Beckley, W.Va. - The WVU Tech Fortnite team began the no-builds duos portion of the National Association of Collegiate Esports' (NACE) fall season Saturday afternoon. Freshmen players Dr. Unrushed (Ryan Hayden, Fr.) and TheWacki1 (Keith Karwacki, Fr.) made their first career WVU Tech Esports starts as they took on 49 other schools in groups C and D (East) during week one of three in open round play. 

Fortnite is a battle royale style combat game with up to 100 other players where the goal is to be the last person standing. In NACE's duos format, teams of two work together to survive as long as possible while trying to eliminate the other players. Weekly open events consist of four rounds of play with points awarded based on each finish, plus an extra point for each elimination, or kill. Teams earn cumulative points each week to try and gain a spot in the championship round after three weeks, but can auto-qualify for it with a top four finish in any open round. 

As Dr. Unrushed and TheWacki1 got started in round one, the butterflies quickly went away and the two settled in, landing with space and time to gather needed weapons and gear. As they began to move between locations, they quickly encountered a rival duo and were engaged. The WVU Tech duo dispatched the attackers, each getting an elimination, but another rival pair was nearby and used the distraction of that first engagement to ambush them, and they were knocked out with a 27th place finish. 

In round two, the Golden Bears tried a more patient strategy, laying low and moving carefully through cover to position themselves for where storm would shrink to late in the round. It worked, and Dr. Unrushed and TheWacki1 would finish 11th with two eliminations. 

Round three was a case of hard luck, as the WVU Tech freshmen would land directly with another pair, who were able to eliminate them before they could gather weapons, leading to a 34th place finish. 

They went on to close out their first competition with a 22nd place finish.  

After the official results were tallied, The Golden Bears currently sit 13th out of 24 schools in Group C, tied for 24th out of 49 overall in groups C and D.  

The WVU Tech Fortnite team returns to action Saturday in the Golden Bears esports lab for open week two at 3:00 p.m. The action will be streamed live on Twitch (WVUTechGoldenBears).