Tespa and Blizzard have united to create history with one of the first major 64 bracket college esports tournaments; Heroes of the Dorm 2017. $75,000 in scholarship money was awarded to the players from UT Arlington after their dominate performance at the grand finals in the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas on April 8 2017. Click here to check out the cute Heroes of the Dorm Carbot Animations trailer.
This is the third year of Heroes of the Dorm, and in its second year the tournament grand finals were aired on ESPN 2, as reported by Venturebeat, an occurrence that is likely to seem less and less unusual as esports pick up moment. After only three years of Heroes of the Dorm there are interesting story lines developing among top tier universities and because of the attention that these types of tournaments are getting esports departments have begun to grow rapidly.
Redemption of UT Arlington
UT Arlington has had an interesting story themselves spanning the last two years of Heroes of the Dorm. In 2016 they made it all the way to the finals to lose to ASU 0-3, and the yet-to-mature UT Arlington team let themselves get tilted after their first loss resulting in a poor one-sided showing in their second and third games.
Many other teams would have been discouraged by the result, but the Arlington team is a model of optimism and perseverance for all gamers as seen by their rigorous efforts to improve upon themselves in 2016 and 2017 leading up to this year’s tournament. The team also acquired 2 brothers, Ekevin playing as the team’s tank hero and Etoby playing as the team’s support hero.
Arlington was unlucky to be matched up against UC Irvine in the semi-finals this year as many considered UC Irvine to be the tournament favorites because of their notoriously developed esports training and recruitment programs. Arlington not only won the championship, but went the entire tournament undefeated beating UC Irvine 2-0 in the semi-finals and LSU 3-0 in the finals.
The five players have more time to dedicate to the game after taking home $15,000 in scholarship money each, and they say that they plan on making an effort to move into the pro scene.
Growth of Las Vegas Esports
ELV (Esports in Las Vegas) attended the tournament at the Cox Pavilion and you will be hard pressed to find any crowd more hyped and engaged in any traditional sport that’s out there. If you are one of the fans not yet convinced of the inevitable rise of esports to the glory levels of modern traditional sports then we urge you to attend one of these major esports events and try to deny the advent of the esports age.
2017 looks to possibly be the most important year for the growth of esports and Las Vegas is looking to be the center of it all. If you’re interested in being part of the esports revolution or want to be a member of the growing Las Vegas community check out the ELV calendar for local esports tournaments and viewing parties. The next viewing party is for League of Legends NALCS. It is scheduled for Sunday April 23 at noon at High Scores Bar 4785 Blue Diamond Rd. Must be 21 or older to attend, see you there.