There’s nothing that quite encapsulates community spirit like a country rallying behind their national sports teams. We witness it all the time when Ireland play rugby or football. During an Irish match, the sounds of exultation (or despair) can be heard thundering out of every pub and household. Like most sporting concepts (franchising, drafts, seeding), the idea of national teams is starting to find a foothold in the esports industry.
Many esports already have ecosystems where their competitive scene is divided into regions which does evoke a certain kind of nationalism in its viewers, a prime example being the famous Europe versus North America rivalry that exists in the “League of Legends” scene. However, this doesn’t quite compare to the feeling of watching a full team of your countrymen compete for national glory. League of Legends fans got to experience a taste of what an international competition would be like during the 2018 Asian Games.
At the event, League of Legends was selected for a trial run in order to see if esports could be introduced permanently to the competition. Though many of the teams competing weren’t world-class, the predictable final matchup of China against South Korea was hyped by many. China went on to win gold, much to the chagrin of their Korean rivals. Recently, the idea of a full-blown world cup has been floated by the higher-ups at Riot’s esports division. It’s expected that progress will be made towards creating this competition in the coming years.
However, another popular game has already instituted an international world cup. Activision-Blizzard’s “Overwatch” which released in 2016 has held a World Cup every year since its release. The heavy-hitters of the competition have remained mostly consistent over the years, large countries with extensive esports scenes tend to reign supreme. South Korea, China and the United States generally do well for these reasons. Ireland, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same advantages or infrastructure.
Compared to the aforementioned countries, and even with other larger European countries, Ireland has quite a small population. In addition to this, esports is only beginning to blossom on the Emerald Isle which limits the potential talent pool further. Our fair country has produced few esports players of note, with the most successful likely being “Call of Duty” player Jordan “Jurd” Crowley who is set to compete in the first season of the newly-formed Call of Duty League as a member of the London Royal Ravens. Justin “MiracU” McNally (PUBG), Josh “lolb0om” Juliano (Fortnite) and Cormac “doolsta” Dooley (Fifa) are some other notable Irish names who are successful in their respective scenes.
In Overwatch, however, Ireland has yet to produce a player who has played at the highest level. Going into the first Overwatch World Cup, “Team Ireland” was an underdog in every sense of the word. The team performed admirably, defeating South Africa and taking a game off Poland. While they didn’t perform well enough to advance to the main stage at Blizzcon, it seemed like Ireland might just have some future stars after all. However, due to stringent qualification requirements in place during subsequent years, Ireland was not represented during the 2017 and 2018 World Cups.
2019 was a new year for Irish Overwatch, however. The national community banded together and coordinated their efforts to field the best possible team Ireland had to offer. With a sweet jersey and a tasteful brand (the Celtic Wolfhounds), Team Ireland was poised to make their country proud at Blizzcon 2019. The team consisted of Mark “Scally202” Scally, Liam “Liam” O’Donnell, Adam “PureIrish” Healy, Josh “M3wts” Moore, Aaron “FlexG” Kay and Adam “Buckle” Treharne, with head coach Brian “Scrivzy” Scriven.
As Activision-Blizzard neglected to provide financial support to Overwatch World Cup teams, the Wolfhounds would have to fund their own trip to Anaheim for Blizzcon. This resulted in an inspiring outpouring of support from the Irish Overwatch community as individuals purchased jerseys and made donations to fund the team’s expenses. With a couple of months to spare, Team Ireland successfully met their financial goals and were set to compete at Blizzcon. Controversially, teams were not allowed to wear their custom-made jerseys at the event and were instead forced to wear generic Coca-Cola branded jerseys.
Before the tournament, there was a sense of optimism among the Irish community. The Wolfhounds had emphatically beaten the Greek Trojan Horse and were competitive against Team Iceland in pre-tournament scrimmages. However, the World Cup preliminaries had a ruthless format, one loss and you were eliminated from the competition entirely. When the brackets were drawn, Ireland was set to face off against a familiar face in Team Iceland. Should they win this game, the daunting task of competing against the United Kingdom (who had five pro players on their roster) arose.
Facing Iceland was made even more difficult by the fact that the two teams were regular scrim partners, so Ireland’s unorthodox strategies wouldn’t work against the Icemen. This proved partially to be their downfall, as Iceland went on to blow out the Wolfhounds 3-0. Despite the scoreline, Ireland had some great moments and looked very competitive for a team with only amateur players. Going forward, Ireland’s promising talents are sure to improve and new talent will inevitably be discovered. It’s not outlandish to suggest that Ireland will produce a professional Overwatch player in the coming years.
“Dive-Rein” – Interview with Liam O’Donnell
While Team Ireland ultimately exited the World Cup after just one best-of-five series, the experience was certainly valuable for the players and staff of the Celtic Wolfhounds. One such player is eighteen-year-old Liam O’Donnell from Kildare who is one of the country’s most promising talents. Before his stint with Team Ireland, Liam had played extensively in amateur leagues. Once the national team announced they would be holding open tryouts, Liam jumped at the opportunity. When asked to describe his experience with Team Ireland, the Kildare man was nothing but positive. “My experience with Team Ireland was amazing. It started out rough with the tryouts, as most open tryouts do, but once the team was selected and we were scrimming consistently it was really good”.
Despite being the youngest member of the team, Liam was designated as the “in-game leader” for the team. This meant that it generally fell to him to quickly formulate a strategy amidst the ever-changing chaos of an Overwatch game. Though many would consider this to be a daunting task, Liam took it in stride. “Naturally, as the main tank, you are always, at least somewhat, the leader of the team as you are the centre. For most of my previous teams, I have been that kind of leader. I didn’t find it daunting at all actually, whether it had been previous Overwatch teams or previous soccer teams, I’ve always been a leader”.
Losing in the first round after so much preparation and effort must’ve been disappointing, especially considering Iceland was a team that Ireland had previously beaten in practice. When asked what he thought of the match, and if the Wolfhounds were simply outmatched on the day, Liam offered an explanation for the loss. “I definitely don’t think we were “outmatched” as we have always gone toe to toe with Iceland in scrims. I think the main issue was that they were our scrim partners and knew our “off-meta” strategies. Because of this, they had an answer for them but I do think if, on the day, we played to what we were capable of we could have beaten them.” The combination of a slight underperformance and an unlucky draw proved to be Ireland’s downfall. Despite the loss, this World Cup has been instrumental in creating community infrastructure for future trips to the event.
As mentioned earlier, Liam is one of the most promising young Irish talents in the scene right now. So much so that back in April prominent Korean coach Yoon “Runner” Dae-hoon commented on Liam’s play, calling him the next Bumper. For those unaware, Park “Bumper” Sang-beom is one of the best main tank players in the Overwatch League. Liam was honoured to be praised by such a famous coach in the Korean Overwatch scene: “I honestly didn’t believe it at first when I saw the screenshots. It was such an amazing feeling to get recognition from such a big name like that”.
Recognition like that and an unforgettable experience like travelling to Blizzcon to compete in an international tournament would inspire anyone. Predictably, Liam is excited at the prospect of pursuing a career in esports. “The experience of travelling to Blizzcon and playing there has definitely inspired me to pursue this career path. Playing in competitions like that with so much adrenaline flowing and so much on the line is an unbelievable experience that I definitely want to experience again”. He went on to confirm that the next step in his career is finding an Academy or Contenders team to compete at the next level. Keep your eyes out for Liam in the coming months, we may have a future star on our hands.
(This article originally appeared in the UCC Express)
Jack Coleman 
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