Over the weekend, the University of Waterloo, alongside Conestoga College, hosted their third annual WaterLAN. The mega Esports event featured 10 university and collegiate League of Legends teams, and 14 university and collegiate Valorant teams from 12 institutions. The intercollegiate LAN saw over 200 participants in addition to team coaches, managers, volunteers and production staff.
Warriors Athletics and Recreation's Esports and Gaming Coordinator, Greg Mittler, attributes much of the success to Waterloo's student volunteer base, who play a central role in tournament operations, broadcasting, and onsite logistics.
"The support we had from our student leadership was amazing. We were able to hand a lot of things off to them, and they successfully put together arguably one of the largest collegiate esports tournaments in Canada."
The success for Waterloo didn't just stop at the operations, as the competitive teams delivered fantastic performances across multiple divisions. The Warriors Valorant Open team won the Gold Division title after finishing as runners up the previous year, while the Game Changers squad earned a strong second-place finish in the White Division. League of Legends Gold also impressed, going out in the semi-finals and rounding out a highly successful showing for Warriors Esports.
The Game Changers initiative by Riot Games is a way to promote competitive play and participation among women and marginalized genders in the Valorant scene. With WaterLAN, Mittler saw an opportunity to continue Riot's initiative.
"Valorant has one of the strongest splits of players from marginalized genders, and we saw an opportunity to help make a change. To help build identity and community where it's been missing."
The in-person event provides players, staff, coaches and volunteers with opportunity. In Mittler's eyes, competition is secondary. People are connecting, sharing resources, and building community at WaterLAN. Programs compare models, talk about how they operate, and build networks that last beyond the weekend. This event provides teams, participants, and volunteers with the opportunity to learn from each other, gain valuable experiences for the future and build up their resumes.
"Because of the development of our students and volunteers, groups like the Call of Duty League want to run events here [such as the 2025 Call of Duty League Championship]. We have the right demographic to support them and the talent to run the events."
The future for Esports in Waterloo is looking bright, and for WaterLAN even brighter. As we look forward to next year's event, you can catch up and watch the League of Legends VODs of the Warriors games on Twitch, or the Valorant broadcast live on YouTube.
