Berkeley StarCraft II team wins second straight championship
Squad defeats University of Chicago in 4-1 win in Houston
May 14, 2019
UC Berkeley’s storied StarCraft II team pulled out another win on Sunday at ESPN’s inaugural national Collegiate Esports Championship, defeating the University of Chicago 4-1.
Berkeley StarCraft players Nick “Silky” McNeese, Ryan “IntuitioN” Quick and Jason “RexRequired” Nguyen took home the trophy and around $1,000 each in scholarship money.
“It was amazing to see all their hard work pay off, and for them to represent Berkeley and win,” said Kirk Robles, director of the Cal Esports program. Robles attended the May 10-12 championship games.
Berkeley StarCraft team members have won at least five collegiate esports championships over the last decade, including last year’s Tespa Collegiate Series.
Co-sponsored by Tespa, last weekend’s games were held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, as part of Comicpalooza, an annual sci fi, animé, cosplay and gaming convention.
The Starcraft tournament was part of a weekend of competitions between 22 teams representing 20 universities and colleges. In addition to the University of Chicago, Berkeley’s competitors for StarCraft II were UC San Diego and University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Other video games played were Overwatch, Street Fighter V, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm.
StarCraft II is a military strategy game. Players must make hundreds of interactions and decisions on the fly each minute.