University of the Pacific athletics has made a name for itself on the field, on the court and now online in League of Legends. Collegiate esports are surging in popularity across the nation and Pacific’s four-year-old team broke into nationals as a group of scrappy underdogs. Though the team was eliminated in the first round, it put up a strong fight and showed the competition that Pacific is a force to be reckoned with.
“Shout out to my entire team,” said Aaron LeDawson ’21, and coach of Pacific’s esports team, in a Twitch interview before the team’s final match. “They made this year one of my favorite years in League.”
“This is a fun way to de-stress at the end of the day and have some fun playing together and you know, win a couple of things hopefully.”
— Aaron LeDawson ’21
After defeating Pepperdine University in the West Coast Conference Championship semifinals and then securing a 2-0 victory against University of San Francisco in the finals, Pacific moved on to the League of Legends 2021 College Championship—a first for our university team. Team members describe themselves as scrappy and take pride in the chaos of their team fights during matches. It was this kind of playing that helped lead them to victory and advancement.
Pacific’s match against University of Illinois took place on May 1 which happened to be in the middle of finals week. The team juggled both because it works hard to find balance between school and esports.
“We prioritize school first,” said Aaron, who is a computer science major. “League of Legends esports is fun, but we want to get that degree first because that’s what college is about for us. This is a fun way to de-stress at the end of the day and have some fun playing together and, you know, win a couple of things hopefully.”
During League of Legends’ 2020 season, 451 schools competed with over 4,000 total players. The stats for 2021 haven’t been finalized, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if there were even more players and schools participating. The top 16 schools in the championship are awarded scholarship prizes for their players and student staff, a huge incentive for schools and players to continue developing their esports teams.
Even though Pacific ended up losing to University of Illinois, the team remains optimistic that this will not be last time Pacific makes it to nationals. “I’ve been doing this for four years and this team objectively is one of the most fun teams I’ve had around. We brought in two new people, and they adapted perfectly. Our jungler, our mid, our top laner, our support, our [attack damage carry] … they all do so much for this team, and I love them all.”
Students interested in joining or learning more about Pacific’s League of Legends club team can email Justin Pak at j_pak8@u.pacific.edu.