Esports Plays in WHAC Tournament; Recognized by WHAC in Postseason Awards
(Adrian, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar esports team had a busy weekend, as they played in the WHAC Championships for Valorant, Overwatch 2, and League of Legends on the campus of Siena Heights University in Adrian.
In the Overwatch 2 tournament, Cleary entered as the 5-seed, and had to defeat Aquinas 3-1 in the play-in matchup to avoid a re-seeding. The first bracket matchup was against 4-seed, Lawrence Tech, where the Cougars fell into the 5th/6th matchup. In that final match, Cleary once again took on Aquinas, and handed the Saints a 2-1 defeat for the Cougars to claim fifth place in the tournament.
In League of Legends, Cleary entered as the 8-seed and had to face off against the 5-seed Siena Heights in the play-in matchup, but the Cougars were defeated 2-0, and their run in the bracket was ended.
Valorant would see the Cougars have the most success in the tournament. Cleary had earned the 4-seed, and thus were able to avoid the play-in scenarios. Their first round matchup was against 5-seed Indiana Tech, where Cleary was able to win. The Cougars advanced to then take on 1-seed Siena Heights, but the Saints would win that matchup 2-0, sending Cleary to the 3rd/4th place matcup. In that matchup, the Cougars were paired with 3-seed Rochester Christian, where due to the timing of the event running long, that match was postponed, and will be played at some point this week.
The Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) also released its All-Conference Teams for League of Legends, Overwatch 2, and Valorant, in conjunction with the conference tournament being hosted by Siena Heights University on Sunday. Multiple Cougars were recognized.
Being named First Team All-WHAC for the second year in a row was Flynn "Flynn" Murray in Overwatch 2. Murray becomes the first athlete in school history to be named First Team All-WHAC multiple times.
In Valorant, Pichit "Xeilios" Charoenpanich was named First Team All-WHAC, while teammate Pablo "Padua" Vasconcelos was named Second Team All-WHAC.
These three individuals join Colin "Shin" Jetten who was named Second Team All-WHAC in the fall for his efforts in Rocket League. Colin Jetten was also Cleary's representative to the Champions of Character team, for best representing the five core character values of the NAIA.
Also recognized were student-athletes who were named to the All-Academic Team. To be honored, student-athletes must have had at least a 3.25 cumulative GPA and have attended Cleary for at least one full year. They were (in alphabetical order):