With the announcement of the uLol Campus Series, Riot Games has raised the stakes for the newest evolution of the North American Collegiate Championship (NACC.) Students all across North America have battled for the opportunity to represent their school in the upcoming tournament. Four conferences- North, South, East and West- will divide North America’s top talent as they compete for pride and scholarship prize pools.

Robert Morris University - The Road to Redemption

Robert Morris University are favored to win the Northern Conference - RMU

Since the launch of their varsity esports program- and the media frenzy that ensued- all eyes have been on Robert Morris University, a small private college in Chicago, Illinois. Robert Morris University was the first American university to offer sizeable scholarships for talented League of Legends players. They had constructed beautiful facilities and assembled a sizeable staff of esports coaches and analysts, most notably Ferris ‘Agent’ Ganzman and Indianna ‘Froskurinn’ Black.

In the first year of the program, RMU produced a number of Challenger players, a ranked 5’s team that cracked the Top 20 in North America, earned second place in the 2015 NACC and saw their starting support, Adrian Ma, go on to make a name for himself in the NA LCS with Team Impulse.

Although Robert Morris made the Finals of the NACC, the “ragtag” University of British Columbia squad managed to upset the powerhouse from Illinois in an impressive 3-0 series sweep. Casters and analysts expressed their surprise, considering the resources RMU had provided its players.

“They had some problems with pick and ban in the finals,” Froskurinn said. “They were frankly outclassed mechanically [versus UBC].”

The new RMU squad began the 2015-16 season by competing in the HTC Ascension Challenger Invitational. The Eagles shocked top Challenger talents and earned a Top 8 finish, going 5-2 in the group stage.

The collegiate squad managed to go toe-to-toe with a number of challenger players, including former Dignitas jungler, CloudNguyen. This was impressive, considering the team only fielded one challenger player. RMU was the only collegiate squad at the tournament, giving them a possible opportunity to grow versus challenger talent.

“The competition is tougher this year in our region but, it's a challenge we are eager to face,” said Agent, RMU’s head coach. The 2016 tournament offers them a chance at redemption.

Student Athletes

Adrian Ma left RMU to join the NA LCS - Riot Games  

The main roster that will be competing in the uLoL Campus series consists of three diamond players, a master player and a challenger player.

Evan ‘EvanRL’ Lawson - AD Carry

Formerly known as TriggeRL, EvanRL is the Eagles’ main carry threat. He showed strong performances throughout the HTC Ascension Invitational Challenger tournament, and was particularly comfortable on hypercarries such as Jinx and Tristana. Look for Lawson to amass leads during the early laning phase, allowing his team to aggressively pressure objectives throughout the mid game.

Jesus ‘Minibestia’ Coll - Support

The only remaining member of the 2015 RMU squad, Coll had big shoes to fill when starting support, Adrian Ma, left the team to pursue a professional LCS career. Coll has shown proficiency on all major supports and is the anchor that holds down RMU’s dominant botlane. Minibestia will be key for RMU to maintain superior warding, heading into the new vision changes.

Derek ‘Gillette’ Castro - MID

Gillette is the challenger midlaner for RMU. If EvanRL is the main carry threat, Gillette is a close second. Gillette has shown to be adaptable, amassing leads on both mages and assassins. Don’t be surprised to see him accrue a handful of solo kills, relieving pressure for the rest of his team. Gillette has also been spamming Zed in solo queue. It will be interesting to see if he’ll be pulling out the mechanically intensive assassin during their upcoming tournament.

Austin ‘Pomi’ Wright - Jungle

Just like Faker has Bengi, Gillette has his own utility junger to play a supportive style that will allow the rest of the team to play more aggressively, and his name is Pomi. Although not a master or challenger jungler, Pomi showed growth during the HTC Ascension event, even holding his own against CloudNguyen. Look for Pomi to assist Minibestia in warding duties, while purchasing Locket of the Iron Solari on a number of tanky champions.

Derek ‘West Coast Carry’ Micheau - TOP

West Coast Carry is a well rounded player that has shown to be quite versatile against challenger competition. WCC has success on Renekton, Gangplank and Gnar, but has been practicing a wide array of champions that will make him a valuable resource in champ select.

Infrastructure and Preparation

“In terms of facilities, resources and scheduling, RMU was far superior to a lot of professional teams”   -Indiana 'Froskurinn' Black

No one can dispute RMU’s deep pool of resources. The team has been provided great equipment, thanks to their endemic sponsorships. They have more coaches than some of their competitors combined, and are given some structure comparable to traditional sports teams.

According to Agent, the team practices Monday thru Thursday, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. The team has five substitutes to scrim, and can make use of Challenger Ranked 5’s to improve their synergy.

“The players and coaching staff spend a lot of time outside of practice time,” said Agent. “Fridays and Saturdays are sometimes utilized for additional practice.”

Students at RMU must maintain academic eligibility, however, ensuring players put academics first.

One possible advantage that RMU has obtained was a result of Riot Games' decision to relocate the North American server to a central location, Chicago. Considering RMU is located in Chicago, the team will likely be the benefactors of the lowest ping in North America. It's unclear how big of an impact this may be, but the team will certainly have experience in a near-LAN ping environment.

The Competition

University of British Columbia are the regining NACC Champs - Vincent Samaco

RMU resides in the North Conference and will be broadcasted on Twitch as they take on Michigan State University. According to Riot Games, MSU went undefeated in the NACC qualifiers, this past November. They must also beat nearby Illinois State if they want to represent the North in the 2016 Final Four. It's unclear how the rest of the competition will stack up, but RMU seems ready face any challenges.

“Competing in challenger events is a challenge that everyone is hungry for,” said Agent. Our main goal was to prepare ourselves as best as possible for collegiate competition and these events offer a high level of individual and team talent for us to go up against.”

Robert Morris are favored in their group, however, the University of British Columbia looms off in the distance, waiting to defend their 2015 Championship. The team has changed rosters, added coaching and practiced against some of challenger’s top young talents- It remains to be seen if this will be enough to overtake UBC’s talented roster.

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You can watch RMU take on MSU on January 16 in the uLol Campus Series on Twitch following the NA LCS.