Asper MBA students enhance their learning through Case Competitions
It was in the final round when they were given a topic that really stumped them: E-sports.
They is a team of four Asper MBA students: Riley Moskal, Richard Watson, Bill Heard, and Mike Baca Soto. It was January 2026, and they’d been in Montreal all week for the John Molson MBA International Case Competition (JMICC), solving business challenges and presenting their solutions for panels of judges.
Heard describes a case competition as an “Academic escape room.” Moskal: “The nerd Olympics.” Either way, this incredible experiential learning opportunity offered by the Stu Clark Graduate School allows MBA students to boost their classroom knowledge hands-on and get personalized mentorship from industry leaders.
By the final round at JMICC, they had impressed judges with their cases on military defense. Fast food in India. Concussion screening tools. But now…e-sports?
Let’s roll it back a few months. Take these four men who work full-time in the engineering,(Watson, Heard), logistics (Moskal) and marketing (Baca Soto) industries.
They’ve been using some of their evenings and weekends to flexibly complete the Asper MBA program—taking innovative classes that advance their strategic and analytical thinking.
Long story short, each of them are asked by Asper’s lead of experiential learning, Judy Jayasuriya, to be part of the MBA case competition team.
Cue the Rocky training music. Late nights at the Drake Centre. Jayasuriya brings in industry leaders and Asper MBA alumni as volunteer coaches. They go through case after case, getting valuable feedback from the Manitoba business community. Slowly, the four strangers become tight friends.
They go to their first case competition as a team at the DeGroote School of Business in Hamilton. After one presentation, they’re given feedback from judges that they’re “robotic.” That’s a problem. That means more practice. Back at the Drake Centre, they get advice on being more charismatic. Working storytelling into their slides.
Literal thousands of PowerPoint slides later, they’re at JMICC in Montreal.
Keep in mind that during Case Competitions, Asper School students are actively competing against other highly-regarded business schools from across the world (case comps are also a fantastic opportunity to grow a worldwide network).
To Bill Heard, that was “a cool, refreshing feeling,”—to parlay academics with the extra boost of competitive energy. JMICC specifically is scored like a scoreboard (i.e. Asper 1 vs. Alberta School of Business 0) where schools present separately, but face off directly.
The team won five matches on their way to playoffs, where the semi-final round and finals are between three teams.
Which brings us back to the final round: E-Sports.
Each teammate had very different knowledge of different industries, enabling them to learn from each other, and bring that back to their own workplaces. But none of them had any experience with e-sports.
However, they did know sports. Here’s where the MBA training, the coaching, and their life experience came together.
Baca Soto said the team spoke on topics they knew to solve the problem: soccer, basketball, their families. They turned an unfamiliar topic into something tangible for themselves and the judges. They moved past “robotic” into the realm of confident, charismatic storytelling unique to who they are.
In the end, the team took third in one of the world’s most prestigious MBA competitions, once again proving Asper case competitors as underdogs that punch above their weight.
Sports have long been a way to build resilience, leadership and character outside of a classroom, and the case competition experience is no different.
For these MBA students, their experiences have offered them their first opportunity to practice what it really feels like to be a leader. But even more important than their success, was earning the safe space to make mistakes along the way.
“My biggest piece of advice is just to take the time to experiment,” says Richard Watson.
“If you're looking at presenting in a boardroom in a C-suite 20 years from now, you're not going to want to mess up that presentation.” he says. “Take this as an opportunity to test your persuasiveness.”
He says to take risks. Throw everything at the wall and see what works, even if it’s as small as a longer pause when you’re speaking.
“And just have fun with it.” he says. “This is your opportunity to try and improve yourself.”
It takes human-centered teaching, genuine care for students, and innovative assignments that encourage critical thinking.
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