WCC Esports Vie for Wins at National Championships

Washtenaw Community College (WCC) in Ann Arbor hopes to score a pair of Esports national championships.

During its first year of eligibility, the WCC Esports program had two team qualifiers: Counter Strike 2 and Overwatch 2. Both teams were eligible to compete at the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) postseason competition, and both advanced to the finals for the 16-team, single-elimination tournaments.

The WCC Overwatch 2 team will play Coe College at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 9, for a Division 5 championship.

On Wednesday, May 7, the WCC Counter Strike 2 team competed against Southern Illinois University for the Division 3 tournament national title. WCC overtook Southern Illinois by 13 to 6.

Members of the public can watch Friday's compeition and view the replay from Wednesday's matchup on the video-streaming site Twitch at twitch.tv/washtenaw_esports.

“The program has built up so fast, and we have so much energy around the program right now,” said WCC Esports Coordinator Max Kuznia in a statement shared with The Sun Times News. “Students are really having a great time and enjoying the team aspect. And the school is super supportive of what we've been able to accomplish.”

According to a WCC news release, the college's new, state-of-the-art Esports Arena opened in March 2023, and the Esports program has grown to eight club teams. The co-ed teams host tryouts before each semester. 

The NECC assigns each team to a division based on players' ratings and preseason placement tournaments. The top 16 team qualifiers in each division advance to the postseason tournament.

In addition to the national finalists on the Counter Strike 2 and Overwatch 2 teams, WCC students also competed during the 2024-2025 academic year in League of Legends, Rocket League, Super Smash Brothers, and Valorant.