BOSTON – Highlighted by a fourth consecutive Esports Collegiate Conference (ESC) title, the Northeastern esports program had a Fall to remember this past semester. All five teams were involved this fall, with the top performance coming from the newly minted varsity esport, Valorant, which won its first ESC Championship to begin December.
 
Read up on the five varsity titles below:
 
Valorant – In just its third season of competition, the Valorant squad finished the ESC schedule with an 11-2 conference record and the #2 overall seed in the ESC Tournament. The Huskies ran through the tournament with perfect 3-0 scores against Bowling Green in the quarterfinals, and Kent State and Ball State in the semi's and championship rounds hosted at Central Michigan. The Huskies' win over #1 Ball State handed the Cardinals their first loss of the ESC season. The championship squad consisted of four starters from the regular season, with one sub filling in for the final four weekend, James Hopkins, who stepped up in the last two matches of the season for the regular in-game leader Alec Rodriguez. Rodriguez's in-game leadership and designing of team compositions and strategies were both key parts of the Huskies' success in the ESC and NECC regular seasons.
 
Valorant 2023 ESC Championship squad:
James Hopkins - ionized
Kevin Ma – darm
Zachary Shipman – Tempest
Nathaniel Silverman – BigNateX
Caden Weaver – ORCA
 
The Huskies were also crowned WooMass Invitational champs at All Systems Go in Worcester early in the semester. NU also had a near-perfect season in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) season, reaching the finals of the postseason tournament the day after returning from the ESC Tournament, but were unable to defeat Pace to cap off the perfect season.
 
Valorant's ESC championship was the fourth straight academic year with the Huskies taking home a title:
2020-21: League of Legends
2021-22: Overwatch
2022-23: League of Legends
2023-24: Valorant
 
Rocket League – Following an 8-5 conference record, the Rocket League squad met #3 seed Kent State in the ESC Quarterfinals in early November, taking the best-of-seven series 4-1 to advance to the conference semifinals. They were met with #1 Ball State, who ended the Huskies' run with a 4-1 victory for the Cardinals. It was the second straight season in the ESC postseason tournament for the Huskies. NU also competed in this fall's National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) StarLeague competition, with a win over Florida Southern.
 
Overwatch: One of the two ESC Spring Esports, the Overwatch team had a stellar run in the Activision-Blizzard Collegiate Homecoming tournament, going 7-3 in the qualifying round robin, good for a 26^th place national finish, before falling to Fisher in the knockout stages.  NU also had a strong showing in this fall's NACE Starleague, going 6-1 in the qualifying stages before falling to St. Clair in the opening round of the tournament. The Huskies look to reclaim their conference dominance this Spring in ESC play.
 
Hearthstone: Coming off a NACE National Championship showdown in the Spring of 2023, the Huskies' Hearthstone team began their title defense with three NACE Qualifying events this Fall, with six top-five finishes in swiss play, including a top qualifying spot for Ethan Neal, setting the Huskies up for success in the Spring semester. The Huskies almost found themselves in an All-NU final when Neal and Matthew Rock each made the final four of the ECAC Tournament, but both Huskies fell to Delaware (Rock in the semi's, Neal in the final). The Huskies look toward the Spring semester to finalize their NACE qualification and try and repeat their 2023 success on the national stage.
 
League of Legends: Not much action for the reigning 2023 Spring champions for the ESC conference tournament, as the Huskies had a short official stint of games in the CLoL Fall Warm-Up. The Huskies will begin their ESC title defense in the Spring of 2023.