At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 8, the League of Legends Club hosted the Grand Finals of its annual Winter Intramural Tournament. The final matchup was between the Erotic Lizards and Sharjeel, led by team captains senior Jason “paltina” Lu and sophomore Sharjeel “A LARGE POTATO” Rahman, respectively. The game was shoutcasted and commented on by junior Michael Hsieh and volunteer, junior Oliver Guan.

The two teams had previously faced each other in the main bracket, but during those matches, team Sharjeel lost to the Erotic Lizards and was then transferred to the loser’s bracket. Team Sharjeel went on to win in the loser’s bracket to make it back into the tournament finals. The rematch took place on that Friday afternoon in the auditorium. Due to their previous win, Erotic Lizards needed only two more victories over Sharjeel to win the best of five and claim the title of Monta Vista’s best League of Legends team.

“For us, we actually had the standard route of how the tournament was supposed to go, however, for team Shar[jeel]… [they] had the easiest time that they could have possibly gotten onto the finals,” said senior Jason Lu. “But for us, we had to play standard [(remained on the normal bracket], even though the second series was a little bit rough, but overall it was just good planning that helped us get here.”

During the first match of the night, the Erotic Lizards took down team Sharjeel for a convincing win. The Erotic Lizards had solid gameplay and communication; their team strength and pure skill gave them the victory. On the other hand, Team Sharjeel seemed to be having communication issues which resulted in their loss. But this motivated the team to work even harder in their next match. Teams were given five minutes to discuss their next game plan, and shortly after that, the next game began.

In the early stages of the second game, both teams were practically even, but team Sharjeel started to pull ahead, thanks to Jay “Hyun J” Park’s skills in the match. The game dragged on and lasted longer than the first match, but after a major skirmish, team Sharjeel seized the second game.

Senior Jared Yongyuth and team Sharjeel, concentrates on playing League of Legends for the Winter Intramural Tournament, on Jan. 8, 2016. There were about 30 students who came to watch the game between team Sharjeel and the Erotic Lizards.

It all came down to the third game. The score was 2-1 in favor of the Erotic Lizards. The Erotic Lizards needed only one more game to secure the win in the tournament. Although the game started off evenly, the tides started to turn in favor of the Erotic Lizards as the game wore on.

The momentum picked up, and the Erotic Lizards started to dominate once again. It started to look like the first match. It was a tense and troublesome matchup, but once again, due to some communication issues, team Sharjeel lost and the Erotic Lizards secured the win of the final round.

The crowd cheered and clapped — some went wild. By the third game, it was almost obvious that the Erotic Lizards would win, but in the end, team Sharjeel put up a valiant effort despite knowing that they were the underdogs. In the end, the match ended with “GG, good game” from both parties to the other. Both team captains shared a friendly conversation afterwards and discussed what both of their teams needed to work on.

Looking back on it, sophomore Sharjeel Rahman reflected on the path the tournament took them through and what it gave them.

“Before the tournament, most of our players didn’t even know each other. So as we played, we realized that we were very compatible as people and as a team. We grew to enjoy each other’s company,” Rahman said. “Now we’re pretty much a brotherhood and a family… and we look to win the next tournament.”

Co-authored by Tyler Lin