By Benjamin Nguyen
On January 15th, three members of the Fortnite team—Eric Feng, Utkarsh Ambati, and Sahil Saleem—competed at the final arena of their season. Fortnite, a popular battle royale with a seemingly infinite amount of ways to outgun and outbuild your opponents, had attracted a similar volume of competition to compete in the PlayVS league. The GV Jags, beating them all, now approached the national stage to face the best of the best.
Facing 31 other finalist teams over several hours in a grueling competition for the national crown, each of them had put enormous amounts of effort to advance in the league and reach that point. With the maximum team size restricted to three players (a “trio”), each member of the team had to pull their own weight in order for the trio to have success. Eric, Utkarsh, and Sahil all exceeded those expectations, advancing through the regular season and playoffs to reach the championships with relative ease. Even when dealing with issues that would normally cripple a team (such as a member of the team disconnecting from Fortnite during a round), the group would grit their teeth and use tenacity to still ensure a reasonably high placement.
At the end of the competition, GVHS walked away with 4th place in their rookie season as a team at PlayVS. Although prizing has not been determined yet, the Fortnite team (and the rest of the eSports Club behind them) takes pride in their effort and ability displayed during the competition.
I had the opportunity to talk with team member Utkarsh Ambati about the season:
ME: “How did you feel about your performance? Do you plan to grow and develop as a team in the future?”
UTKARSH: “We developed as a team and have definitely improved a lot (built chemistry and felt more comfortable with playing with each other). Although there were things we weren’t perfect at, we capitalized on our strengths and managed to do pretty well. We don’t have plans to grow as a team in the future just yet.”
Their season may be over, but their story is not yet finished. Catch the GVHS eSports team at https://www.twitch.tv/esportsgvhs and player Eric Feng at https://www.twitch.tv/secretlygod!