With a clean sweep across the board, Winthrop Esports secures four championship titles and an overall performance trophy.
Bailey Wimberly
Editor-in-Chief
Photo by Jackson Stanton
Winthrop Esports after winning five Big South Esports trophies with four MVPs (most valuable player)
From March 29-30, 2026, Winthrop Esports participated in the 2026 Big South Esports Conference tournament at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, taking home five championships.
Founded in 2019, Winthrop Esports is Winthrop University’s competitive video game team. This athletic program houses over 100 students and offers community gaming tournaments every week. After seven years as a program, Winthrop Esports has elevated a multitude of students and represented the academic institution on the biggest stages.
Gabrielle Jensen is the Academy General Manager and graduate student who led operations for the event. She believes that Winthrop Esports is unique to every other esports program in the country.
“We have the most competitive academy program in all of North American collegiate esports. Our academy program is fully supported by university and student staff. Our varsity teams are nationally competing, all in the top three of all collegiate teams in North America,” she said. “But, most of all, we foster a diverse, family-style community where all people are welcome and celebrated.”
Across these teams, Winthrop Esports was able to send four academy rosters to the event, giving many of these members their first in person event experience.
Over the course of the spring semester, each team competed in the Big South Esports qualifier versus different colleges such as Radford University, University of North Carolina Asheville, High Point University, Charleston Southern University and USC Upstate.
In order to qualify for the tournament, the teams each played a match a week. With only the top four teams qualifying, Winthrop came into the playoffs as the #1 seed in every game.
While preparing to compete at the championship, these students were able to juggle practice, team meetings, and competition before matches. Brayden Rovito, a junior and member of both Winthrop Academy League of Legends teams, talked about his experience at his previous school versus Winthrop.
“I definitely think it is held to a way higher standard than other schools compared to my last school. Here at Winthrop, we are treated extremely well. We are an actual athletic program, which is really nice.”
At the Big South Championship, the program represented four different video game titles that included League of Legends, Rocket League, Overwatch 2, and VALORANT.
Jack Melton, a freshman Rocket League player, shared how his experience has been unique since joining the Winthrop team.
“Every academy team is well supported,” Melton said. “All the varsity teams are just filled with great players, and the overall esports organization is just an awesome thing to be a part of.”
When talking about the tournament, Melton reflected on the times with his teammates, Barry Wesoly and Ezequiel Iglesia, as both will be stepping away from Winthrop University next semester.
“I’m never gonna forget playing with them,” Melton said. “We have a very interesting team chemistry. We like to bash on each other as our way of loving each other. So I think I’m gonna miss this team a whole lot.”
In addition to each academy team, Winthrop Esports provides coaching for their players, using professional esports players in the industry who compete with the program.
Jordan Felker, a junior member of the Overwatch Garnet team who contributes as a flex DPS, shared how these coaches support their players.
“I feel like the big names involved at Winthrop motivate everybody that isn’t particularly on varsity to strive for more as well as they provide a lot of insight to players who are learning from their coaches,” Felker said.
For these players, this tournament was not only an opportunity to compete for a championship, but rekindle with online friends and get to know other players within the program.
Cason Harris, a junior and VALORANT Garnet player, shared his favorite memories from the tournament.
“A memory that I will carry is being the MVP and getting to see some of my online friends again at the LAN [in person event].”
Overall, the Winthrop Eagles soared above the competition at the 2026 Big South Esports Championship, bringing home five trophies for the university.
Each team is listed with every player who competed:
League of Legends:
Damien “Bluetrainbandit” Pannebaker
Jonah “Behemoth” Vedral
Elijah “Red” Dewalt
Marc “Beep” Jackson Jr.
Brayden “Prod” Rovito (Season MVP)
Coach: Kodie “mesmerism” Hathaway
VALORANT:
Dimitris “H0llywood” Brikas
Ethan “Echo” Cho
Cason “Case” Harris (Season MVP)
Rayanne “Grec” Tellas
Jayce “Jayce” Jurgilanis.
Coach: Justin “Jerk” Milani
Rocket League:
Barry “nekarri” Wesoly
Jack “phantom” Melton (Season MVP)
Ezequiel “MonsterKing” Iglesia
Overwatch:
Jordan “KMJ” Felker (Season MVP)
Nathan “Orion” Jagh
Ali “Ali” Salahedin
Hyuna “PsychoStreet” Lee
Jared “Pr0ven” Toland
Coach: William “Lyar” Ohlstein
Gabrielle Jensen offered advice to anyone interested in joining Winthrop Esports.
“Be yourself, work hard in games and in school, and market yourself on social media. Be brave and message leadership at Winthrop with your competitive history and your career and academic goals. Putting yourself out there is the first step. Take every opportunity you can to be involved with the program and in all competitions. You will receive what you put in.”
Students interested in joining or learning more about Winthrop Esports can do so by reaching out to someone within the program or requesting a tour of the school’s facility.
