Essendon’s esports team scored an historic victory on Sunday, the club’s first in its exciting journey into the gaming world.
The Bombers beat Tectonic two-nil in the Oceanic Pro League and team manager Nathan Mathews-Mallia said it was great for the side to relieve some pressure after a winless start to the season.
“I think it’s going to be a massive confidence boost for the guys, because if you’re not winning it definitely hurts the mentality,” Mathews Mallia said.
“It’s just great to get the monkey off our back and I’m sure we can get some more results on the board.”
After recruiting two overseas players to join the side, Mathews-Mallia said the duo had been placed under unfairly high expectations.
“The two guys that came over were scrutinised for everything they did,” he said.
“There is an expectation of them to dominate the scene, which they are very capable of doing, but performing on a stage brings a lot of nerves.”
The manager said he expected the Bombers to earn the deserved victory on Sunday, but admitted that the win was “more of a relief than an excitement”.
“It would have been a big disappointment if we didn’t take away the win,” Mathews-Mallia said.
“A number of times we’ve had a better team on paper, but we weren’t able to translate that on the main stage.”
After enduring some tough luck to start the season, Mathews-Mallia said there is “no doubt” that the team can win again.
“We had a bad run from the start with two suspended players, and then we had to play the top two teams three weeks in a row,” he said.
“Throughout the last six weeks we have seen improvement week to week, so we will look to finish off the season as well as we can.”
Mathews-Mallia said the side had been relishing the opportunity to be a part of the Essendon family.
“There’s a lot more media scrutiny, but the guys are absolutely loving it,” he said.
“Having access to the training facilities has been a massive advantage for us.
“One of our players is a born and bred Essendon fan, so it’s just been a dream come true for him.”
