Esports | 5/15/2019 3:19:00 PM

Columbia, Mo. - The Columbia College Cougars will make their second appearance at the College League of Legends National Championship in Los Angeles on May 23-26. The Cougars qualified after defeating University of Texas 2-0 in play-ins and received the seventh seed in the championship bracket. The 4-day tournament will showcase the best collegiate teams from North America in an 8-team single-elimination bracket.

The Cougars will face UC Irvine in the opening round on May 24 at 6 p.m. PST. The match will be familiar to most esports fans because the two teams met in the last year's finals where the Cougars fell just short of the national title.

This year, the Cougars roster features some fresh talent with the addition of David "rovex" Sin-Keo, Joshua "Nintendudex" Atkins, and RJ "Arjay" Bohnak to its lineup. Zachary "BukZacH" Lapham will move to the support position alongside AD carry Evan "EvanRL" Lawson. Team Captain Ian "MistyStumpey" Alexander will return to his position in the top lane. The Cougars also have a new Head Coach, Doruk Hacioglu, at the helm. Hacioglu has an esports boot camp planned for the team leading up to the event, "The CC lineup is going to be spending a week to prepare in LA for the National Championship later this month. We will be putting in every ounce of effort to ensure we play our best and make our supporters proud."

The 2019 College LoL season introduced three new partner conferences: Big East, East Coast and Mountain West. Those three, along with the existing Big Ten Network, Peach Belt and four regional conferences, combined for a total of 336 teams competing in this year's tournament.

The college championship will be produced and broadcast by Riot Games at the North American League Championship Series (NALCS) studios. All matches will be streamed live on Twitch.tv.

For the insider scoop on Cougar eSports, follow the teams on twitter @Cougar_eSports.