SEMO eSports faced the Sam Houston State University (SHSU) Bearkats in a National Association of Collegiate Esports matchup of League of Legends. The tournament was best of three games, with Sam Houston winning both matches played.

Early in game one, Sam Houston took charge, leading with a first elimination by player “JustBow”, SHSU’s attack-damage carry (ADC).

SHSU’s mid laner “Jhinetic” played Tristana (ADC). “Jhinetic” earned a triple kill eight minutes into the game, setting their score at four eliminations and zero deaths. This led SHSU to gain a seven thousand gold advantage by 15 minutes.

Midway through the game SEMO’s jungler “X cdizzle X” stole the Baron, a monster that provides a team buff, and escaped safely with the rest of the team.

Following this steal, SHSU later eliminated four of SEMO’s players, allowing the Bearkats to destroy the nexus and win the first game at 33:55.

In the second game, SHSU went Caitlyn (ADC) and Zoe botlane, and used the unconventional support mage to their advantage by producing hefty damage against SEMO’s Jinx (ADC) and Maokai.

Seventeen minutes into the game, player “Jamesthepig69” dropped the Rift Herald in the top lane as Sion, and led the team into a five thousand gold advantage. SHSU took the Baron minutes later, and forced their way mid to the nexus, winning the game at 29:30 by eliminating all five of SEMO’s players.

Despite the losses, SEMO eSports president and commentator Zach Healy said how the team played together near the conclusion of the match was something the team did right.

“I think the team did a good job playing together towards the end of the game,” Healy said. “They kind of realized that they were down quite a bit and that if they wanted to have some chance of success, they needed to group together.”

Caleb Degitz said game one’s results were unfortunate but the team has things they need to improve.

“It's kind of an unfortunate game one you know. I kind of entered my way but it didn’t go great for me,” Degitz said. “We just need to work on our team coordination and our communication, and all that will come out next time.”

This was the first game of the League of Legends season for SEMO. ADC player Reece Wehmeyer talked about learning from this match to prepare for the season.

“I mean, we just sat there,” Wehmeyer said. “We’re already talking about strategies that will work,” Wehmeyer continued. “So trying to push out the lane and make sure that they're under their tower.”

SEMO eSports next League of Legends match is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 22. You can catch them at .