By: Jeremy Blye

 

As many of you know, we had our first ever DePaul Summer Showdown this past Thursday. It was a blast of an event, and it was even better since I was one of the casters. We had Paul “Foof” as another caster and Kevin “Tenacity” in charge of virtually all of the production. This event was a double-elimination bracket which consisted teams of DePaul, Xavier/Butler (or widely known as Blavier), University of Connecticut, and Northeastern University. Each team battled it out in every single series, and I am sad to say that DePaul did not take home the win this event. They played extremely solid with Blackwraith, Shacookie, and Mybyke. It was quite interesting to see how we morphed Varsity and Junior Varsity players and had a huge amount of success against some stronger teams out there. This is just another learning moment for our DPU squad, and I am sure they will come into their next tournaments even stronger. On a side note, I am glad to announce that University of Connecticut took the dub after a 10-game final. They battled against Blavier for a bracket reset and took both of the Grand Finals to a game 5. Let’s take a look into each of the games.

 

Rosters:
DePaul: Blackwraith, Shacookie, Mybyke

Blavier: Brospeh, Kai, Astroo

UConn: Anton, droiz, Disastyr

Northeastern: A1, shotguy, skribl

 

 

Round 1:

DePaul vs. Northeastern (2-1)

This game was hard to even guess who could win. I have personally played against Northeastern’s B Team, and they are extremely solid. I got absolutely destroyed by them. A1, shotguy, and skribl are all extremely talented players. Their talent was displayed profoundly throughout the 3 games our squad got to play against them in. One thing that I have always noticed about Northeastern is that they are always accurate and love to get as many shots on goal as possible. It is hard to match the pressure they put onto other teams. Unfortunately, their talents were not strong enough since our squad came out victorious in the end.

 

UConn vs. Blavier (2-1)

This is a series that seemed to be in UConn’s favor from the start. Blavier seemed to not be as warmed up as UConn was. There were quite a few mistakes that UConn was able to play off of and take a quick lead. Even though Blavier did get one game on UConn, it was not enough to stop the powerhouse the Huskies bring out to the field. UConn was seen making pass play after another and seemingly got around and in the heads of the Blavier squad. This did not stop the Blavier Squad from excelling in the rounds that would follow.

 

Semifinals:

DePaul vs. UConn (0-2)

Going into this series, I knew it was not going to be an easy win for DePaul. As many of you know, UConn was the Big East Champions in the most recent split. They obviously know what they are doing, AND they are good at it. This did not stop DePaul from putting their all in. Even though DePaul did not get a game on UConn, it was extremely good experience to face a team as solid as UConn. The issue when playing against a team like this is that once they take control of the game, it is hard to get around it. Even with this obstacle, players like Blackwraith were always there on the defensive end to stop UConn. Mybyke seemed to be the main playmaker and demo-er. Shacookie was also a playmaker and always was styling on his opponents. Yet, this was not enough to stop the Huskies.

 

Finals:

UConn vs. Blavier (5-5)

This series was absolutely crazy. We had a bracket reset and we had both series go to a game five. Who would’ve thought that both UConn and Blavier could put on such a show for everyone to see at home? I guess we were able to find out on Thursday night! Blavier were definitely the underdogs in this situation, yet they still excelled all the way to the finals and almost showed UConn what was up! Both teams were showing fatigue all throughout the series, but that did not stop the aggression each had within the game. Even though both teams were extremely vigilant, UConn took home the bread in the bracket reset and won the first ever DePaul University Summer Showdown!

 

Recap:

Overall, I was extremely happy with the results of this tournament and event! I was worried that it was not going to go smoothly since I had never done anything like this before. Kevin did such a fantastic job on the production side of things. I am so happy I have him to work alongside with. Paul “Foof” is one of my favorite casters out there. Working with him is even better. I am not that experienced with casting either, yet Paul helped push me to be the best caster I could be. Even though at the end of the 150 minute stream I was soooooo tired, Paul helped keep up the pace and guide me into success for the night. I am excited to continue this event within the near future. On that note…we have our next Summer Showdown on Thursday, July 15th. The game will be announce on our Twitter shortly.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out and participated (either in game or in the stream) and I am looking forward to what the future holds!