WVU Esports will be represented by its Rocket League and Valorant teams at the HUE Invitational from September 20-22 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
WVU’s Rocket League team, which won the championship in 2022 and reached the semifinals in 2023, returns for its third consecutive year at the HUE Invitational. The team consists of senior Jarret “Angel” Birch, junior Ryan “Tool” Futral, and sophomore Matt “Matter” Ehresman, all of whom are coming off three national championship wins last year.
“We’re confident heading into it. A lot of teams underestimate how long it takes to get used to playing together at the beginning when a roster is built, and we’re through that now and hopefully that gives us an edge over some of the other teams," Birch said. "There are a lot of expectations that people want to put on us after last year, but we’re focused on just going out and doing the best we can and playing as a team.”
This will be the first time WVU Valorant will compete in the HUE Invitational. The team has undergone significant changes, with junior Theo “in0X” Bjornsson and sophomore Dino “Dinxx” Ferreira returning, joined by new players juniors Aiden “A77” Hill and Andrew “Gucc107” Gutnichenko, both from Winthrop, and sophomore Marco “Excite” Izrael from Converse.
“Everybody is really excited to go,” Ferreira said. “It’s a great chance to show what we’ve been working on the past few months. It’s going to be a lot of fun because all of our guys have a lot of experience; we’ve all played in LANs before and so we know what it takes to do well.”
The tournament will use a round-robin format on Friday and Saturday, where each team plays against every other team. The top four teams from the round robin will advance to the semifinals and finals on Sunday. The Rocket League competition features 12 schools, while Valorant has 8.
For updates and live coverage, follow @WVUEsports on X, Facebook, and Instagram throughout the tournament.