Uplink Sweeps 2025 PA Cup at Harrisburg University

April 12, 2025 – Harrisburg, PA

Last weekend, Harrisburg University and the Harrisburg Storm, HU’s esports Teams, hosted the annual PA Cup. This year’s PA Cup was an Invitational, welcoming back previous PA Cup winners.

Uplink was invited to participate as they won the PA Cup in 2023 for Overwatch.

This year saw 8 teams from 4 organizations competing in Rocket League and Valorant. The other participants included: Valhallan Camp Hill and Riverside, Lampeter-Strasburg High School, and Spring Grove High School.

The competition was epic!

The day started with Rocket League and Uplink went 2-1 losing to Valhallan in the opening round. They played well in the championship round beating Lampeter Strasburg in 4 games outscoring their opponents 28-3.

In the Best of Seven championship, the Uplink team, featuring Derek Henklin, Logan Fernandes and Lucian Florescu, won game 1 before dropping 3 straight games and putting themselves in a must win situation for the remaining rounds. And win they did.

Uplink won the next 3 games with each one a nailbiter before closing it out 4 games to 3 and taking home the PA Cup Rocket League Title!

Meanwhile, on the Valorant side, the Uplink team matched their Uplink peers going 2-1 in the opening round. The Ulink Valorant team included: Avery Fink, Ronan O’Meara, Ian Kibbe, Justin Walters, and Logan Fernandes. Logan did double duty playing for both of Uplink’s teams and he was exhausted by the end of the match.

For Valorant, the Uplink team lost to Lampeter Strasburg in the open round but bested them i the championship. The Valorant championship was a best of three and Uplink went down 13-9 in round 1.

But, neither team ever gave up and Uplink rallied to win game 2 before setting up a showdown for the third and final game. And it did not disappoint. The parents cheered loudly throughout the match and they were coached by Megan Fink who was instrumental in helping them win. When the dust had cleared the Uplink team emerged victorious, besting Lampeter Strasburg in overtime 14-12.