Cal Poly’s Esports’ Valorant chapter is set to host the grand finals of the SLO Valorant Champions Tour (SLOVCT) this Sunday at 1 p.m. in Warren J. Baker Center (Bldg. 180, Room 107). This marks the second annual spring tournament for the campus intramural Valorant league, according to an announcement from the Cal Poly Valorant Discord server.
All interested students are invited to watch the event, which will include live casting, free food and the chance to win prizes. The event is made possible through the sponsorship from gaming brands Micro-Star International and Deepcool, who will be contributing to the pool of winnable merchandise per the announcement.
According to a discord post detailing the regular season, the grand finals are the culmination of a six week season where ten teams composed of 50 Cal Poly students and alumni faced off playing weekly matches for circuit points with the end goal of being seeded into the playoffs.
Prior to the start of the spring quarter, all those interested in participating filled out a brief questionnaire with details such as their current rank and preferred role to ensure that the teams are as balanced as possible. The grand final features team “IDC” who finished second in the regular season versus the underdog team “Jason Chang,” who made it all the way from the relegation play-in match to these finals according to a post in the Discord.
President of Cal Poly Valorant Adi Gottumukkala emphasizes that regardless of the winner, the goal of this annual intramural tournament is to promote the building of a community and the interaction between students who might not otherwise have met or even known that they had something in common with each other.
“I’ve met so many other people from other majors that I would never have met outside of my classes without the Valorant club,” Gottumukkala said.
Gottumukkala, a computer science junior, has been instrumental in both the creation of the club and its future plans.
“We’re planning on getting like a massive trophy that every winning team can kind of sign, and that’ll pass through like the next 20 years, hopefully, if this keeps on going,” Gottumukkala said.
While the annual SLOVCT tournament welcomes Valorant players from all skill levels, there is also an opportunity this upcoming fall quarter for those who are confident in their game to join the ranks of Cal Poly’s collegiate teams for a chance to compete against hundreds of other colleges around the country.
“Fall quarter, we will be holding a scouting grounds event, so anybody who’s interested in joining the competitive teams should join the Discord,” Gottumukkala said.
Sunday will be an opportunity for anyone interested in joining Cal Poly Valorant to come meet some of the club members, get some free lunch and enjoy what should be a competitive grand finals matchup. Inquiring students of all skill levels are encouraged to join their Discord server to keep up to date with information about events throughout the 24 – 25 academic year, with a back to school event tentatively planned for the early weeks of the fall quarter.
The grand finals will be live streamed on the Cal Poly Esports Twitch channel at 1 p.m. this Sunday.