Saint’s eSports Debut

By Dacotah Erwin

On Oct. 6-8, members of the St. Clair Saint’s Gaming team travelled to Cobo Centre in Detroit to make their long awaited debut.

The Big House is a yearly tournament that was founded in Ann Arbour, Mich, but due to the large number of entrants this year, it had to be moved to Cobo Centre.

There were close to 2,500 participants in the tournament and it featured competitors from all over the world, including top ranked players.

Brian Tran and Carter Durham made it to day two of the teams tournament and were scheduled to play Gavin Dempsey and Jason Bates, two of the top 25 ranked players in the world.

“We’re going against two big names, but I just look at it as if I’m playing someone in a normal basis,” said Tran. “I go in like I’m going in every day, a good mindset, a normal day at work and I’m just grinding.”

Tran and Durham would eventually lose the match, placing them at 17 out of the 128 teams that entered the tournament.

Considering this was the debut for the Saints, director of the program Shaun Bryne said he was beyond happy with the results.

“It’s a really big success. Our goal was to get a couple players past the first round and we definitely did that,” said Bryne. “We had a few people surprise us, especially Sam Nguyen. He came out of nowhere and made it where some players didn’t and he was able to do it, so definitely really happy with their success.”

The team will look to continue their success later on this month when they travel to Toronto to participate in The Canada Cup on Oct. 27-29.