Power Esports Conference Fall 2024 Block: A Recap

On Nov. 14, OU Esports wrapped up the first half of the Power Esports Conference inaugural season.

The Power Esports Conference, or PEC, is a new invitational esports league with eight member universities: Boise State University, Michigan State University, Syracuse University, Ohio State University, University of Kansas, University of Nebraska, University of Southern California, and the University of Oklahoma. The programs competed in four titles over the course of a seven-week season: Rocket League, Overwatch 2, Valorantand Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate.

The format of the league was focused on one title each day, but sometimes, reschedules had to occur. Devan “dravenslade” Wright, head coach of the OU Overwatch team, was pleased with the maturity of the other teams.

“We actually had to reschedule all of our games because one of our players had a class during our scheduled time,” Wright said. “And every single time I reached out to our opponents to reschedule, everyone was super cordial, super accommodating, super flexible. That really shows the professionalism and the camaraderie that we have with these other D1 universities.”

Record: 3-4

Though the heat of the competition was high throughout the whole block, the OU Rocket League team kept up their game and fought hard against the other teams. They pulled out strong wins, such as against Ohio State University. Against other teams, the win still remains elusive, such as against Michigan State University, which the team even played against in a separate tournament the same week as their PEC match.

Alex “RealAlbedo” Canon, head coach of the OU Rocket League team, is excited to see a more personable league to participate in.

“It is a good honor for us,” Canon said. “This is a really cool league, especially since it was just made by universities and not like an overarching organization. It’s great to see the directors coming together and creating this league.”

When looking to the next semester, Canon believes that the team hasn’t hit its peak just yet and will find plenty to work on in the coming months.

“I think a lot of what we’re focusing on right now is chemistry,” Canon said. “We really improved over this semester already with our chemistry, and I think we’re really focused on our team play, that’s really improved finding each other on the pitch.”

Record: 3-2

Note: Overwatch 2 only played five matches

The Overwatch 2 team has found itself in tough competition against Boise State University and Ohio State University, who gave them their two losses of the Fall Block. Still, the team’s level of play throughout the seven weeks was high, and they are poised to become even more competitive over the next half of the inaugural season, which will be another seven weeks in the spring semester.

Devan “Dravenslade” Wright, head coach of the OU Overwatch 2 team, was honored that Overwatch 2was selected as one of the four titles to kick off the PEC.

“It’s never guaranteed that Overwatchwill be in the conversation,” Wright said. “It means a lot…I’m just happy that we were able to participate in PEC because Overwatchwas a part of it. I really do believe OU Overwatch is an extremely awesome program…I think we have a really good team.”

Though the team was strong throughout the Fall Block, Wright is still focusing on the team to improve even further before they square off against these teams once again.

“One of the things that we’re definitely going to work on next time around is working together more as a team,” Wright said. “Making sure that we’re on the same page, that we’re communicating things…on paper, it may seem rather simple to do this, but in reality, communication is difficult. There’s a lot of elements to it.”

Record: 3-4

Though young, the OU Valorant team is set to make waves in the second half of the PEC season. The team has performed well throughout the Fall Block but has struggled to close out the games in their losses, such as during the 82-round marathon match against Boise State. The experiences of their first seven matches in PEC, along with their growth through their matches in other leagues, have brought the team closer and made them into a formidable force to watch out for in the Spring Block.

John “Popcorn” Morgan, head coach of the OU Valorant team, is excited to see his young roster thrive.

“I think it was more of a learning experience for the team, just kind of getting it more into the rhythm since we do have a very young roster, and we were still getting matches under a lot of the freshmen’s belts,” Morgan explained. “It was taking them a little bit to adjust, but I think overall the matches at the beginning were good. We definitely played better than we expected at the beginning and I was really happy with how the first block started.”

For Morgan, the focus has shifted to the team’s maturity and mental state going into the next block.

“It’s definitely gonna be focusing on our own mentality that we have in the game,” Morgan said. “We tend to get close to closing out matches and we kind of fall apart a little bit. So I think it’s going to be working on the mentality within the game…and I think just growing the team atmosphere with it and making sure everyone is comfortable putting their input in and expressing themselves.”

Record: 0-7

Also young, the Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate team has found themselves close to multiple victories, but has fallen short each time. Oftentimes, one or two stocks, or lives, have been the difference in their crew battle matches. With its continued growth in play and a commitment to training over the offseason, however, the team may be a dark horse come Spring Block.

Taylor “Gamblet” Gamble, captain of the OU Super Smash Brothers Ultimate team,  is happy to see how the young team has embraced each other in the collegiate setting.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Gamble said. “The way that we’ve grown, the way that we’ve really stuck together.

“I think another really big takeaway from this season is that everybody wants each other to succeed, it’s not a competition for playing time. It’s not a sort of ‘let me make sure that I get mine,’ but like this really is a team that really wants to win as a team.”

For the next block, Gamble wants the team to focus on their fundamentals for the next block to ensure their play stays clean even in close matches.

“If you don’t have a solid foundational base, it’s hard to iterate, and all of our players are in different stages of that fundamental understanding,” Gamble said. “And so we’re trying to get everybody kind of up to speed, which most of them are close or are already there. So that we don’t lose those fundamentals when things get tough.”

Though the competition formally ended on Nov. 7, some players got one last shot at match play through an All-Star Game. The directors of the eight schools conducted voting, and the teams were split between East and West. Team East comprised Michigan State University, Syracuse University, Ohio State University, and the University of Kansas. Team West consisted of the University of Nebraska, Boise State University, the University of Southern California and the University of Oklahoma.

OU Esports was represented well across all four titles. Ryan “Maver” Walker participated in the Rocket League All-Stars Match, Caiden “Kasumi” Reger represented OU for Valorant, and Carter “Crater” Lavalley competed in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.OU had two representatives for the Overwatch 2All-Stars: Robert “Flamewater” Batson and Evan “Jeeyva” Nordhues.

The competition for this semester may be over, but next semester will kick up the action again! OU Esports will face its opponents in a second block of matches in the spring semester, with the schedule to be announced soon.