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Posted: Feb 09, 2023

Esports Season Guide Spring 2023

Esports Season Guide Spring 2023

HOUGHTON, Mich. – Esports is complicated, chaotic, and creates many gray hairs across college campuses. You may have heard of Michigan Tech's esports program but have no idea how any of it works. Well, here's your guide to the Huskies' Spring 2023 season.

First, know that each game is its own world, and often has its own independent schedule. For example, most Huskies compete in the NACE Starleague for their relevant esport. However, not all of them do.

Then, understand that there is a breakdown between league play and events. So, the League of Legends, Rocket League, and Super Smash Bros teams are competing downstate in the GLIAC Invitational in February. This is an isolated event that has no bearing on any of these teams' seasons in NACE Starleague.

It's a lot to keep in mind, so make sure to follow MTU Esports on Twitter and Twitch to never miss an update!

Where does Tech compete?

Michigan Tech Esports is competing in the following leagues and events for the Spring 2023 season.

What is NACE Starleague?

With everything listed, you can see that most of the teams are competing in the NACE Starleague. Which is the result of a 2021 partnership between NACE, Collegiate Starleague, Nerd Street, and Mainline. NACE is the National Association of Collegiate Esports, a member organization of collegiate esports programs founded back in 2016. Mainline has since been replaced by Leaguespot as the online tournament platform, and Playfly has acquired the CSL brand. The Collegiate Starleague started in 2009 and has since become one of the largest collegiate tournament organizers. All of this is to say that NACE Starleague has the widest game offerings with the most colleges, so is the closest thing right now to a nationwide collegiate esports league.

NSL is broken into two tiers: Varsity and Open. Varsity is only available to NACE member institutions, whereas Open is available to any team from a college. So, typically the official Varsity programs compete in the Varsity tier divisions and student organizations or club teams compete in the Open tier divisions.

Each category is further divided into divisions: Premier and Plus. Premier is the highest level of competition, with Plus being where JV rosters and developing programs compete.

These divisions are then split into conferences, depending on the number of teams registered for each division each season. These tiers are seeded nationwide before conferences are decided. Schools competing vary from season to season, and the games schools compete in vary. This results in Tech facing a wide range of opponents.

For example, Rocket League A's conference is Wester Virginia Tech, Northeastern, James Madison, Shenandoah, Spring Hill, Lackawanna, and Wayland Baptist whereas Super Smash Brothers is facing Aquinas, Lawrence Tech, Shawnee State, Ashland, Wester Virginia Tech, and Davenport. Only WVU Tech overlaps between Rocket League's and Smash's NACE Varsity Premier conferences.

There are seven weeks of regular play, then a conference championship. After rankings are settled, a national playoff bracket is seeded, and the top teams battle for the title of national champion.

Odds are, if a game is streamed during the week - it's a NACE Starleague match.

NACE Starleague's full guidebook is available here.

Collegiate Valorant, League of Legends, and Rocket League?

One unique facet of esports is that a software company owns the intellectual property of the game itself. Each developer handles this power uniquely. Riot Games, the game developer of both League of Legends and Valorant, operates their own professional league, as well as their own collegiate league.

Both our Valorant and League of Legends teams are competing in Riot's official collegiate tournaments, which are colloquially referred to as cLoL and cVal. These are a big open bracket with hundreds of teams, but after the carnage of qualifying rounds, the result is the best college teams in the country battling for the crown of national and sometimes even international champions.

CVal and cLoL games are usually played on the weekend.

Collegiate Rocket League (CRL) is a similar story, where the developer Psyonix is directly involved. The difference is that the Collegiate Carball Association (shoutout to CCA founder and MTU Alumni Ben Rumney), despite a recent acquisition from efuse, runs the league with Psyonix's support. Qualifications for CRL happen each season, and for those who fall short, there are still four CCA open tournaments. Tech historically has placed in the top 20, but needs to place top 8 to qualify for CRL.

The CCA Open events are February 18th, February 25th, March 4th, and March 11th.

Rocket League is also competing in the first season of the Great Lakes Collegiate Rocket League tournament. Tech did well enough in the first two monthly tournaments to qualify for the Winter Major which is scheduled for February 11th and 12th. More events are expected in the future, but details are still pending.

Rocket League competes in many events beyond NSL league play.

GLIAC is hosting its inaugural esports championship on February 18th and 19th. Hosted by Davenport, Tech will be competing with the Panthers as well as Purdue Northwest, Grand Valley State, and Ferris State for the honor of best esports program in the conference. Using a combined score from placements in Rocket League, League of Legends, and Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate competitions, a winner is crowned.

The hope is to see GLIAC esports competitions grow from this single tournament.

Huskies Esports is on the Road to Davenport on February 18th to Battle our GLIAC Rivals.

What is Going on with Apex?

So, Apex: Legends. The astute may have noticed that they are competing in a completely different world. Each game has its own competitive ecosystem, and due to the battle royale nature of Apex - the demands are for a unique format.

There is no unified league structure for collegiate competition for Apex: Legends, yet. Phase One is an independent organizer who hosts regular amateur competitions. College Apex: Legends teams often participate, but a majority of teams are not collegiate whatsoever.

As competitions are discovered or announced - more Apex will get on the schedule. The Huskies fell short of qualifying for the finals in the Spring Series, placing 8th where only the top 5 qualified.

Often, the Huskies will Compete in Amateur or Semi-Pro Competitions.

The only constant in esports is change, so make sure to check in regularly to stay on top of any reschedules, cancellations, or new competitions. Go Huskies!