For the first time, three University esports teams — Rocket League, Valorant and Call of Duty — are on the road to compete for national championships at this week’s NACE Grand Finals at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida.
The West Virginia Rocket League and Valorant teams will compete in group play Thursday (April 24) with a chance to move on to compete for a championship in the semifinals and finals on Friday (April 25). Then the Call of Duty team will begin play Saturday (April 26), looking to earn its first trip to a national semifinal on Sunday (April 27).
WVU is one of just six schools in the country to have at least three teams competing in the event. Since forming its varsity esports program in October 2021, WVU has traveled to compete in 13 tournaments in nine different states and brought home championships in three of those.
“It’s pretty exciting, this has been one of our goals we had as a program since the start of the semester. We’re definitely headed in the right direction as a program,” Josh Steger, esports director and varsity head coach, said. “This isn’t new to us, it’s the standard we’ve been trying to set since the start. We’re still young compared to most of the programs that have multiple teams going there this week.”
This is the fourth consecutive semester with University esports trips to compete at the NACE Grand Finals for WVU Rocket League. The Mountaineers became just the second school in NACE history to win back-to-back championships during the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters. WVU will once again rely on its lineup of Jarret “Angel” Birch, Matt Ehresman and Ryan “Tool” Futral as it looks to further cement its legacy among the best two-year runs in collegiate Rocket League history.
WVU Valorant has played in one NACE Varsity Premier national championship game, falling short against St. Clair in Fall 2023. The Mountaineers are riding a lot of momentum into this week’s tournament, winning nine of their last 10 matches — including wins in the first two rounds of the Riot Games Collegiate Valorant National Championships.
“They’re all already supporting each other in our facility when each team is playing. The only difference now is the noise we make cheering each other on will impact our opponents and they’ll know they’re up against an entire program,” Steger said.
This will be the West Virginia Call of Duty team’s first trip to compete in-person on LAN. WVU qualified by sweeping Dunwoody College of Technology, 3-0, to punch its ticket to Orlando.
“It’s been a long time coming with that team,” Steger said. “Each year, they’ve been close but faced setbacks that didn’t allow them to get to this point. With the changes NACE made, things shifted into our favor and that allowed our guys to lock in and come up big when they needed to most.”
Thursday’s (April 24) Rocket League and Valorant matches will be streamed on the official WVU esports Twitch channel. Tune in and support the team at twitch.tv/wvuesports1.
The rest of the tournament can be viewed at twitch.tv/nacesports.
Follow WVU esports on X, @WVUEsports, or find more information online.