Saints Esports Celebrate Four Championships

Last week saw four different St. Clair Saints Esports teams awarded their championship rings from national tournaments held last year.  

The Saints took home first place at the Canadian Esports Nationals in Overwatch, Call of Duty and Rocket League while the iRacing team won the North American Championship in the Collegiate iRacing league. The teams celebrated with a ring ceremony and lunch with St. Clair President Dr. Patti France.  

“It was really surprising but also really nice to be recognized by our president Patti France,” said Zarin Bartholomew, Saints Call of Duty coach.  

The college is regarded for having one of the best Esports programs in Canada. They have completely embraced Esports as a viable career path, becoming the first college in Canada to have varsity Esports teams and provide scholarships for them.  

“It’s nice to be put in the same category as traditional sports teams at the school which I think is something a lot of schools lack,” said Bartholomew.  

This could be a reason why the Saints were able to perform so well at Nationals, winning two of their three championships in dominating fashion. The Call of Duty matchup was the closest contest, going into the final game of the best-of-five which the Saints won 6-2. The other two teams’ grand finals games weren’t particularly close. The Overwatch team took their best-of-five 3-0 while the Rocket League team won their best-of-seven 4-1.  

Rocket League player Kristian Capisciolto credits team chemistry to their success.  

“We are all friends and we have fun practicing together all the time so realistically we won because we just had fun and we improved together,” said Capisciolto.  

The Saints will now look to repeat this success at this years’ Canadian Esports Nationals starting Nov. 20. This year, St. Clair will be fielding teams in Valorant, League of Legends, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Rocket League.