UTK Esports ‘Volan’ Tournament Returns After Two Year Break
University of Tennessee held their weekend long collegiate esports tournament “Volan 22” this past weekend. After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, UTK Esports came back in full force this year to provide competitive brackets and friendly matches for a wide range of games. Including popular competitive games such as Valorant, Overwatch, and many others.
The name “Volan” comes from the combination of “Vol”, the name of UTK’s students and athletic teams, and “LAN”. UTK’s aim for the event is to bring together anyone and everyone who loves competitive gaming or bring in new people who like gaming and are interested in the competitive scene.
“All skill levels are welcome, and even the most casual players can definitely have a good time,” said UTK Esports Vice President of Competition Blake Childress. “For example, when I attended Volan in 2019, I competed in Smash Bros. Ultimate and had a fantastic time, and I didn’t win a single game!”
This year’s event brought in over 300 attendees competing across the 16 different events offered, some of which were locked to collegiate teams only.
The game with the most entrants by far was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with 90 entrants just in the Singles bracket. Culminating in a Grand Finals reset between players Dany and YDelirious. This was brought on by YDelirious coming back through the Losers bracket after losing to Dany in Winners Semis, only to face off against him once again. In the end, Dany managed to sweep YDelirious in the reset 3-0 to become the Volan 22 Smash Ultimate champion.
Another high stakes bracket occurred between the Valorant collegiate teams. UTK’s own Orange team lost against the University of Alabama Crimson in Winners Finals. Only to come back and win in Losers Finals against Tennessee Tech University, bringing them to a Grand Finals rematch against Alabama. Despite UTK’s comeback, the UA Crimson held their own in Grand Finals with a 2-0 and were crowned the Volan 22 Valorant Champions.
The results for all the games at Volan 22 can be found here.
In other news, Gen.G recently partnered with developer Nimble Neuron to collaborate on competitive events and programs for the developer’s game Eternal Return, which you can read about here.
Written by Carter Barnes