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Mount Sinai’s Spinal Cord Injury Program Member Spotlight Interview Series features past and present Mount Sinai’s rehabilitation patients and members inspirational stories and life post SCI.

The Quadgods

The Quadgods, made up of seven gamers who have quadriplegia, will compete this weekend at the Final Adaptive E-sports Tournament competition! The grand prize total for the winners is $20,000. The final tournament will begin on October 2, at 4 PM EST. We were fortunate to connect with them this week to discuss the tournament and their experience so far.

Kindly introduce the Quadgods with a brief history of your team.

The Quad Gods are a team compiled of all quadriplegic gamers, we have six male teammates and one woman. We are not just teammates were more like brothers and sisters as we have all known each other for many years now. The team came about after our fallen brother Chris and David had a conversation in regards to what he like to do. After having a heartfelt conversation “The Quad Father” David Putrino helped bring about the dream of our brother. However due to the passing of Chris he never got to see us become who we are today.

Our main goal is to make him proud and to help bring about awareness to those around us that just because you’re a person with a disability doesn’t mean you can’t thrive at anything you do. The team has now been competing for a little bit over a year placing everywhere from second place to third place in various tournaments and some hard fought battles.

Please give our readers a glimpse into the Adaptive E-sports tournament.

We have been playing in tournaments now for the last three months every two weeks or so ranging in various cash prizes. As a team we practice numerous hours a week and we play a variety of games everything from league of Legends to Fortnite to Rocket League. Because our current competition is in Rocket League we spend many hours playing multiple games everything from casual to ranked matches which helps us work on building team dynamics as well as understanding spacing on the field and helping us determine how to score of the ball with different tactical maneuvers such as passing off the wall and ariel goals.

We have had the pleasure of competing against some very well-known people with disabilities and abilities ranging from amputee to other quadriplegic gamers but not limited to these fields of disabilities.

What has been your experience in the Tournament so far?

So far the E-sports tournament has been an amazing experience. Like any up-and-coming tournament or league there are kinks and things that have to be figured out to make the game fun and enjoyable as well as competitive. First and foremost the biggest positive about competing in this tournament is that once you have competed you get to meet some amazing people who become like extended friends or family.

Team member Blake adds, “The only negative I would say so far is that because we’re limited to the people we have playing right now some of the games get out of hand and are not very competitive. However,  I hope that will change once the word gets out and more people join… I would recommend this tournament to anyone with a passion for gaming and a competitive spirit regardless if you were a SCI or any other disability because we should not let our disability define us however what we do with our lives should.”

 

We wish the team good luck this weekend and are rooting for them to receive the grand prize! For more information on the E-sports tournament visit HERE For more information the Quadgods visit their website HERE.