Esports Weekly Wrap-Up: Feb 20th – Feb 23rd

Amelia Green Feb 20th, 2024

Hello, Vandal fans! We are into the 4th week of the competitive season! A very active week kicked off on Tuesday as we had a break on President’s Day. The Vandals certainly rose to the challenge in all areas. While there wasn’t a stream, there were a few games played on Monday: R6 Varsity, R6 JV, and two EAFC teams. R6 Varsity against SUNY ended as a 2-0 win, but R6 JV didn’t have as much luck. They concluded as a 1-2 loss against University of Louisiana. EAFC’s thejalili forfeited to Concord. Bobo and Greenville University both forfeited, finishing off the holiday’s games.

Tuesday, as per usual, was a hectic night. We had a double-header for our Valorant Varsity: first against Saint Joseph’s and the second against Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. We won the first, 2-0. The first game ended 13-8 on Icebox, a map that is quickly becoming a staple on our team. We ran a KJ, Jett, Viper, Gekko, and Sova line-up that shifted the game in our favor. A significant note is that this is the first time in actual competition that we had AbandonScorpion playing Gekko. The second game concluded 13-6 on Sunset in our favor. Our agent line-up was Sova, Cypher, Gekko, Omen, and Jett, giving the Vandals far more control over the map. The second Valorant match-up against SAIT ended in a loss of 0-2. The first map was Breeze and concluded as 8-13; it wasn’t unfamiliar but certainly wasn’t one we often played. The second map was Bind, also ending as 8-13. Overwatch Varsity had a match against the University of Guam, resulting in a poor series score of 0-3. Following OW2 Varsity, JV also had a game against Colorado College. They lost 0-3 as well.

Following Tuesday, Wednesday had another Valorant Varsity game, a Smash match-up, and an Overwatch Varsity game. All three of these matches were against George Fox University, making an interesting, “who can win the night,” atmosphere! Vandal Varsity for Valorant was put up against the GFU JV team, with a prediction that we’d secure a win in this game as well. This was proven true in a 2-1 series score for the Vandals! The first map was Bind, a map both teams are very familiar with. The Vandals took to this map with an interesting new approach; SomeCheese, the IGL, tends to play duelist, but for the entire series, four of the five members switched around their normal picks. SomeCheese took Brimstone, Loftech picked Cypher, AbandonScorpion chose Skye, Blud picked Viper, and Sknles chose Yoru– a rare pick for the team in general. Our opponent’s line-up was Cypher, Breach, Viper, Brimstone, and Raze. It was effective enough to take the win on Bind as 8-13. After Bind, Lotus was chosen as the second map; we won 13-8. This required a tie-breaker map, Ascent, to determine a final winner. GFU had KJ, Omen, KAY/O, Jett, and Sova against our own KJ, Omen, KAY/O, Jett, and Sova. This was truly about who could play the map better, and we won 13-9.

Due to various circumstances on Wednesday, Overwatch ended as a forfeit and a tallied win for the Vandals. In Smash, we truly shined. This was an ECAC match-up, meaning that the 3v3 point system is based on stocks taken, rather than stocks lost. We won 2-0, with both rounds ending 9-5. In both rounds, we were able to keep one of our players from showing their hand, an impressive showing all around.

Thursday the 22nd began with two TFT lobbies where Doom took first place in both! An amazing start to the night. Now, in the overall rankings, Doom has 57 points and is in first place out of 48 other TFT players. MK1’s Android unfortunately lost 2-3 against SCC; on the other hand, MK1’s Bernt won via forfeit against GCU. The final game of the night was R6 JV against Keiser University. This concluded as a 2-0 win for the Vandals. The first game was our win at 7-4, a tough match for sure! The following game was 7-2, also in our favor!

To conclude the week, Friday had an Omega Strikers match against Fanshawe. We unfortunately lost this match 2-0 with the first game ending 3-9 and the second ending 0-9. There were certainly lessons to learn from this game! LoL JV also lost against Siena College, 0-2. It was a rather tragic loss with the first game ending at 19 minutes. The LoL Varsity match against Wilmington University was going much smoother. It ended 2-0, a resounding victory for our Varsity team!

Schedule For Next Week:

Monday, the 26th: RL Varsity V Neumont College, RL JV1 V Texas A&M, RL JV2 V Alabama State, Smash Varsity, CS2 Varsity, R6 Varsity, R6 JV, EAFC

Tuesday, the 27th: Apex Varsity, Street Fighter, Valorant Varsity V SUNY Canton, Valorant JV V Catawba College, Overwatch Varsity V University of Alaska Fairbanks, OW2 JV V University of Houston

Wednesday, the 28th: OW2 Varsity, OW2 JV, Valorant Varsity V Kansas University, Valorant JV V Sitting Bull College

Thursday, the 29th: TFT, MK1, R6 Varsity V Lawerence Tech, R6 JV V Atlanta University, Smash Varsity V Texas University – Dallas

Friday, the 1st: LoL Varsity V Mountain Cat University, LoL JV V Concord University, Omega Strikers, CS2 V Washington State

Saturday, the 2nd: RL Big Sky Championship

Note for the Schedule: As ECAC takes a Swiss Bracket approach to the season, there are going to blank spaces in the opponents section.

Thank you for reading! Be sure to check out Twitch, YouTube, or come in person to RM 040 of the Pitman Center!