Humber Esports failed in its bid to win in the Canadian Esports National tournament, losing two of three in a round-robin earlier this week.
Humber lost on Monday to Western University and then lost its opportunity to advance by losing to Carleton University on Wednesday.
This year’s version of the Valorant team had changed its lineup, with Arthur Gaudio and Mohid Ali returning and Shyam Sivachandran being promoted as head coach.
The rest of the team is filled out with the recently added rookies Charles Parsons, Goven Narula, Rafael Lofranco, Michael Xu and Tia Kelsey, the first woman joining the Valorant team for the first time.
An hour before their first official match together, team captain Ali said he wasn’t worried about the changes to the team despite not having enough time to prepare.
“I don’t think rookies are new to me, I feel like I’ve known them my whole life, honestly,” he said.
Ali praised his former teammate Sivachandran on his new coaching position.
“I think he is suited for the job. He has a lot of good views and ideas, and he can apply it really well,” he said.
Gaudio had to tape up his wrist with kinetic tape before the game. He was Humber’s sentinel, the role of a player who can hold an area.
“In practice, I felt a little pain in my wrist. It kinda bothered me a bit,” he said.
As they headed into the first game location, called the Sunset map, Humber looked to take a fast lead. The Valorant squad led during the first few rounds and looked confident and focused, but Western would come back stronger, taking the lead to make it 4-3.
Sivachandran took a technical timeout due to computer issues after 15 minutes in, allowing Humber to cool down from losing the lead.
The two veterans took the chance to get the team’s energy up as the team had hit an emotional slump.
After the timeout, Humber struggled to get back into the rhythm they first had during the first few rounds, feeling uncoordinated and demotivated due to a lack of preparation for the match.
Western University went on a nine-round streak outplaying Humber, taking map one, making it 1-0.
As the Humber squad entered the second map, Ascent, they started with an aggressive attack against Western. As they head into later rounds, Humber made it a back-and-forth affair, with Parson holding up the weight of the team.
Although Humber Esports looked to stay alive, they ultimately fell short, letting Western University go on another nine-round streak to sweep Humber into the loser’s bracket.
Despite fearing elimination, Humber was anything but scared about going against Carleton University for their second match on Wednesday.
This time, the team had an energy shift and exchanged playful banter before discussing strategies.
Ali said the members had good vibes.
“We’re correcting a lot of the mistakes that we made on Monday, and they’re really cracking down on their timings, their trades, and their comms,” he said before the next match against Carleton.
Although the full roster was present on Wednesday, the main lineup prioritized the rookie players.
Gaudio and Ali said they wanted to give newer players more experience and help Sivachandran coach the showdown.
The five-player team consisted of Xu, Kelsey, Parson, Lofranco and Narula.
Sivachandran said the team played as the characters they were more comfortable with.
For the first set against Carleton, the varsity team plans to rely on Lofranco, Xu and Narula.
The game opened with the map Ascent for the second time in their run.
The team’s positive attitude quickly dissipated as Carleton took a strong lead against Humber.
“You guys are overthinking a lot of things. I think you guys are stressing out too much. Don’t think too much,” Sivachandran said during a timeout.
Even with these reassurances, Humber ultimately lost the first game with a heartbreaking score of 1-13.
Players were quiet as they processed the results during the short break before the second game with the Split map.
The veteran players and coach Sivachandran worked with the team to bring energy and morale back up so they could figure out a new strategy.
The team noticed Carleton preferred to sneak in the middle of the map and overwhelm the Humber squad.
Although Xu was the team’s lead, Parsons aided in calling out and directing the team. Kelsey clutched for her team twice, meaning she was the last survivor of Humber’s team as Carleton’s squad picked off her teammates.
She didn’t let her fellow players down and left them leaping out of their chairs and cheering because she “clutched up” to keep the team alive in the match for as long as she could.
Despite the valiant efforts, Humber lost to Carleton with a score of 2-0.
Lofranco said the experience was good preparation for one of the biggest global collegiate tournaments, College Valorant, next semester.
“I’m honestly glad of the things we got done today. We’re a new team, so we’re going to have to work on polishing our [strategies] and working on our mental [morale] together,” Lofranco said.
Xu said the team plans to play smaller tournaments to prepare for College Valorant. He said he expects to lose more before they win, but he’s happy with the team.
“Success comes with time, and it’s unfortunate that we didn’t come in with a bang,” he said. “But there are opportunities ahead. We’re going to capitalize on that.”
