MENOMONIE - The University of Wisconsin Stout Valorant team traveled this past weekend down to Waukesha County Technical College for the Wisconsin Valorant Summit LAN Championship. The top 6 teams from across the state qualified for the LAN Championship on April 26
th & 27
th at WCTC.
Teams Qualified:
UW-Madison Red
Concordia University Wisconsin
UW-Stout
UW-Milwaukee
UW-Madison White
UW-Madison Black
The Blue Devils Valorant team won their first two online rounds prior to the LAN Championship, which put them directly into the Semi-Finals against UW-Milwaukee.
2-0 Win vs UW-Milwaukee (16-14, 13-7)
Stout got off to a slow start in the first map of the best of three series. Trailing by a few rounds, Blue Devils Senior,
Nathan Lenz, was able to clutch a few round wins to keep the game close. Once Stout switched to defense, they were able to reclaim the lead during the later rounds of the first map. UW-Milwaukee put up a great fight, forcing multiple overtimes, but it was the Blue Devils that came out on top 16-14 to secure the first map win.
After some delays during the day, the series was paused until morning to complete the game.
The Blue Devils arrived on the Saturday morning ready to compete, Lenz along side
Hoang Dang, led the way to a Blue Devils win over UW-Milwaukee in game two of the series to send Stout directly to the Grand Finals!
WVAL Grand Finals (Best of 5)
3-0 Win vs UW-Madison Red (13-5, 13-5, 13-1)
A rematch and grudge match for the Blue Devils Valorant team. After losing to Madison Red during the regular season, Stout was looking for revenge and to claim the top spot in Wisconsin.
Blue Devils
Noah Filtz created some amazing plays and played around Madison to lead Stout to an early 6-0 lead in the first map. Madison was able to fight back, winning five rounds in a row to keep the game close. But Stout had other plans, the Blue Devils won seven more consecutive rounds to close out the first map win, 13-5.
In the second map of the series, the Blue Devils once again earned an early lead over Madison. This time, it was IGL (In-Game-Leader)
JJ Hanson that led the way for Stout early in this second map. With the Blue Devils up 6-4, Madison was able to win a round before the half keeping the score close, 6-5. Once again, it was Stout on the second half dominating, winning seven rounds in a row to secure the 2
nd map win of the Championship series.
With a 2-0 lead, and the Championship just one map away, the Blue Devils had great energy and were excited about the next map pick. Going into Icebox for map 3, Stout was feeling very confident. The Blue Devils started the final map by winning eight rounds in a row to start the game. Madison was able to secure a round win, hoping their momentum can shift. But Stout was poised to take victory, winning the final five rounds in a row, winning the final map 13-1.
The Blue Devils did not drop a single map during the WVAL Summit Tournament and a dominant 3-0 Grand Finals win.
Tournament MVP was split as the votes were tied, but Stout's
Noah Filtz earned Co-MVP for the tournament.
UW-Stout Blue Devils Valorant Roster:
Noah Filtz,
JJ Hanson,
Nathan Lenz,
Em Humphrey,
Hoang Dang
Coach:
Tobey Riedmann
Final Results:
1st: UW-Stout
2nd: UW-Madison Red
3rd: UW-Milwaukee
4th: Concordia University Wisconsin
5th/6th: UW-Madison White & UW-Madison Black
