LSSC is home to many esports teams such as “Tekken,” “Street Fighter,” and of course, “Marvel Rivals.” These teams compete against other colleges, and in some cases, travel across the country to represent LSSC in these online competitions. It’s not exactly football, but these students train and work as a team to bring home a victory like any other student athlete.

“Marvel Rivals” is a revolutionary and refreshing take on the 6v6 team shooter genre. The future of this genre was looking bleak after the infamous “Concord” disaster, where Sony’s take on the genre bombed on release with a max player count of six hundred ninety-seven on Steam before being taken down twelve days later. That was until four months later, when “Marvel Rivals” was released to the public with a shocking 642,333 player-count on Steam.

But what made “Marvel Rivals” so intriguing? What made it the game-changer that it is?

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS

From character team-ups and a developing story, to easter eggs hidden in plain sight, “Marvel Rivals” is full of immersive content for fans of the franchise new and old. One of these features is team-ups, where characters get a boost or even a bonus ability when certain characters are played on the same team. The design of the maps also has plenty of references to Marvel comics and spin-offs: buildings, the objectives, and even the announcer herself are callbacks to the comics and movies.

Other details are the bonus game-modes that typically appear at the start of each new season. They offer a new way to play with ranks and games that resemble other well-known franchises such as “Splatoon” (Jeffs Winter Splash) as well as their own creative “build a team” clash-royale (Ultron’s Battle Matrix).

So, what does this have to do with Lake-Sumter State College?

A BRIGHT FUTURE

“Marvel Rivals” is new on the esports scene, and with that comes excitement and anticipation of where the game is headed in the future. “Overwatch,” a similar 6v6 team shooter game, has been on the international esports scene since 2017. This leads to the question: will “Marvel Rivals” do the same? It’s too early to know as “Marvel Rivals” is only on its second competitive run, but numerous colleges such as: Guilford Technical Community College, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, and more show a high interest in the game. Could it be a sign of something greater to come? Only time will tell.

Among these teams is LSSC’s own, and I was able to interview some of our Division 1 team members, as well as their coach, to answer some of the burning questions about this competitive season.

AN INSIDER LOOK

The first interview began with Jeremiah Gayles, one of the support players of our Division 1 team. He also had some insight of what the support role entails, calling them “the most important” role on the team because, “anyone can do damage…but no one else on the team can heal except support.” In a way, the support role is the backbone of the team, keeping the heavy hitters and damage blockers alive so they can more effectively play their role. When asked about skills needed to play the game, he highlighted that each character has their own skillset, stating “some characters you need to have aim, but there are a lot of melee characters that don’t need it like Magik.” During the interview, there was a lot of head nodding when Gayles mentioned being “happy to be a part of it,” when asked about his thoughts on being a pioneer in this new competitive scene. The confidence and excitement in the room displayed a strong team bond and a positive outlook on the future, which could have an impact on gameplay and team synergy.

The second interview was with Thomas Hiles, a tank player on the team. He plays a few characters in his category, from Hulk to Magneto. He’s able to flex the skills of whoever he chooses to play as. Hiles supported Gayle’s statement of the healers being the “backbone” or “foundation,” stating that his role is to target those characters on the enemy team to “break the foundation” so the rest of their team falls. The topic of spatial awareness came up, when it comes to skills needed to play the game competitively. Being able to know where enemy and ally characters are, and using the knowledge of “cooldown management” to your advantage during a team fight. “Cooldown management” is knowing how long a player has, until they can use an ability again, after they used it. Powerful abilities, like Black Panther’s spear, can be timed and players can adapt to their future moves. Hiles shared the positive attitude of being a pioneer in this competitive scene, and recounted a story of being introduced to the team while “having good synergy and understanding [of] how [the team] plays” before the team was even formed.

The head coach, Damion, was the final person I interviewed. His role in the team is to “help the players get better” with their mechanics, chemistry, and getting them the time to play together and work on “team comps” as well as “map positions.” A team comp is a combination of characters that, when played together, have a specific goal. An example is a dive comp, where the damage characters target the backline, distract the damage characters, and prevent the enemy team from building the previously mentioned “foundation” to begin with. Damion notes skills such as aim, game sense, attack combos, and “knowing how to play with other people and adapt [to a given situation].” He agreed with me on the idea that there’s an “overarching strategy” that is a result of these different skills and the team effort put into learning the mechanics of new characters, maps, and comps that come because of them. The head coach has “no worries,” and even claims LSSC has the “best college team” and he “wouldn’t be surprised if [they] win the entire tournament.”

Excitement here at LSSC’s esports center is at an all-time high, and our current winning streak leaves no room for argument. Since LSSC won all three of the qualifier matches, our “Marvel Rivals” team will move on to the next stage!

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