SEMO’s competitive Varsity Apex squad finished in third place after competing in the third week of the ALAC tournament. This is following the Junior Varsity squad’s third place ranking that they earned last Friday.

SEMO’s squad went head-to-head with some of the best competitive Apex squads around. Their competition included professional apex teams and other collegiate apex squads.The objectives for these competitors are to gain as many points as possible through kill-points or placement-points.

The Varsity team decided to approach the match with a more cautious and passive playstyle. They also chose characters that best suited their playstyle and were typically led by their In-Game Leader freshman cybersecurity major Jarod Baker .

“We were going up against higher ranking teams, so we had to play it [slower] than usual,'' Baker said. “ Especially when we found out where they were, we tried to rotate the other way.”

Baker said their main goal was to play a slow-paced match and to place an emphasis on acquiring placement-points rather than kill-points.

Freshman business management major Jesse Brewster elaborated on the team’s careful strategy during the match.

“We’re more passive until we can find good opportunities to drop in on opponents, then we could be a little more aggressive.” Brewster said.

The Varsity squad placed in the top seven for all five of their matches which resulted in the squad remaining third overall in the tournament.

Junior wildlife and conservation biology major Kyle Murray added his insight on what the team could improve on in the future after the team placed third in the circuit.

“I think we have overall been in an ok state but we have things to improve upon such as positioning and callouts,” Murray said. “As we play more with each other and practice we should be able to get those fundamentals down.”

The next match of the tournament will be played by the Junior-Varsity team Feb. 25 in the SEMO Esports arena at 7.pm.