CVTC wins first collegiate esports match-up

Cheers could be heard from the north hall of Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Business Education Center last week. Although College courses are stimulating, rarely do they elicit screams of joy.

The excitement was easily understandable – CVTC’s collegiate esports team won its first-ever Valorant match-up Thursday night. The College was matched up against Carroll University – Orange Team from Waukesha.

“It felt great to win our first match,” said Josh Bowe, CVTC esports teammate.

At the start of the spring semester, CVTC did not have a collegiate esports team. Shortly thereafter, Erin Hazen, CVTC student involvement specialist and esports coordinator, was invited to join and compete against other Wisconsin collegiate teams in the Wisconsin Valorant League. Hazen jumped at the chance.

“It was too exciting of an opportunity to pass up,” she said. “Since then, it has been a whirlwind of team recruitment and practices.”

In part, Hazen credits Austin Aguilar, a CVTC University Transfer Liberal Arts student, esports club vice president and Valorant team member, for successfully creating the College’s team. He promoted the team during esports work-study hours, worked with Hazen to open the lab as much as possible for team practices and kept the team motivated.

“I’ve always wanted to be a part of a school team,” Aguilar said. “I just did what I could to make it happen.”

Team members Aguilar, Bowe, Jonah Czarnopis, Lucas Geissler, Brayden House, Matthew Levin, Bailee Thomas and Kelly Symington, put their brains and hands to work. Symington, Geissler, House, Bowe and Aguilar won two of three matches to pull out a victory for CVTC.

Despite coming out with the win, Hazen said she was most impressed with how the team worked together.

“There were times our ream struggled, but I was impressed with their ability to communicate to figure things out,” she said. “When things weren’t looking good in the second match, team member Bowe asked the team, ‘OK, what are we doing wrong?’ The whole team was able to list areas for improvement, and after that, the team rallied.”