Last week, Texas A&M University (TAMU) brought down the University of St. Thomas 3-1 in Grand Finals of CVAL 2024. The finals took place at the Boise State Esports Arena alongside the CLOL 2024 Championship Finals.
The win capped off an ultimately up-and-down season for the accomplished club program. TAMU also brought home the $5,000 prize for first place out of the $18,250 prize pot.
Building the Championship Team
Texas A&M esports is considered a club program instead of varsity. Players join the team after they’ve already been enrolled in the school, as opposed to being scouted.
“I knew prior to going to TAMU I was gonna hunt down our esports program,” said ‘Nabber’, the team’s Initiator. “The reason in particular for VALORANT was due to the fact it was my ‘preferred game’ at the time and still is. I also knew it would serve as a way to meet fantastic people such as my teammates and staff.”
‘JoBa’, the team’s Sentinel, had a similar story. “I have a strong passion for competing and I played VALORANT competitively even before I went to college, so joining the collegiate team at TAMU was a no-brainer for me. Joining the team also helped me make friends with a similar passion of competing and playing video games.”
The TAMU VALORANT roster was in flux throughout the year, as several lineup changes were made as the season went on. Since the team doesn’t have a traditional esports director or coach, it was up to them to best figure out how to navigate their strategy. Nothing was certain going into the biggest collegiate VALORANT tournament of the year.
Overcoming the Odds
TAMU entered the CVAL 2024 Championship bracket as an outside favorite to win the whole thing. It took them two chances to qualify for the Championship bracket, placing 1st in the CVAL 2024 South Winter Tournament. That win saw them ending the bracket with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the University of St. Thomas.
Once qualifiers ended, they were seeded 7th out of 32 teams, and expected to lose to Winthrop University in the quarterfinals. This projection went up in smoke once the bracket began.
All of the top 4 seeds lost in the Round of 16. This included powerhouse programs like St. Clair College and Winthrop University. By the time TAMU swept their first two opponents to make the quarterfinals, they were set to square off against Blinn College.
Unfortunately, Blinn had to forfeit their match against TAMU. However, this gave the Texas school an automatic berth into the Top 4. In the next match, TAMU swept Fisher College which had them heading to the Winners Finals against St. Thomas University.
It was against their fellow Texas school that TAMU took their first defeat of the tournament, getting swept themselves 3-0.
“After the loss against UST [University of St. Thomas] in Winners Finals, we looked back at our agent compositions and maps, and updated some of them to be prepared for Blinn,” said ‘austifrosti’, the team’s Duelist.
“During the season we fell behind a little bit on the meta and our map pool had obvious weaknesses. Although we never really practiced too much, we were confident in our ability and changes to go out and win.”
JoBa felt similarly confident despite the loss. “Even though we got destroyed by St. Thomas in Winners Finals, we knew we were plenty capable of beating them so we made sure to play more confident and together during the grand finals.”
TAMU was able to pull it together for Blinn, their Losers Finals opponent. Winning 3-1, they advanced to the in-person Grand Finals to avenge their loss to St. Thomas.
Getting Redemption Against their Hometown Rivals
Texas A&M and St. Thomas are no strangers to each other in the world of VALORANT. TAMU knew they would have to come ready and prepared against their new rivals.
“I was nervous but not in the sense of, like, shaking. More or less like it’s make or break time. I’m the oldest on the team, so I’ve been around. I’ve competed at LANs, so I know my way around. I know at the end of the day it’s a show so I plan on making it one,” said Nabber.
JoBa was also feeling the nerves, especially since they were competing on LAN. “There’s always more nerves when playing in a LAN environment, but once I get my first kill the nerves start to go away and I play like my usual self.”
Grand Finals started off rough for TAMU. They lost Game One of the series 14-12 after losing in overtime on Lotus.
All the practice and preparation paid off for TAMU, though. They went on to claim victories in three straight games, defeating St. Thomas 3-1 and won the CVAL 2024 Championship.
“It felt amazing,” said JoBa. “Making CVAL finals surpassed the original goals I had for this team, so to go out and win it all made me extremely proud of both myself and my teammates.”
Winning It All as a Club Program
Not only were TAMU underdogs because of their low seed, they also overcame the odds by winning the CVAL Championship as a club program. Many of their opponents featured students on paid scholarship as well help from a paid, dedicated staff. Being student run, the TAMU players had only themselves.
When asked if winning as a club program gave the championship added meaning, JoBa assured us that it did. “Since we don’t have any scholarship, I play because I love competing and have a passion for it. Whenever we beat a team on full-ride scholarships, it feels fantastic because we know that shouldn’t be happening since they are being paid to be the best.”
“There is an added level,” said Nabber. “A lot of schools love to downplay our achievements due to the fact of our past of having a more ‘pug’ team. It means a lot being able to prove that just because we aren’t getting paid doesn’t mean that we can’t win.”
We asked how the team is able to compete at the highest level despite lacking the resources of other top collegiate teams.
“We’ve grown a lot as a team,” said Nabber. “Going from having a more pug-central play style to putting in legitimate work and hours to improve our team play and strategy. It really started during winter when we won the CVAL 2024 South Winter Tournament, as that was when we really starting scrimming a lot more and putting in a ton more effort.”
What’s Next After Championship Gold?
With the collegiate VALORANT season coming to an end, so to has the school year. With the summer upon us, we wanted to know what the TAMU players’ plans for the future were.
“I plan on continuing playing for TAMU until I graduate, or until I want to take a more passive coach role for the team,” said Nabber. “This win was great and everything, but I still want to compete as that’s the fun of competitive games for me: being able to meet and play against other great teams and players.”
JoBa also still has plenty of time left wearing TAMU’s maroon colors. “Since that was only my freshman year of college, I plan to continue to compete in collegiate and most likely outside of collegiate again as well. I’ll continue to grind the game and get better, as well as stay focused in my college studies. I hope to make the CVAL Finals again next year as well as NA Challengers.”
“As for my future I still have two years left till’ I graduate so I plan to work towards that while still participating in VALORANT on the side,” said austifrosti.
The established esports programs are sure to come back even harder next year to try to take home the win. Will Texas A&M be able to run it back for a second straight title? After putting the collegiate VALORANT scene on notice, their team isn’t going anywhere.
