Esports Weekly Wrap-Up: Feb 12th – 16th
Amelia Green Feb 2024
Welcome to the fifth week of the Vandal competitive esports season! There were quite a few events lined up for this week. Of course, we have weekly matches in the variety of games our program hosts and a special Valentine Doubles event held by the Smash team for the lovely holiday. Each day was packed with lively players and exciting games!
Kicking the week off with a bang, LoL Varsity goes up against West Virginia University on Monday the 12th. With both games ending in around 20 minutes, our Vandals took the win 2-0. The second game even ended in a jaw-dropping 46-10 in kills! Following the fantastic performance of LoL, Rocket League Varsity competes with that same intensity against the University of Alaska Fairbanks. We took that series 3-0 with outstanding point distribution: 3-1, 6-0, 7-0! This was a sweep for our fantastic RL team. We also had Smash going against Weber State University, but they unfortunately lost 2-0, with both games ending 4-9. The final match of the night was R6 Varsity! We ended the match-up against Behrend University 0-2, a close loss each game: the first, 3-7, and the second, 7-8.
Tuesday was an exciting night with Varsity Valorant, Overwatch Varsity and JV, and a special Valentine’s-themed Doubles Bracket in Smash! Valorant went against Stockton University, leading to a 2-0. We began on Bind with a 13-4 win. Through the game, we almost had a 12-round streak after the first three rounds, an impressive feat. The second game took place in Split, finishing off as another 13-4 win. Overwatch was a rousing success against Neumont College, 3-0. Of course, we had other events alongside our front runners; RL JV1, Street Fighter, and Apex! Apex achieved 18th on one round but quickly gathered themselves together to take 2nd and 1st, totaling 64 points, bringing our ranking total to 160! This caused quite the celebration for our program. Street Fighter had two different match-ups: Droe vs University of Mississippi and Jack vs Stockton. Droe won 3-0, and Jack unfortunately lost 0-3. Against Waukesha County Technical College, our JV1 Rocket League team won 3-0! An excellent week for Rocket League! Finally, we had the JV Overwatch team against the University of Guam, concluding 0-3.
Wednesday started with an Overwatch forfeit for the same reasons as last week, for we had a lack of players available. After the forfeit, the two teams, Vandal Varsity and Northern Ohio State, went on to play scrims amicably. Valorant Varsity was pitted against Redlands University in NACE, concluding as a Vandal 2-0 win. The first map was IceBox, and we witnessed a very close match. With such open areas and elevation opportunities, there was much back and forth between the teams; the final score of that game was 13-11. The second map was Bind, a map our Vandals are experts in. It was a complete shift from how IceBox was played, and we won 13-4! It was a quiet night, but we did see some impressive plays!
To start the fantastic Thursday, Doom took 3rd place in TFT and earned 6 more points. Doom has consistently achieved high results, including 1st once and 2nd three times; he is currently ranked 1st with 41 total points! Following TFT, Mortal Kombat had a few matches as well. Bernt went up against Adrian College but unfortunately forfeited. On the other hand, Android competed against Elmira College and won 3-2! A hard-fought win, to be sure. Smash also had a forfeit against Redlands University; however, it was in our favor, leading to another win under our SSBU team’s belt. The final games played that night were R6 Varsity and JV. Varsity had a match against Stone Child College, yet they had to forfeit. An unfortunate conclusion to the night, JV went toe-to-toe with Concordia College and lost 0-2. The first game was 3-7, while the second was 1-7.
On the final night of official Esports lab activities, Friday has LoL Varsity, JV, Omega Strikers, and CS2 Varsity. Omega Strikers contended St. Claire fiercely. We lost the series, but it was a close fight! The final score was 0-2, but the first game was 2-3 and the second was 0-3. Overall, it was a tough loss for our Vandals. As for LoL Varsity, we went against the Stockton Gold team, which resulted in spectacular gameplay! The first game dragged on for over 40 minutes but ended in our loss. Upon moving into the second game, we cleaned up a bit and put up an even stronger defense. The game ended in Stockton’s favor. LoL JV also lost against Catawba College, 2-0. Thankfully, the night didn’t end in a complete loss as CS2 took a 2-0 win against Alberta University! The first map ended 13-9, while the second game finished 13-11. A very close match-up, indeed!
We also had our first ever 10-hour stream on Saturday the 17th! Make sure to check it out and see all the fun activities our coaches and staff got up too!
Thank you for reading! Join us on our Twitch, YouTube, or in-person at the Pitman Center!