Canton, NY – With SUNY and ECAC Esports playoffs in full force three SUNY Canton teams remain in their respective playoff brackets having reached the semifinals.
 
In ECAC the League of Legends A and Hearthstone teams are each competing in their respective semifinals. In SUNY league the COD MWII A team has also made the semifinals. Hearthstone and COD MWII A square off with Saint Francis University and the University at Buffalo at 6 and 7 p.m., respectively, on Thursday. Meanwhile, League of Legends A will take on George Fox University on Friday at 8 p.m.
 
Should these teams advance to their respective championship matches they will take place the same day and time next week. To view the complete schedule, click HERE.
 
However, it has not been an easy road to the playoffs; as just last week, our League of Legends A team had to face off against their own B team to get where they are now. For some insight into this event as well as the season as a whole, we reached out to Bennett Martino, the captain of the League of Legends A team to get his perspective.
 
Q: Why are you so passionate about competing in esports?
 
A: I've been playing League of Legends for nearly half my life at this point as I'm going on 24 and I've been playing League since season 2 which was in 2012.  Because I enjoy the game so much when I came to college I originally wanted to be on the team at my old school but I ended up dropping out before I was able to join, so I made sure I would get onto the team when I came to Canton.
 
Q: Is there a coach or athlete that you look up to as a role model and why?
 
A: I wouldn't really classify him as a role model but the coach of the League teams, Mark Avery, has been extremely helpful the entire time since I joined the team, as well as before I was on the team as I believe he has been on the program for about four years while I'm going on my third year (and last as I'm graduating this semester).  He has assisted both A and B teams with multiple years worth of practice and tournaments while essentially doing it just because he enjoyed the game nearly a decade ago.
 
Q: How did it feel to have to play against another team from your own school?
 
A: I personally was mildly worried about the series because obviously I don't want to lose to our B team because I haven't been able to win a tournament yet and since this is my final semester, I'd like to get at least one win under my belt before I graduate.  Skill wise I knew we were better than B team as in practice whenever we play vs them we have had a 100% win rate this semester when no outside influence happens (like switching A and B team players to balance the teams) but I was mainly worried about the team not being able to take the series seriously because "oh it's just playing vs B team it should be easy."  Luckily, we ended up winning fairly decisively which was what was expected before the series.
 
Q: What do you feel were the leading causes of your team's success so far this semester?
 
A:  So early in the semester we were running into trouble because the meta of League basically lead to the role I played previously, top lane, being fairly useless impact-wise on the game for the first like 20 minutes of the game, so the team felt we needed to make a change as having the best player and captain of the team locked into a role where they couldn't do anything to assist the team was starting to make games harder for us to play so we tried switching me to mid lane, our mid laner Denny to jungle, and our jungler Garrett to top lane so I could be in a role with greater impact on the game. Since doing this we have been able to win every series we've played as I basically exert pressure map-wide from the center of the map instead of attempting to exert pressure from just the top side of the map while everything that matters to the game is on the bottom side of the map.
 
Q: Do you have any socials you would like to plug?
 
A:  https://www.twitch.tv/cheeseflavor - I stream all our games which are at 8 PM on Fridays (although we only have two games left and this week the semifinal match on 4/21 I won't be streaming it because I will be in Buffalo playing on a teammate's laptop in a hotel). Other than that I don't have any socials to plug.
 
 


About SUNY Canton
As Northern New York's premier college for career-driven bachelor's degrees, associate degrees and professional certificate programs, SUNY Canton delivers quality hands-on programs in digital design, engineering technology, health, management and public service. Faculty members are noted for their professional real-world experience in addition to outstanding academic credentials. As SUNY's leader in online education, SUNY Canton OnLine offers hundreds of flexible and convenient courses as well as 23 online degree programs. The college placed first in 14 categories in a SUNY-Wide Student Opinion Survey, most notably in career services, tutoring, library resources, and classroom facilities. The SUNY Canton Kangaroos 15 traditional athletic teams compete at the NCAA Division III level as part of the North Atlantic Conference. SUNY Canton also features varsity esports and cheerleading.