams will be seeded for the second stage of the tournament.
Both teams will play double-headers again on Nov. 8 at 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The opponents are yet to be determined.
