Cleary University won its first-ever Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) championship with a first-place finish in esports.
In a tight race, the Cougars won by a slim 1.5-point margin.
The overall champion was determined by a combination of the three games (Rocket League, Overwatch 2, and League of Legends) played based on placement in each game conference tournament.
The point scale used was 8 points for first place place, 7 points for second place, and so on. For ties, points were distributed equally between tied teams.
Cleary placed fourth in the Rocket League Tournament last fall and was fifth in the Overwatch 2 Tournament Saturday.
The Cougars’ first-place finish in the League of Legends Tournament pushed them to the top.
Cleary is one of only a few universities in eastern Michigan that offers Esports, a new, rapidly growing competitive sport among high school and college students across the country.
Esports draws a completely new population of students who previously weren’t involved in athletics. Now they have a sport specific to their talents.
Some schools, like Cleary University, designed an Esports facility exclusively for the games, which range from team-oriented multi-player competitions to single player shooters and virtual reconstructions of physical sports.
