MARION, Ind. -This week saw three exciting NECC regular season matches for the Wildcats Esports team!

On Monday, Valorant kicked things off with a match against Edinboro University of PA. The Wildcats were riding high after their 2-0 win in week 1, while Edinboro was trying to recover from a close 1-2 loss. Momentum was definitely on the side of IWU coming into the match and it showed on Map 1, Ascent. The Wildcats jumped out to a 8-4 lead at the side switch and cruised to a 13-5 win on the map.

The Wildcats must have been feeling good, since the second map, Sunset, was their map choice. However, Edinboro would not go down without a fight. The Fighting Scots stormed to a 5-1 lead. A short comeback from the Wildcats made things closer, but IWU faced a 5-7 deficit at the half. The second half was incredibly back-and forth. IWU tied the map at 8-8, again at 10-10 and yet again at 11-11. The Fighting Scots had match point at 12-11, but lost a close round, which forced overtime. Forcing overtime was all the Wildcats needed to finish their comeback. Evan Stoller, "PokevanXD", and Gunnar Wegg, "Ayric", won a clean 2v2 in the first OT round and a clean 3v3 cleanup gave the Wildcats the map and the match!

Valorant moves to 2-0 on the season after the win, putting them in a prime position to qualify for East Conference playoffs. Originally, they would play on Monday, October 6th, against Lebanon Valley College, but that match is being rescheduled.

Smash Bros continued the action on Tuesday, taking on Wayne State in a rematch from the NECC preseason. Wayne State managed to take the single set match in preseason, but the Wildcats were out for revenge. The first set was all Wayne State, with them taking a 6-0 win. It seemed like more of the same for anyone who might not know what the Wildcats were capable. But the Wildcats weren't even phased. Justice Rodriguez, "PancakesDoesArt",  took 4 stocks for IWU, before team captain CJ Bloomer, "T0PP01NT", came from behind to take all 5 of Wayne State's remaining stocks. Now, with momentum on their side, the Wildcats needed to win one more set to take home their first win of the season. Early on in the set, the Wildcats struggled a bit, only taking 4 stocks and leaving Bloomer in a situation where he would have to take 8 to win it. Bloomer took 5 stocks while only losing 1 stock of his own. With one Wayne State player remaining, Bloomer came incredibly close to finishing the match for the Wildcats, but fell just short, losing the set 2-0 and the match 1-2.

Despite the 0-2 start to the season, Smash Bros. has slowly built up momentum. They'll look to keep that momentum rolling and push it into a win against University of Michigan on Tuesday.

Finally, Rocket League had the difficult task of finishing off the week with an even more exciting game than the other two esports. And they certainly did just that against Illinois State!

With a 4-0 win over Illinois Wesleyan in the Name Game, the Wildcats were excited for Wednesday night's match against Illinois State. Perhaps a bit too excited, as Illinois State struck first with a 3-2 win in game 1. IWU answered back, taking the second game 3-0. Things got a bit scary when Illinois state actually had the Wildcats on their back foot in games 3 and 4. With a 4-3 and 2-1 win in games 3 and 4 respectively, Indiana Wesleyan found themselves against a match point for the first time this season. To an outsider, things may have looked grim. But to anyone who knew the Wildcats, it was only a matter of time before they caught fire. Freshman Harrison Gilbert, "Farriex", led the charge for the Wildcats in game 5, scoring his first hat trick of his IWU career. In game 6, it was a late goal from Jeb Byrd, "Drybbles" that forced the deciding game. Even though the Wildcats had all the momentum, the game headed to overtime at a score of 0-0. Both teams battled back and forth in overtime. But finally, it was captain Gise Gibson, "Twizt", who scored the series winning goal after a great fake shot from Gilbert!

The big 4-3 win puts the Wildcats tied for first place in the Midwest B Division. They will also have a bye for Fall Break next week, but will play again on October 15^th against Northwestern College.

If you weren't watching twitch.tv/IWU_Esports this week, then you missed a lot of great action! But there's still time to follow the IWU Esports account so you can get updated whenever the Wildcats play next!


Standout Wildcats

• Sophomore Evan "PokevanXD" Stoller had a fantastic match for Valorant, leading in combat score and KDA on both maps. He also scored the first Ace of the season for the Wildcats, beating out his teammate, Nick "oziie" Everett by a few rounds.
• Captain CJ "T0PP01NT" Bloomer had one of the best games of his career at IWU. Not only did he lead the Wildcats to their first set of the season, he also averaged 5 stocks a set. His 15 stocks taken is a record for the Wildcats this Fall.
• While captain, Gise "Twizt" Gibson, finished the series for the Wildcats, it was Freshman starter Harrison "Farriex" Gilber who stole the show this week against Illinois State. He had the first of many hat tricks to come in game 5 and led the Wildcats in goals with .6

Upcoming Matches

Tuesday

• Smash Bros. vs. University of Michigan, 7:30pm

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