FUEL secures four titles in Esports divisional championships

A photo showing a computer screen in the FUEL Station. CREDIT: BEN HARRIETHA
Fanshawe's esports team won four championships; two in Valorant, one in Rainbow Six: Siege, and one in Rocket League.

Over the last days of the first semester, Fanshawe Ultimate Esports League (FUEL) collegiate teams competed in divisional championships. The teams secured four titles in games like Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege (R6), and Rocket League.

The championships were a part of the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) Esports league, which sponsors regular season competition and championships. Games were played in the new FUEL Station Esports room. FUEL’s main Valorant team overcame Queen’s University and FUEL’s R6 team defeated Saint John’s University to become NECC Challenger’s division champions. Meanwhile, one of FUEL’s Rocket League teams, Academy Red, won the division against Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Esports Club in the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Open Plus division Champions.

“We had a couple bumps recently,” said Adam Boyce, the manager FUEL’s Valorant teams. “We haven’t been playing well and we got eliminated from our other league that we normally play on Tuesdays in the first round of playoffs which we weren’t expecting. This last week we kind of had to put our heads down, get to it, and try to pull through and we barely pulled through it. We were down two to one and we came back and won three to two so it took a lot of work but it was definitely hard.”

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Boyce mentioned that the next goal for the team is to compete for top 10 in Canada and that there might be a fourth Valorant team added to FUEL’s roster competing in tournaments around Canada depending on the growth of interest in the game around the college.

The titles won by FUEL include:

  • Fanshawe Fuel (NECC) Valorant – Main team
  • Fanshawe Fuel Rising (NECC) Valorant – Development team
  • Fanshawe Fuel Academy Red (NACE) Rocket League – Development team/JV team
  • Fanshawe Fuel (NECC) Rainbow 6 - Main team
Rachael Billion, the assistant Esports director and manager for Fanshawe’s R6 team said it was a great semester.

“All of our players have something unique to bring to the team that gave us the ability to win the division,” Billion said. “They didn’t win every game but seeing them grow as a team with the new players we gathered this season was great. Truly a great team to work with, they have amazing chemistry.”

These wins are huge for FUEL’s young Esports program which has been overseen from the beginning by Esports Coordinator Tyler Hetherington and grown by a grassroots interest in post-secondary Esports. Hetherington himself started as the Events and Activities coordinator for the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) and introduced Esports to Fanshawe College by founding FUEL.

With the founding of Esports Canada Post-secondary this year, and Hetherington sitting on the council as chairperson, Esports at Fanshawe is flourishing and proves its innate ability to grow in popularity year after year.

You can find out more about Fanshawe Esports at fsu.ca/fuel, on Discord at fsu.ca/discord, or participate in the many competitive and casual gaming sessions hosted at the FUEL station, Fanshawe’s own in-person gaming room located on the second floor of the J Building (J2018).