WSU Esports took their talents to Goertzen Hall for an in person event to take on Oregon State University’s Esports team, in the Pac-2 showdown. During this showdown the Cougs faced the Beavs in a best of series across three games, Marvel Rivals, Overwatch and League of Legends.

“This is our big launch back into a Lan event back, because as a club…I believe that experience outweighs results and I want not only our players, but players from other schools to be able to to have the experience of what it is like to play on stage,” said WSU Esports president Tomer Dagan.

This event was in partnership with the Murrow College of Communications, additionally Cable 8 productions helped put on the event with the live production. 

“A lot of people are going to be very excited about it and people who are in production, they get live experience. So that’s pretty cool, and it’s not basketball or baseball, so it’s a different niche type of way to do broadcast,” said Olivia Soliz, a member of Cable 8.

Beyond that Oscar Wise, a member of the WSU Splatoon team was excited for this event to happen hoping that it will allow Esports to get more exposure.

“I feel like we have a lot of people as a part of this club, but not a lot of people know about it, and it’s a little smaller. I think that this is going to bring a lot of good attention to the club and help us do more bigger events like this,” Wise said. 

Beyond that, WSU Esports vice president Devon “DJ” Johnson is excited for the new opportunities that Murrow was able to provide to the team.

“We have the right players, we have the right people, we have the right motivation. We just need that support, and we haven’t had that for a while, I wouldn’t say that we have been completely devoid of it, but it’s not to the same extent that Murrow is being able to give us,” Johnson said. 

The first game in this event was Marvel Rivals which is a best-of-seven needing to win four. WSU was able to sail past OSU winning 4-0. 

“The biggest thing in rivals is momentum, and once you have momentum and energy flowing you’re gonna roll right through teams,” said Joosh, a member of the WSU Marvel Rivals team.

The next game was Overwatch in a best-of-five series. OSU came out hot taking game one, but the Cougs were able to come back in game two to even things up, and a game three win gave them a 2-1 lead going into game four. OSU would then even it back up forcing a game five. But WSU found a way to win and take the game. 

The third and final game was League of Legends where WSU was able to cruise to victory winning the game and series 2-0. 

WSU esports ended the game with a 3-0 sweep keeping the Pac-2 showdown trophy in Pullman.