Southeast Missouri State University student publication

SEMO’s Esport Junior-Varsity Apex squad competes in the second week of amateur tournament Feb.19.

Sunday, February 20, 2022

SEMO’s competitive Junior Varsity Apex squad competed in the second week of the second tournament of their season on Friday. This particular Esports tournament is known as the Apex Legends Amateur Circuit (ALAC) and consisted of five separate matches where other professional and college teams compete to win.

Apex is a squad oriented battle-royale game where twenty squads of three unique characters are dropped into a large map with the objective of being the last squad alive. For the tournament, the objectives for the players are to gain as many points as possible through either kill-points or placement-points. Kill-points were attained through defeating other opponents while placement-points were attained through staying alive as long as possible.

The Junior-Varsity team decided to play the match with an objective of focusing more on attaining their points through placement.

“Our play style tends to be on the more defensive”, sophomore computer information systems major Connor Westerfield said. “ We try to prioritize placement over fighting.”

Sophomore general history major Madison Snider added her input on the team’s strategy as well.

“We have to play really defensive because it is a placement-based tournament and that's where we would get the most points since we barely get any points from kills,” Sinder said.

Sophomore technical management major and construction management major Rachel Pfile said their main goal was to try not to be aggressive so that their chances of being placed higher were maximized.

“We chose characters with ultimate abilities that are generally used to evade fighting but can be used to attack to make sure that we could defend ourselves,” Pfile said.

The JV team placed sixth in all five of their matches which resulted in the squad being placed higher in the overall tournament, going from eleventh all the way to third.

“I do feel that we didn’t do as well as the first time but we should be fine in the long run,” Pfile said.

The next match of the tournament will be played by the Varsity team Feb. 21 in the SEMO Esports arena at 7.pm.

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