The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Esports team is gaining national recognition for its performance at the UCLA Summer Invitational Overwatch tournament on August 22–23. In a recap by USC’s Annenberg Media, colleges across the country were impressed with UH Esports.
“[University of California Irvine] UCI (the first seeded team in the tournament) was great as always,” said UCLA Esports director Cathy Ge and Dillon LeDuc, “but the University of Hawaiʻi was one of the new schools entering the competitive scene who took some unexpected wins in the Overwatch tournament last weekend.”
- Related UH News story: UH Esports play through the pandemic with national tournament, August 20, 2020
The Overwatch team from UH Esports consisted of juniors Alan Muneoka and Alexine Niro; sophomores Clark Acohido, Jonathan Valencia and Johnny Ho; and freshmen Bryan McAniff, Ethan Nguyen, Reuben Sablad and Justin Chow.
During the tournament, UH Esports lost to UCI, then defeated UC San Diego and Colorado State University before losing to Ohio Northern. Although UH Esports did not bring home a tournament title, it is still a major accolade to compete against and be recognized by some of the top esport colleges nationwide.
Watch a replay of the Overwatch tournaments on UCLA’s Twitch Channel.
—By Janica Marie Pascua
