At two in the morning, room 102 in Algonquin’s T – building is packed with dozens of eager gamers, Ethernet cables and PCs. Their screens show gun battles, aliens and the odd Italian plumber.
Suddenly a cheer goes up from the crowd followed by a thunderous round of applause.
Team 5ten has just won first place for the game League of Legends, along with the grand prize of $1,000.
The event is called Battle Royale 8, a multi-game tournament and the largest LAN event in Ottawa with close to 200 gamers across all platforms. It is a non-profit event organized by engineering students from Carlton, University of Ottawa and Algonquin with the proceeds being donated to the charity Child’s Play.
This event alone brought in $1,600 for the cause.
This is the second year Algonquin has hosted Battle Royale.
There were a plethora of PC and console games to choose from, ranging from League of Legends, the most played game in the world, to less popular titles like Hearthstone or Street Fighter.
Team 5ten steamrolled through their League of Legends bracket, taking first place without dropping a game. The Ottawa based team has been together for about four years and were hoping to repeat their first place win at Battle Royale 7 a year ago.
They attribute their wins to the hours invested playing together, allowing all members to work as a cohesive unit.
League of Legends is a five on five melee where teamwork and communication are extremely important to overcome opponents.
“It’s just sitting and talking with your boys,” says 5ten player Serey Som, trying to explain his love of League. “If you’ve played it, you know.”
“Yeah, we’re all really tight,” adds teammate Winglei Huynh.
Other gamers took a more casual approach to the evening.
Chris Mackenzie, a computer systems technology student at Algonquin, organized a 24 hour live stream with the help of Josh Balanuik, Jean-Luc Martin and Kevin Armstrong.
At close to two in the morning they had 14 people watching them rip through vintage Mario and Zelda games, and had peaked earlier at close to 30. Their stream brought in over $500 for Childs Play.
Balanuik explained that the charity works in children’s hospitals, purchasing games and consoles to provide kids with a distraction from the pain and monotony of a serious illness.