De Montfort University won both of the UK’s finals this past weekend, with their least convincing performance taking place at Confetti X in Nottingham, where they played in front of the first live audience NUEL finals after the pandemic.
The win qualifies De Montfort for the Amazon University Esports Masters in 2023, a potential route to professional play.
Substitute Mid-Laner Jake, struggled after picking Zilean in game three and had to change things to bounce back: “We were a bit upset with how the game went,
“I think my choice in Zilean wasn’t the best, but the Viktor pick was definitely a comfort pick I would have taken, but I think the opposite team would have known that and that’s why it was banned in the first game.”
De Montfort decided to abandon their original game plan after game three, switching from putting Jake on supportive-type mid-lane champions to putting him on something he could do a bit more heavy lifting on:
“We kind of decided I need to take it into my own hands and just play a comfort pick I think I can carry on, and be an extra source of damage.”
Jake described the squad’s atmosphere as Casper, DMU’s top-laner had the worst game imaginable in game four: “Luckily, I’m the only English player on the team, we have four other Polish players so a lot of it’s in Polish,
“I just have to say “relax guys we’re taking it too far” but I think we mentally reset in each situation.”
When asked about the technical pause that happened in game four, Jake said the team handled it well: “We just reset our mental, had a couple of seconds breather,
“It could have helped them it could have helped us, but I think we had a good performance in that game anyways.”
After a long commute home, the squad went on to beat Kent for their second time that weekend in the NSE finals on Sunday.
