Esports Weekly Wrap-Up: Mar 11th – Mar 23rd

Amelia Green March 18th, 2024

This is a remarkable weekly wrap-up because we are covering two weeks of content and a special event! While Spring Break for us Vandals was sparse with games, we still need to share the details and competitions that took place throughout the week of the 11th. This spans from Monday the 11th to Friday the 15th. Following Spring Break, our teams are gearing up for play-offs with the final games in their regular seasons. We conclude the week with a Highschool Invitational hosted in the lab and broadcasted across quite a few streams, including our own.

Our Monday was quite busy with games from SSBU to Rocket League. Smash had an ECAC match against the University of Cal State Monterey Bay, the Otters. This was an intense match-up in both rounds, but ultimately, this was a 2-0 win for our Vandals. The first round concluded as a 9-6 win, and the second round was a 9-7 win. This match pushed our SSBU team into 3rd place for the league. Alongside SSBU, R6 Varsity and JV had matches. Varsity competed with Southern Arkansas University and received an unfortunate loss of 0-2. The first game was a tough fight of 5-7, but alas, there was a distinct downturn in the 2nd game that concluded as 1-7. JV lost 0-2 to John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This began as a 3-7 match, and the second ended as a 4-7 match. EAFC had both Talha “thejalali” Jalal and Adebobola “Bobo” Babs-Ogunleye competing today. Jalal forfeited to Dallas Baptist University; Babs-Ogunleye won due to a forfeit from George Fox University.

Following EAFC, our Vandals had two of the Rocket League teams competing. Rocket League JV 1 matched against Montana Tech in NACE. This resulted in a 1-3 loss. The first match was 5-4, then the losses began: 1-4, 2-3, and 2-3. This wasn’t an unlikely outcome because all of our opponent players were higher ranked than our Vandals. There was an admirable fight against these tough opponents. Following JV 1, Varsity matched against the University of Guam in a 3-1 win. The build up to this success was a 0-5 loss that quickly reversed to a 5-3 win, then a 3-2 win, and concluded as a 2-1 win. This match places our Vandals in tie with first place, George Fox University. The next match will be the determiner for first place overall as both teams are undefeated.

Tuesday: Tuesday was a quiet day, as per usual. It consisted of an Apex lobby and three Street Fighter 6 matches. To kick off, the Apex lobby was a rather successful endeavor that pushed our team into 3rd place! This is all due to the hard work of the coach, Oliver “Jackadub” Ridley, and the players: Vivek “Forza” Jagtiani, Joshua “Mojohopper” Mckenna, and Jordan “scromdoglin” Higgins. Following the Apex Lobby, Street Fighter 6 had all three matches for our Vandals. Matthew “Droe” Neel won his match against North Carolina Wesleyan University, 3-0. Daniel “Galion” Bangudu won his match 3-1 against Heidelberg University, and Jack “Jack” Meyer put up a fierce fight against Penn State but lost at 2-3. The Overwatch games that were supposed to occur were pushed to the 19th.

A very short night for Wednesday as it was only Overwatch JV against ECPI University. The match concluded as a forfeit loss for the Vandals.

Thursday night was rather quiet. The program had Team Fight Tactics, Mortal Kombat I, and SSBU competing. Our Team Fight Tactics teams, Taran “Doom” Haug and Dominic “Hood” Dorigo both had lobbies. Haug achieved second place in the league overall with an impressive performance, while Dorigo has collected 19 points throughout the season. Following the lobbies, Mortal Kombat also had some matches to game in. Colten “Bernt” Bernal plays in the PS5 league of ECAC and forfeited to University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy. Coinciding with this, Luis “andriodfan” Esquivel also forfeited to Elmira College. The final match of the night was SSBU against Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and unfortunately lost 0-2.

To finish off our Spring Break, Friday had League of Legends Varsity and JV, Omega Strikers, and Counter-Strike 2 in ECAC and NACE matches. LoL Varsity contended with Marist College and a resounding 2-0 victory, guaranteeing a spot in playoffs. The first round concluded in under 25 minutes while the second finished in less than 20. JV forfeited to ECPI, ending their season without a chance to go to playoffs. Omega Strikers matched against Ole Miss and won 2-1. It was a very close victory. The final match of the night was the singular NACE league match held by our Counter Strike 2 team. We lost to our opponents, the University of British Columbia, 1-2. The first round ended as a close win of 16-13, meaning that the game went into overtime. Following that, we lost 10-13 and 7-13. Though we kept up a good fight, it wasn’t enough to win us the match.

We start the week of the 18th with a few very competitive matches that are leading to the playoffs of various leagues. SSBU kicked off the night against Weber State with a regrettable loss of 1-2. The first round ended in Weber State’s favor as 7-9. We took back the next round with a close victory of 9-8, but we lost the final round at 8-9. Overall, a fierce fight that challenged both teams. Counter-Strike 2 received a forfeit win. Varsity R6 competed with Trine University and had a wonderful 2-1 victory! JV wasn’t far behind; in fact, the match against the Catholic University of America was a 2-0 win. Following those successes, EAFC had a forfeit win between Talha “thejalali” Jalal and Lindenwood University.

Rocket League was rather busy, with all three teams having some form of double-header. JV1 started their night with a forfeit win from Arkansas Tech University, but they later lost their match against Truman State University, 1-3. JV2 lost both of their games. The first being a 0-3 loss to Oral Roberts University: the first being 1-2, followed by 4-5, and ending as 0-2. The second game was against University of Missouri, Kansas City and ended as 0-3 once again. The first round was 0-1, then 0-2, and a painful finisher of 1-6. After the JV matches, Varsity had an important match against George Fox University to fight for the top spot. This series went all the way to the fifth game; however, our Vandals weren’t able to steal that last win. The score was 2-3: the first was 2-1, then it switched to 0-3. We took it back with a 2-0 round, but the last two rounds were in GFU’s favor, 0-2 and 2-3. The second series was a smoother success against Lethbridge College, a 3-0 win. There was great improvement with our teams, and it definitely showed in how well the players communicated and passed to one another. The rounds went as follows: 6-1, 4-1, and 3-1.

Tuesday was also a rather busy day, but there were many forfeits. The night began with Street Fighter having a few matches. Matthew “Droe” Neel lost to Fisher College, 1-3. However, Daniel “Galion” Bangudu had a 3-0 win against Randolph-Macon College! The final Street Fight match was Jack “Jack” Meyer against the Cal State Monterey Bay and ended in a forfeit in the Vandal’s favor. Rocket League JV2 had another series tonight for NACE against Louisiana State University at Alexandria. It ended as a 1-3 loss; the rounds ended as 1-2, 3-2, 1-4, and 1-5. A lamentable finale to their week. Overwatch, on the other hand, had a few more matches. Firstly, the Varsity team had a forfeit win from Colorado College. Alongside that, the JV team had to forfeit to University of Alaska Fairbanks. The night ended with an official NACE match between our Varsity and JV teams. The conclusion was a 3-1 win for Varsity, an expected outcome.

A quiet Wednesday night held only two forfeit losses and a Valorant JV match. The losses were for both Overwatch Varsity and JV. However, the Valorant JV match was against Southern Miss Academy as the final match of the regular season. This resulted as a 2-0 win for the Vandals! The first game took place in Split and ended as a 13-9 win. There were quite a few close calls, but ultimately, we prevailed. The second map, Icebox, concluded as 13-8. The tension for this game was high, with many back and forth rounds. A very satisfying victory overall.

There were ups and downs to the final Thursday night of the regular season for a few of our games. From TFT, Taran “Doom” Haug achieved second place in his final lobby and secured second place overall with 102 points! Through hard efforts, Dominic “Hood” Dorigo was able to earn 19 points. Afterwards, Mortal Kombat I had their final matches. The end to Colten “Bernt” Bernal’s regular season was a rather anticlimactic double forfeit against Trine University. Unfortunately, Luis “android” Esquivel lost the match to Augastana, 1-3. There was much more success for R6 in both Varsity and JV. Varsity went against University of Alaska Fairbanks and achieved a 2-1 win. The final game of the night, JV against Neumont A, concluded as a 2-0 win.

The only match for Friday was the Omega Strikers match against Grand Canyon University. It was a simple forfeit win for the Vandals and launched us into playoffs.

School Invitational: We, Vandals, set up a high school invitational for Idahoan high schools. This was for Valorant, Overwatch, and Rocket League! The schools participating in Valorant were Bishop Kelly High School, Vallivue High School, Sandpoint Middle School, and Culdesac High School. The final winner of the Valorant tournament was Bishiop Kelly with many impressive showings. The Valorant matches were streamed by the UIdahoEsports channel. Overwatch was held between Highland High School, Middleton High School, Sandpoint High School, Century High School, and Bishop Kelly High. The stream was Sandpoint_Esports. Tournament winner of Overwatch ended up being Bishop Kelly once again. The third tournament was Rocket League with Middleton High School, Capitol High School, and Nampa High School Varsity and JV. Nampa High Varsity took a clean sweep, winning all of their series with only two lost games. This was streamed on Idaho_Esports!

Next Week’s Tentative Schedule:

Monday the 25th: Undetermined, no regular season matches

Tuesday the 26th: Valorant Playoffs for ECAC Varsity and JV

Wednesday the 27th: Undetermined, no regular season matches

Thursday the 28th: Undetermined, no regular season matches

Friday the 29th: LoL Varsity VS Penn State Behrend, Omega Strikers VS St. Claire’s College

Thank you for reading! With upcoming tournaments, some of the schedule is undecided, but we will update as much as possible for accurate news! Please join us on Twitch, YouTube, or come to Room 040 of the Pitman Center for some in-person fun!