Syracuse’s Orange Jam brings new esports center to life

Syracuse, N.Y. – On a weekend when the sports world was keyed in on events happening at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, a title was handed out in Central New York at the same time.

Super Bowl weekend was a busy time for the Syracuse Counter-Strike 2 team, as it hosted the first-ever “Orange Jam” tournament. The two-day, eight-team event took place inside of the new Schine Gaming and Esports Center. 

The center opened to Syracuse students on Jan. 17, and “Orange Jam” was the first tournament hosted in the space with full usage of the center’s technical features. The main stage features 10 individual cameras to focus on each of the players, as well as 3 sections of the screen showing the match on the stage itself. 

The tournament saw teams from across the northeast make their way inside the 5,800-square-foot arena, which can host 3 matches simultaneously. The center hosts 30 high-end PCs, set up on the main stage and in 2 auxiliary pit areas. The space also features a production room and shoutcasting area, which connect to the live streaming platform Twitch.

Anthony Solt, who goes by his online username of sensh1, was in charge of planning the event, inviting the teams, and organizing an operations staff to ensure the event went on without a snag. 

“I’ve wanted to put on a tournament since I arrived on campus my freshman year. Now, with the new space, I knew I had to do something” Solt said, who also serves as the captain of the Syracuse team. 

“It didn’t hit me until September or October that this was a possibility,” he continued. “As soon as I realized I had a real chance of making this happen, I sat down and put my nose to the grindstone. It’s a cool event because collegiate Counter-Strike doesn’t do things like this.”

Photo by Arnav Pokhrel

Anthony “sensh1” Solt takes his headphones off after a round loss against Northeastern. The Syracuse team captain was in charge of the entire event plan.

The eight teams in the event were split into two groups, with the first day of the event being a seeding round. Each team was guaranteed three games on Day 1, with pre-tournament favorites RIT sweeping Group A and an upstart Northeastern dominating Group B.

The second day of action saw teams enter the knockout phase of the competition, with all 8 teams guaranteed one game in the quarterfinals. Carnegie Mellon, Northeastern, Syracuse, and RIT were victorious in the early slate of games.

Despite being the top two seeds in the tournament, both the Orange and Tigers fell in the semifinals. 

Throughout the two days, the event faced its fair share of setbacks. Before play started on Saturday, six gaming setups went dark–all of them connected to a loose power strip. Then, early on Day 2, a power outage at Barnes caused a minor delay as teams moved back and forth between Schine and the wellness center.

For Solt, the event was never going to go perfectly–he just needed to have the right solutions in place for when things went awry.

“Tech issues are always going to be a problem at any level of online events. Having the right people to support and work through those problems was crucial for me,” he said.

For many esports teams, in-person tournaments are not common. With the opportunity to save on costs and play online, Local Area Network (LAN) competitions with teams in the same facility are rare to see. 

LAN tournaments provide a heightened competitive environment with live crowds but also improve gameplay with the access of zero-latency gameplay. Teams connect via the same online network, with no broad server connections needed.

Photo by Arnav Pokhrel

Matthew “tiski” Matusovskiy smiles at his screen as he plays in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Rutgers fell to the eventual champions, Carnegie Mellon.

Matthew Matusovskiy, says that the LAN environment allows for free-flowing play and direct communication.

“Your teammates are directly next to you, which means that your team is a lot more reactive. Your team trusts you more, and there were moments today where my team would look at me and ask that I tell them what to do,” the Rutgers team captain said.

Matusovskiy participates in around 6 LAN tournaments a year as a member of multiple esports organizations outside of Rutgers. That number drops significantly for the rest of his team, who only participate through the university.

“Across the rest of the team combined, we may see two LAN tournaments at all. It’s such a niche scene that you won’t see college players compete in these types of tournaments,” Matusovskiy said.

Matusovskiy considers himself an entertainer–he is a 5-time national ballroom dance finalist–and says that these LAN tournaments provide him with some of the most memorable moments he has had while playing collegiate esports.

After every Rutgers round victory, Matusovskiy was the first to celebrate and direct words at the opponent.

“I don’t go into it trying to make everyone laugh,” he said. “But if there’s a moment where I say something funny and someone in the audience laughs, it eases my mind. When I’m away from the computer, it’s nothing but respect, but sometimes the matches do get intense–it’s a part of the game.” 

Local tournaments also provide an opportunity for schools to cheer each other on. During a quarterfinal match that went to overtime between Rutgers and Carnegie Mellon, members from the RIT and Rhode Island teams cheered on both teams as the match moved closer to completion. 

Broadcaster Hayden Kim, who called games across both days, says that the ability to see the emotions of players and fans live in person makes the experience of calling a game much more enjoyable. 

“It’s so awesome to hear the crowd react to something happening on the screen. I can look up, see how the crowd reacts, and explain that to an audience that is watching from home,” Kim said.

Photo by Arnav Pokhrel

A member of the Northeastern Counter-Strike team celebrates after winning a round. Northeastern finished in 2nd place at the 2025 Orange Jam tournament.

Kim, who started broadcasting for the esports teams in his dorm with a laptop, says that the new space gave him a great perspective on matches at the tournament. 

“When I can see players celebrating and interacting with the crowd, it helps feed into my energy and my broadcasting. My whole goal is to amp up the game and give it life, and looking out of the glass doors and into the crowd helps me achieve that,” he said.

In the end, it was Carnegie Mellon who came away with the tournament title, defeating Northeastern in the final, 2-0. The title capped off an unprecedented run for the Tartans, highlighted by 3 consecutive upsets in the knockout rounds. 

More importantly, the “Orange Jam” tournament solidified Syracuse University’s successful commitment to the esports world. From adding scholarships to the esports program to planning a new 150-seat esports arena in the Marley Education Center, the Orange are investing in the virtual gaming future.