Esports' League of Legends, Overwatch teams enjoys highly successful inaugural seasons in 2019-20
By Tim Glon
ADA — The inaugural season of Ohio Northern's Esports program was a highly successful one with league championships and runner-up finishes under first-year head coach Troy Chiefari.
The Polar Bears won a pair of League of Legends titles and had two runner-up finishes in Overwatch. ONU was also leading the spring GLEC standings in both games when the Covid-19 pandemic ended the seasons prematurely.
Despite the LOL crowns, the highlight of the season was defeating Ohio State 3-1-1 in the semifinals Ohio National Collegiate Esports Tournament in Overwatch.
"Definitely beating OSU in the semifinals for Ohio," Chiefari said when asked of the season highlight. "This accomplishment is extremely under appreciated because a lot of people don't understand esports. If we'd put this in sports terms we made it to Division 1 Finals in Ohio. We're happy to continue thriving and making the people that look down on us look ignorant. The times are changing and we're leading that."
Chiefari's aim for our program is to be recognized on a national level and being successful in the State NEC Tournament was a good step in that direction. "We competed in the Grand Rapids Clash in LOL and went 0-4 against No. 8-ranked Michigan State," Chiefari said. "That was an eye-opener for us."
Here are highlights from each of the two games Ohio Northern competed in in 2019-20:
League of Legends
The fall season saw the Polar Bears roll to the inaugural 2019 Great Lakes Esports Conference championship with a perfect 8-0 record.
"I wanted Fall to be a semester where we created a culture here first without competition," Chiefari said. "Creating the culture with their mind off of competing was so much easier for everyone to naturally flow into a good mental state with how esports structure would work. There isn't a single highlight from the semester but as a whole it felt really good to have a semester to comfortably ease into what the schedules and competition times in the week would look like. It was also a great feeling realizing that every school in the GLEC either looked up to what we were doing or hated us for being so good at what we do."
Northern's JV squad also won a championship as the Polar Bears captured the Division 3 Ohio NEC Tournament title in May.
"It's easy to look over this accomplishment, but our JV squad won states in Div 3 LOL," Chiefari said. "It was hard to get anyone to bat an eye at that because varsity was competing in Div 2 and made it to Semi's and OW made it to Div 1 finals. These guys deserve more praise and I know they're proud of themselves and so am I."
Northern was in first place in the spring GLEC standings with an 11-2 record when the season was ended due to the coronavirus pandemic in March.
The Polar Bears also competed in the Grand Rapids Clash LAN tournament in February. The top eight schools from Michigan, including No. 8-ranked Michigan State, competed and ONU was the only Ohio school to enter.
"Competitively it was an eye opener to the guys and I wanted this trip to be that for them." Chiefari said. "After a semester of dominating the GLEC some of the players were starting to get a very unwarranted ego and GLEC competition wasn't the accomplishment I want to aim for. The guys came out of the weekend with a real motivation outside of me telling them to work harder because there's harder opponents out there. It's funny because they know they're not as good as some of the top collegiate teams but they began thinking that way after a semester of beating local schools. In person experience weighs heavier on the mind."
ONU was 3-5 in the spring NEC season, giving the Polar Bears a 22-7 record for the year.
Overwatch
Northern swept Kent State 3-0 in the quarterfinals and topped Ohio State 3-1-1 in the semifinals to reach the finals of the Ohio NEC Tournament. The Polar Bears fell to Cleveland State 3-0 in the finals, but this did not diminish the great run ONU had in the spring.
Northern was in first place in the spring GLEC standings with a 13-1 record when the season was ended due to the coronavirus pandemic in March.
The Polar Bears were runners-up in the fall GLEC standings with an 8-1 mark, giving them an impressive 21-2 GLEC mark.
ONU was 7-4 in the NEC season and the Polar Bears finished with a 28-6 record for the year.
Chiefari also highlighted his varsity and JV squads individually:
League of Legends Varsity -
Top Lane - Justin Montgomery - Freshman
- Justin came from living with very low reliability with his internet at home before coming to ONU. He improved very quickly to be able to be put on Varsity. Justin took Jon Ketchel's spot on varsity midway into the Spring semester.
Jungle - Ethan Snider - Senior
- Ethan came into the year extremely confident in his abilities and gave us a lot of strong wins through that confidence. It was very humbling to see him come to a realization that there's another mountain to climb to get to the next level and I'm hoping he continues to play after graduation.
Mid Lane - Captain - Joe Jennings - Junior
- Joe is the typical player that plays for fun but he's the best in the room. It's annoying for some of the underclassmen trying to rise up but also Joe puts them in a good mind sense to not be too aggressive in their training, this is why I made Joe team captain. Joe is mechanically the best player we have on our LOL rosters but may be on par to our OW ace Joren Kirsis. He is the kind of player that wants the ball at the buzzer, very clutch player.
Bot Lane - Matt Sibila - Senior
- Matt and Max in the bot lane are the sense of stability for the team. They never lost lane extremely hard, and if they did they were still viable in the mid game and able to do what needed to be done. Matt would be my most improved player in the program, both in game and out of game. I'm thankful he was able to have a program like this in his senior year.
Support - Max Whitten - Junior
- Max is the silent killer on the team. At first it was hard for me to judge his skills because he didn't communicate often and I was a bit caught up watching some of the more flashy players. It took me almost the full year to see how good he was, I had a JV player compete for his spot midway through the year and that's when I quickly realized (or he immensely raised his game) that this is a guy that hasn't hit his ceiling yet.
League of Legends JV -
Top Lane - Jon Ketchel - Senior
- Jon improved extremely fast. He was varsity for Fall semester and some of Spring. Like many players in competition as they're climbing their own plateaus, Jon hit one very hard. He may not know it but hitting a plateau that hard this young is a great blessing. This year will humble him and whatever he chooses to do next he'll be that much better at it.
Jungle - Lex Brown - Senior
- Lex is our token law student. It feels good to show the campus that law students don't have to be locked in a closet studying all day and that they can still have a hobby they thrive in. Lex played LOL on the JV squad for fun and to be part of a team. Just so happens that team took home the Division 3 state finals as well.
Mid - Noah Evans - Sophomore
- Noah came late in the year. He barely had a month of in person play before the lockdown hit. It's hard to say where he aspires to be but he's confident, we'll see if that confidence is matched with skill next year.
Bot Lane - Jesse Montel - Freshman
- Jesse is the opposite of Connor but a good complimentary match for their duo play bot lane. Jesse is very aggressive, sometimes to the point where it's blind aggression and he needs to recollect why a play didn't go how he thought. Once Jesse learns to calculate his aggression and put his mechanical skill to a more thought out play style. He'll be unstoppable.
Support - Connor Rettamel - Sophomore
- Connor doesn't have a very strong sense of competitive drive in him to beat other opponents. But he has a huge sense of wanting to be better within himself and that will drive him to where he wants to be.
Overwatch V
DPS - Joren Kirsis - Freshman
- Joren is the typical spastic, hyper, aggressive ace. It would seem what he's doing isn't calculated at times, he and I know it's not always calculated, but most often he knows he's going to destroy the other team before he does so.
DPS - Dylan Musto - Sophomore
- Dylan had trouble this year finding a consistency to his play but over the year he's become a lot more confident in his shot. By his senior year his story is going to be the story freshman hit scan players aim to rise above.
Tank - Matt White - Senior
- Matt brings balance to the force. This team is so aggressive and so competitive that Matt knew he needed to be a calming and positive force sometimes. His pinky is a little too strong though and it always seems to crush his shift key. Jokes aside, Matt was a very reliable frontline for the team, sad to see him go. Good luck in Seattle, congrats on the job!
Tank - Jake Arno - Freshmen
- Jake came into esports not even knowing what he was walking into. From day 1 his competitive spirit exploded in drive to play, he didn't show it because this man is stone cold at all times besides when he's winning. It's a good thing he wins so much though. Jake has the will to win that every great competitor needs in order to thrive.
Tank - Jace Addis - Senior
- Jace improved a lot this year. His story is similar to Jon Ketchels story from the LOL squad. Jace overcame a lot of plateaus but one ceiling hit him at a very unfortunate time, his senior year. I know Jace is still happy to have this year under his belt and the experience will help him thrive in other activities the rest of his life.
Support - Tucker Harris - Sophomore
- Tucker wants to win. Tucker is the calculated ace to Jorens aggression in the game. They're both glad to have each other on the DPS/Healing boards and they've learned to rely on each other. This in game bond will surely continue to grow year by year. ONU is lucky they brought in esports while these guys were still underclassmen.
Support - Zach Rondeau - Captain - Sophomore
- The man who goes. Zach is a very positive force on the team and hovers between having empathy for the competitive player and the casual player. This is why I made him captain this year.
Overwatch JV
- OW JV wasn't a completed team until late Spring Semester. The lockdown interrupted a lot of their chances to play and a lot of these players don't have the means to play at home. I'm sure I'll see all of them next year since no one on the squad was a senior.
DPS - Gabe Klosterman - Freshman
- Gabe didn't have a team to shine on most of the year but I could see it in his eyes that he's hungry. He just needs a place to grow.
DPS - Kyle Dull - Freshman
- Kyle didn't have a chance to showcase himself but I know he will the rest of his career here at ONU.
Tank - Mikena Nuhfer - Sophomore
- Mikena got more commentating time than she did competition time. Though she'll be at coop next year I'm sure she'll return hungry for a varsity spot.
Tank - Evan Kauffman - Sophomore
- Evan walked into esports clueless on what he was walking into. I could tell he quickly fell in love and will be back next year!
Support - Hoang Do - Junior
- Hoang does more trolling me than he does playing. Hoang shares time with tennis and I'm sure he trolls his coach there also. I feel for you Mike Bonnell.
Support - Pan Howell - Freshman
- Pan loves the esports atmosphere. She may not have the most competitive drive but she has a true passion for esports to flourish because she sees the positivity it brings to others as well as her.