Also wins new Overwatch national championship; program, players and coach nominated for numerous Esports Awards
Northwood Esports has qualified to participate in the 2023 Red Bull Collegiate Valorant National Championship in Chicago, Illinois.
“Qualifying for nationals is the next step when it comes to getting a chance to defend our world championship,” stated Coach Cody Elsen.
If Northwood’s Valorant team wins at nationals, it will go on to compete for the global title in Istanbul, Turkey on Nov. 19-24. Northwood’s Valorant team consists of Ali Salahedin, Asbury Park, New Jersey; Benjamin Park, Bloomfield Hills; Michael S. Herrera, Wylie, Texas; Logan Coffey, Taylor Mill, Kentucky; Braden Dippel, Alton, Illinois; and Jeffrey Tomaszek, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
Northwood Valorant defeated over 50 of the best collegiate teams last year to win the 2022 Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In other Northwood Esports news, the Overwatch team on Monday secured another national championship. That team consists of Donovan Koch, Mentor, Ohio; Michael Konicki, Ledyard, Connecticut; Adam Elsheemy, Brooklyn, New York; Haven Healy, Castle Rock, Colorado; Samuel Santos, Manhattan, Kansas; Diego Moran, Fort Worth, Texas; Landon McGee, Jupiter, Florida; Mason Earle, Anaheim, California; and Ciaran Deller, Workingham, United Kingdom.
“This is our third national championship in Overwatch, and this has cemented us as the most dominant collegiate Overwatch team ever assembled,” Elsen stated.
Esports is an umbrella for numerous competitive games, similar to a university’s athletics department is an umbrella for numerous traditional competitive sports. So Valorant and Overwatch are to an esports program what baseball and soccer are to a university’s traditional athletics program.
In addition to earning new titles, Northwood Esports has been nominated for multiple Esports Awards. Voting is now open, and Northwood is nominated in the following categories:
• Institution of the Year
• Program of the Year
• Director of the Year (Cody Elsen)
• Team of the Year
• Student Leader of the Year (Aden Frosch)
• Player of the Year (Ali Salahedin, of Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Hunter McMillan, of Charlotte, North Carolina)
For more information about Northwood Esports, visit https://esports.northwood.edu/.
