Menomonie, WI – The UW-Stout Esports program qualified two teams into the Wisconsin Esports Conference Spring Championship, featuring Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Overwatch. The Blue Devils Overwatch squad went into the tournament as the #1 overall seed with an 11-1 record. The Blue Devils Smash Bros team was the #3 overall seed with a 10-2 record.
Saturday – May 2nd Group stage
Overwatch
The Overwatch team was paired with #3 Carthage College, #5 UW-Green Bay and #7 UW-Madison, where the teams would play a round robin to determine seeding for the single elimination bracket on Sunday. The other group includes #2 UW-Whitewater, #4 MSOE, #6 UW-Stout Club, and #8 UW-Milwaukee.
The Blue Devils started the day with a dominant 3-0 victory over UW-Green Bay, followed immediately by another 3-0 win over UW-Madison. Their 3
rd match of the day would be a grudge match from their only loss of the regular season, Carthage College. The Blue Devils came out swinging behind seniors
Leo Dresang and
Bennett Schoenborn defeating Carthage 3-0 on home turf to earn the #1 overall seed for the Sunday Bracket.
Smash Bros.
The Smash Bros. team got paired with #2 UW-Whitewater, 6 UW-River Falls, and #8 UW-Green Bay. The Blue Devils started the day with a smooth 2-0 victory over UW-Green Bay. Next up the Blue Devils ran into local rivals, River Falls Falcons, last year's defending champs. Both matches came down to the wire, but it was
Cameron Bethard coming in clutch for Stout earning another 2-0 win. The Blue Devils final match of the group stage was against UW-Whitewater, last year's runner-up as well as one of the teams the Blue Devils lost to during the regular season. The match very close all the way down to the final players, but it was freshman, and 2
nd team all-conference honoree,
Chase Wahl giving the Blue Devils a lead and an upset win over #2 seeded UW-Whitewater. With a 3-0 group stage, the Blue Devils SSBU team earns a #2 seed for the Sunday Bracket.
Sunday – May 3rd – Championship Sunday
Overwatch
Starting on Sunday morning, the Blue Devils were matched up against the UW-Stout Club Overwatch team in the first round of the quarter-finals. The Blue Devils made quick work of the Club team with a 3-0 win moving onto the semi-finals against MSOE, last years championship runner-up. The Blue Devils started strong winning the first map, but ended up dropping the second map of the series. After a quick timeout break and leadership from the support line of
Cody Larkin and
Elsie McCook kept spirits high leading the Blue Devils into a 3-1 win earning them a spot in the grand final match against last years champions, Carthage College!
The Blue Devils started extremely well going up 3-0 in the best of 7 series. This is when Carthage came alive, driving the energy through the Esports Arena in the Robert S. Swanson Library, winning 3 straight maps to force a winner-takes-all map 7! Map 7 started with shutdown moments from junior
Brennan Parbs and clutch moments from the rest of the squad pushing the Blue Devils into a map 7 victory, earning them the 2026 Wisconsin Esports Conference Overwatch Champions and their 2
nd championship trophy in a matter of 2 weeks!
Sophomore
Elsie McCook earns tournament MVP honors alongside her 1
st team all-conference honors!
Full Roster:
Leo Dresang,
Bennett Schoenborn,
Brennan Parbs,
Cody Larkin,
Elsie McCook,
Zachary Vanden Broeke,
Simon Lee
Smash Bros.
The Blue Devils got paired up against UW-Whitewater JV for the quarter-final round of Championship Sunday in the Wisconsin Esports Conference. Once again the squad was comfortably taking and holding a lead. Once again it was freshman
Chase Wahl leading the way bringing the squad to a game 1 win. Game 2 was a full team effort of
Cameron Bethard,
Ben Willem,
Chase Wahl and
Ethan Hershberger to earn a close win to move the Blue Devils to the semi-finals against Ripon College.
In the semi-final match against Ripon College, the Blue Devils were playing against a team they haven't really seen much of before.
Chase Wahl gets the Blue Devils started with an early lead, but Ripon responded, earning their own lead over
Ben Willem.
Ethan Hershberger was brought in to stabilize Stout and giving them the lead back into the final players. Finally, it was captain,
Sam Mead to close out game 1 of the semi-final, earning a 1-0 lead. Ripon responded strongly in game two, mixing up their roster resulting in a close Ripon win to make the series 1-1. Ultimately, Ripon continued their momentum taking game 3 and sending the Blue Devils home in 3
rd/4
th place.
Full Roster:
Ben Willem,
Ethan Hershberger,
Sam Mead,
Cameron Bethard,
Ethan Skains,
Chase Wahl,
Ewan Weir
UW-Stout has successfully hosted two consecutive championship events for the Wisconsin Esports Conference, and we hope to see you here again in the future!
In case you missed out on any of the action live, you can check out all the livestream footage here: https://www.twitch.tv/wiesportsconference, https://www.twitch.tv/stoutesports, and https://www.twitch.tv/stoutesports2.
