On the weekend of 4-5th of November, Squid LITE took part in Kendra Fallon Memorial tournament. The tourney was meant to be the first tournament of newly joined squids, making it a learning experience rather than a competition. Experienced players were there to guide and help the newcomers rather than try hard to win the game (although we all wanted to win some games, who doesn’t). To make the most out of it, we split into two equal teams to give the most playtime to everyone interested, Team Uranus and Team Vikings.

Aligned with everyone’s expectations, day 1 was very rough, as we played teams that came here in their best roster targeting to win the whole tournament. Both teams got beaten hard in all three games. The important part was that all rookies played the full day, experiencing a real tournament and how real strong teams play. That being said, after this day everyone knew who we wanted to become and what teams we wanted to beat by the end of the season. Another important aspect was that you learn the best when you play in real games, so we couldn’t name a single person that hasn’t made significant progress in their game skills during that game. So despite three losses, we all called that day a successful one.

Day 2 was similar, although it was time for (losers) bracket. Due to some shenanigans we split into three teams for that day, which meant more play time for every single one of us. Good news, as more playtime, experience gained for yesterday and weaker teams meant that our appetites were high. Although all three teams lost their first game, no team suffered a heavy loss, as all games were close (in opposite to what happened on Saturday). We knew that we could win at least one game, and thanks to our hard work and combining all the skills learned both at practice and during the previous day, each team (except Team V) managed to win one of the two remaining games. There is no better confidence booster than a win (even if it’s against the bottom teams), so everyone ended the tournament in a positive mood. Now it’s time to take the experience to practice even harder, so that in the next tournament we will come out stronger, more confident and claim way more wins!