CLOL: Unified Takes On The Premier College League of Legends Experience!

TeJaun RiChard 5/6/2021

What’s up, everybody?

You all may know me for my coverage of the Upsurge Premier League and its former/current players, teams, success stories, and highlights, but today I want to direct your attention to something a bit different - collegiate LoL.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

B-b-but TéJaun, are there not collegiate teams competing in the UPL?

Yes, yes there are. However, this is quite possibly the one place where you can find exclusive collegiate League of Legends, inclusive of all of the top collegiate teams from around the continent of North America. Some of these are household names like Winthrop University, Maryville University, Harrisburg University, and UPL’s very own defending champions, Illinois State University. Some are not-so-regular faces, such as SUNY Buffalo, University of California (Riverside), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The best part is that it’s the REAL DEAL, meaning that none other than Riot Games themselves is organizing the tournament through their Riot Scholastic Association of America, or RSAA. They govern the high school and collegiate-level League of Legends. So if that’s your thing, you can learn more about them here.

...and they chose none other than yours truly, Upsurge and Unified Esports, to host the very first round of the tournament.

In case you missed it, round one was pretty spicy. I’m not going to lie to you. I won’t spoil ALL of the details (largely because it’d take me a ton of space to write them all out), but surprisingly, only TWO of the SIXTEEN best-of-three series in the entire round actually made it to a game three. The rest were clean 2-0 wins by the respective teams. This spells a clear difference in strength between some of the teams, which will hopefully become more pronounced as the tournament continues. Nevertheless, these teams have come to show out.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed the chance to watch?

Well, don’t miss the chance! THIS WEEKEND, Riot Games has blessed you with the ability to tune in, through your friendly neighborhood casting staff here at Unified and Upsurge, to the second round as well! The initial 32 teams from the first round have now been narrowed down to 16. They’ll battle it out in front of you for one of the eight spots in the quarterfinals.

So what are you waiting for?

If your school is here, show some school spirit and come cheer them on.

If not? Pick another school and cheer them through to the end!

If you’re not a student? Well, pretend you are and do one of the above!

The fun starts on Saturday, May 8th, 2021 at 6:00 PM EST with Purdue University taking on the University of Toronto. You can catch the action via the Academy, Upsurge Esports, and Unified Twitch streams. To catch up on the past action from Round 1, you can check out the games on YouTube via the LoL Esports VODs and Highlights channel.

I’ll be there!

Will you?