New Scrim Partner: Columbia Basin College
Amelia Green Jan 19th, 2024
Our Vandal Esports Program has recently found a new friendly rivalry in the Columbia Basin College! This development occurred through a scrimmage held on Thursday, January 18th. We played their Valorant team in an exceptional show of battle and technical capability! The following night, Friday the 19th, featured a Rocket League scrim with Columbia Basin.
The Valorant match began with a staggering lead from Columbia Basin at 3-7. The first half of the first match ended at 5-7, favoring the Hawks. Leading to a taut, close second half of the first match ending as 13-10 for the Vandals! The gameplay of the first match demonstrated a fantastic use of angles and a true show of teamwork on both sides! Both teams understand the map, Breeze, and the agents that favor the map, including very effective setups and strategies based on their team compositions. The second match took place on the Lotus map. With a shift in team comps, there was a shift in strategy; this culminated in a double controller setup for Columbia Basin and a double initiator approach for the Vandals. This ended in a win for Columbia Basin at 8-13, thus resulting in a third and final game. The game took place on the Icebox map, for which our team has little practice. This is primarily because the map has only recently been made available as part of competitive leagues. The final score of this game was 13-7, finishing up the match at 2-1. A hard-fought win for the Vandals!
The Rocket League scrim ended heavily in favor of the Hawks! Through a fantastic show of coordination and deft control, Vandals gave the Hawks a tough fight but ultimately lost the series 3-5 with an extra game won by Columbia Basin. The sheer aggression and teamwork demonstrated by the Hawks was a sight to see! Our Vandals did fiercely defend our goal but were ultimately defeated by our new rivals. Dub the Boss, a varsity team member for two seasons now, demonstrated excellent defensive capabilities. The team showed good cohesion at the beginning of the season, so we can look forward to further improvement as the season progresses.
We hope to have many more matches against Columbia Basin in the coming future! Thank you for reading! Make sure to join us on our Twitch – UIdahoEsports -, our YouTube channel – UIdahoEsports -, or join us in person at the Pittman Center!