After another successful weekend, the undefeated Aggie League of Legends collegiate team is in prime position to slingshot their way into the semifinals.
League of Legends is an online competitive game in which two teams of five members each attempt to destroy the opponent’s base by destroying towers, collecting objectives and killing enemy champions. Team Maroon, after their 2-0 victory against Virginia Commonwealth University this weekend, will now be squaring off against the University of Virginia in the Southern quarterfinals of the University League of Legends Campus Series.  The game is immensely popular having been reported by Riot Games last fall as having over 100 million players each month.  The game has an international competitive scene as well as a university series in which Team Maroon has historically fared well.
Jonathan Hsia (Marter), team coordinator and manager and Class of 2017, said if the team defeats UVA they will be squaring off against George Mason University or the University of Texas. Anthony Cui (BeHere), land architecture freshman, said the team expects to be facing George Mason University, but will be ready if facing the Longhorns.
“When looking at U.T. they have a really solid team, but I think we can always beat them because we play a lot better,” Cui said. “The last time we faced them we beat them 2-0 in ULol, we beat them 3-0 in finals. We just have a history of beating U.T.”
Trent Jones (Picarus), Class of 2015 and Team Maroon coach, said the team feels confident in their ability to win the South.
“I think the main goal, the team has said this, is we really want to win the South,” Jones said. “It’s something that A&M has always fought over and we’ve always been the best team or one of the best teams in the South. And we definitely have a really good chance of doing it this year too.”
Hsia said in addition to the fame and glory associated with winning the south, and the ability to proceed onward to compete against the top competitors from the other three North American regions, there are financial incentives for the team to win the region. Hsia said in each region for the first place team every team member receives $8,000, the second place team $4,000 and the third and fourth place teams $2,000.
Jones said while the team are all excellent mechanical players, Team Maroon is known for its focus on teamwork.
“In general at the level we are playing at it is almost all team play,” Jones said. “I mean mechanics do matter, for example we’re confident over VCU, because we’re mechanically better based on rank, but A&M has kind of prided itself on its team play.”
Joseph Bowers (ChuckNormis), psychology Junior, said the entire team contributes to shot calling in game.  
“You feed information and someone makes a decision and since you’re all on the same page we go for that,” Bowers said. “Or someone says we really shouldn’t do this and you pivot to another play, that’s kind of how the flow works.”  
Hsia said the online aspect to the game can make finding compatible players for the team challenging, but Team Maroon has somehow always come together.
“Honestly I feel like it’s just luck how we find people,” Hsia said. “I mean we found Joey through solo-que, we found Zach just because he played with us on a division two team and we found Anthony randomly.”
Bowers said having been on the team for two years he hopes to go far in his final year.
“Since it’s going to be my last year, I want us to do well and do better than ever before,” Bowers said. “Because every year, no matter what players we have we’re always a good team. I bleed maroon — please send me to the hospital.”