ORLANDO (WPEC) – Dallas, Texas based esports organization Azuric Esports swept away their competition on both days of an Orlando esports tournament Wednesday and Thursday, bringing home gold in 3 divisions (Fortnite, Valorant, and Rocket League) and silver in the League of Legends game division. This is the first time that they have participated in the tournament.
With the unprecedented victory, the team has garnered attention in the gaming community, and the team has officially announced they are recruiting via a tweet:
https://twitter.com/AzuricGG/status/1477033391384113154?s=20
The owner of the team, who goes by the name “Serpent” online, says the team is approaching its first anniversary on January 12. “We officially launched on January 12 in 2020, and we have been working hard throughout quarantine to build a strong esports competitive roster, and here we are absolutely destroying everyone else. This is our fourth tournament, and we have nearly swept 3 out of those 4.”
However, in-person esports tournaments have major health concerns, especially with the new Omicron variant causing record high COVID-19 cases throughout the country. When asked why they chose to participate anyways, Azuric representatives provided us with this statement:
“We felt like the industry is pushing for in-person events, it has been a long time since quarantine started and everyone is getting tired of it, and the only way to ensure complete competitive integrity is to have in-person events where officials can check for hardware and software cheats. If we had not participated, we are forfeiting our chances of earning money and recognition, as well as potentially losing some of our competitive roster. We make sure to take precautions, all vaccinated and mask up in crowds, and we sanitize regularly.
Florida, being one of the least restrictive states on COVID measures, has higher transmission and infection rates than other states, but lenient laws make it so that many esports competitions are still happening in-person in the state.
