Humber Esports Valorant soared into action in 2025 as they placed third in Brock University’s tournament Brock Start.
Brock Start is a tournament created by Brock University for the Games Valorant and Overwatch for collegiate play.
The Humber Esports Valorant team competed on Jan. 11 and 12 after returning from the long winter break, the team got together to prepare for Brock Start.
Mohid Ali, the team captain wished the team had more time to prepare for the tournament after returning from the break.
“Low-to-no prep time, small stakes tourney but I would've liked having another week at minimum, to really crack down on our game plan and get on the same page sooner,” he said.
Tia Kelsey, one of the Valorant team's newest members talked about what it was like to practice with the team after the break.
“We haven’t scrimmed (practiced) in like three weeks but it was difficult at first,” she said.
Leading up to their first match against Brock University, the Valorant team felt mentally prepared and Kelsey felt like it was easy to get back into the competition.
“It felt really good, I think all of us were excited – I’ve been competing for a year and it’s easy to just switch back into the mindset,” she said.
“Everyone was really locked in and focused to play our technically second tournament,” she said.
Kelsey said it felt as if the team was rusty as they prepared for the tournament, but ended up being okay as they headed into their first match of 2025.
The team fell to the loser's bracket Saturday after a hard-fought 13-9 loss against Brock University.
Ali talked about how they had no countermeasures for their opponent.
“Our biggest challenge was Brock as we had no plan set for how to deal with their aggression,” he said.
During their run on the loser's bracket, they developed a winning streak and took down the University of Guelph Red team and 1Milly Aura Squad (a Non-Collegiate team), with the scores 13-9 against Guelph and 13-6 against 1Milly.
Humber looked to avenge Saturday's loss as they headed into Sunday for their semi-final best-of-three rematch against Brock University.
Humber ended up getting swept in the semi-finals and lost 2-0 as they ultimately couldn’t defeat the Brock Badgers and dropped to third in the tournament.
Brock placed first while Calgary Esports United won second.
Ali and the team look to regroup after reaching the podium as they get ready for Collegiate Valorant (CVAL) and the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE).
“Moving forward we have more to focus on, less time to sulk, playing in both Cval and Nace makes the schedule hectic. Lots of winning is projected,” Ali said.
