LSUS Valorant team wins national championship amid Esports revival

LSUS Valorant team wins national championship amid Esports revival

SHREVEPORT - Unfinished business.

When Zachary "Zeukos" Posey returned to LSU in Shreveport after what he called "a gap" year or two exploring the semiprofessional ranks of the tactical first-person shooter game Valorant, he wanted to help bring a national title back to the place where it all started.

The LSUS Valorant team won its grand finals match with a decisive victory against Albright College to secure the program's first Esports national title in any game just three years after the Pilots reached the 2022 grand finals and lost in the game's inaugural college season.

Posey rejoined former teammates from that 2022 squad in Eliana "TheLilGoddess" Gafford and Kenyatrick "KenMenBen" McClain along with newer team members Darius "yeeclaw11" Chargois and Dhyanam "Aizen Sosuke" Jariwala. Students' "gamer tags" are in parentheses.

"It's kind of poetic really," Posey said. "Half of this team was part of that second-place run in 2022, and it felt redeeming to win the trophy with them."

The Pilots finished the season with an 8-0 overall record and a 16-1 map record, earning the program's first-ever No. 1 seed before dispensing Radford in the semifinals and Albright in the grand finals.

LSUS competes in the National Association of Collegiate Esports, consisting of more than 200 schools that sponsor a varsity Esports program across the U.S. and Canada.

While all five LSUS players are easily within the top half of Valorant players, Posey has set himself apart in an elite way.

At his highest ranking (Immortal 3), Posey ranked in the top 0.2% of Valorant players in North America, which prompted Posey to explore professional options and play on scholarship at a university in Michigan.

But the Bossier City native said he discovered he wasn't quite good enough to turn professional, and he missed his Louisiana friends and family, bringing about his return to LSUS.

"I played in two big in-person events in Las Vegas and Chicago as part of an organization, but most of the competition is online, which is how we compete at LSUS. "It's hard to maintain social relationships when you're chasing something like that, and it's hard to explain to people why I'm playing a video game this much because to most it's just a game.

"You have a one percent chance to make it - no different than wanting to play in the NBA or the kid growing up wanting to be Tom Brady or LeBron James."

Posey said to compete at the most elite level of the game, players dedicate eight or more hours of game play daily which includes film study and targeted skill building.

During his time away from college, Posey even coached the LSUS Valorant team for a bit.

But he said he missed "Louisiana culture, family and friends," ultimately coming back to LSUS where he's a sophomore studying psychology.

He got his gaming start on the Xbox version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Siege, eventually shifting to the PC.

Posey picked up Valorant "on the second day of beta testing" and has been a staunch Valorant player since its 2020 release.

He assisted other players on that 2022 LSUS team to learn the game, laying the foundation for the 2025 championship. Valorant features 5-on-5 action in which teams take turns attacking and defending positions and planting/defusing "the spike."

Valorant wasn't the only LSUS Esports team to gain notoriety this year.

The Pilots' Rocket League squad reached the grand finals as well, ultimately falling to Texas A&M International in a best-of-five series in which three of those games went to overtime. The LSUS Rocket League team finished 7-3.

As Esports continue to grow in popularity, Posey said LSUS's established program is a recruiting tool that attracts prospective students.

"Esports is a slept on and underappreciated thing to have because just about every kid coming to college - man or woman - more than likely plays video games," Posey said. "So to have competitive teams and an awesome Esports lab that's open to all students, it really can be a difference in pulling in students and getting them engaged in something they're passionate about.

"It's hard to describe how much of a good thing it is to have a local college that has something everyone can enjoy and have interest in."

Want to see a livestream of LSUS's grand final win? Listen to former LSUS Esports players Elliot Hemstreet and Sarah Johnson stream the match and offer commentary.