MARION, Ind. - The IWU Esports team had a slew of games this week with NECC competition officially starting!

The week started with the IWU Valorant team taking on New England College in their first NECC game of the season. The defending champs had the craziest game of the week, as they lost 13-1 on Haven, the first map of the match. However, they fought incredibly hard, and won map 2, Lotus, 15-3 in double overtime. From there, they pushed for a 13-3 win on Icebox in a complete 180.

On Tuesday night, the Smash Bros. team continued their improvement. While the Wildcats did fall 2-0 to Northern Kentucky in their first NECC match of the season, they made a big comeback in the second set, only narrowly losing.

Thursday saw the Wildcats Rocket League team in their first match of this Fall's regular season! They took on Indiana University and won 3-1. The Wildcats led every game in shot and only fell in a close battle, 1-2 in the second game of the series.

Finally, the typical Saturday double header of Smash Bros. and Valorant was an exciting one. Both matches were for the Great Lakes Esports Conference and Smash started first against Tiffin. IWU continued their upwards momentum, struggling in set 1 and again barely losing in set two, falling just two stocks short of taking the second set.

Valorant took on Baldwin Wallace at noon. They came out hot, winning the first map, Lotus, 13-4. On the BWU map pick, Sunset, the Wildcats came out even hotter, winning 13-3. They are now on a 2 game win streak and move to 2-2 overall this Fall.


Standout Wildcats:

Though Drew "Novo" Busman had standout performances in both games, this week saw Mateo "Kryptic" Ruffin return to form, averaging a 260 average combat score in both matches this week.

Connor "yeti" Dyer had an impressive performance against Tiffin, taking 5 stocks in the second set.

Jeb "Drybbles" Byrd led the Wildcats in points in all four of the Rocket League games this week, averaging 552 points on an average of 1.5 goals per game.

Next Up for the Wildcats:

Monday
- NECC Valorant vs TCU, 9pm EST
Tuesday
- NECC Smash Bros. vs. Evansville, 8pm EST (may get rescheduled)
Thursday
- NECC Rocket League vs. Kettering, 8pm EST
Saturday
- GLEC Smash Bros. vs. Baldwin Wallace

As always, you can catch the action on twitch.tv/IWU_Esports!



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