MARION, Ind. - With this being the penultimate week of the NECC Fall Regular Season, the Wildcats Esports team had several chances to finish their season with top seeds.

For Valorant, winning their match Monday night would clinch the No. 1 seed in the East conference, regardless of what happened in next week's match against Nazareth. Their opponent was Wilkes University, the 4^th place team in the division and a team that was looking to hold on to a playoff spot. The Wildcats got first map pick and took Ascent, a map that has traditionally been a strong map for them. That trend continued, as the Wildcats rolled to a 13-5 win in the first map.

However, in turn, Wilkes got their best map as well, Lotus. This is a map that both teams had performed very well on in the past, but it was Wilkes that took over on Lotus. Their 6-0 start lead to the Wildcats needing to really push for even an 8-4 deficit at half. A late second half comeback behind Nick "oziee" Everett's second Ace of the season made things close, but the Wildcats ultimately fell 13-8 on Lotus.

Finally, Sunset was the third map and the final pick for Wilkes. The Wildcats were undefeated on the map this semester, so they had high hopes. Wilkes used their momentum to bring things close, leading to a 7-5 halftime lead for the Wildcats. They even managed to tie the map at 8-8. But from there, the Wildcats took control, winning 5 of their last 6 and taking the map 13-9.

The 2-1 win gives IWU a large enough game lead that no other team in the East A division can overtake them. Because of the way that seeding works in the NECC, IWU is guaranteed the No. 1 seed for the East Conference playoffs, regardless of what happens in the East B Division.

Smash Bros. also played this week, taking on nearby rivals IU Kokomo. The 4-1 Kokomo team was too much for Smash Bros. to handle, with he Wildcats falling 2-0. With only one game left in the regular season, the Smash Bros. team has been mathematically eliminated from Fall Conference Playoffs.

Finally, to wrap up the week the Wildcats Rocket League team played on an NECC national broadcast against Carthage College. While Carthage battled, the Wildcats were able to dominate the pace of play and took the series 4-0. Since the start of the program 3 years ago, the Wildcats Rocket League team has not dropped a single game when on the NECC National Broadcast, going 12-0 in 3 series.

The win for Rocket League also locks them in for first place in the Midwest B division. Even with the incredible record they've had so far this season, because of how tiebreakers work in the NECC the highest seeding the Wildcats could have achieved was the No. 2 seed for the Midwest Conference Playoffs. They achieved that with the win on Wednesday.

Next week will be the final week of the regular season for all three teams, before Conference Playoffs kick off the week of November 10th. We hope you'll continue to follow along at twitch.tv/IWU_Esports as the teams finish up their Fall seasons!

Standout Wildcats

• After the win over Wilkes on Monday, Evan Stoller,  "Pokevan", has officially overtaken the number 1 spot for eliminations, and combat score in the East Conference! His 61 eliminations and 987 avg combat score against Wilkes was some of the highest totals he's hit all season
• CJ Bloomer, "T0PP01NT", had 4 stocks against Kokomo on Tuesday, the most for any Wildcats in that match
• Jeb Byrd, "Drybbles", and Harrison Gilbert, "Farriex",  went back in forth for highest score in each game against Carthage on Wednesday. Gilbert is also one of four Wildcats that are currently undefeated during their Wildcat career after starting at least one game.

Upcoming Week

Monday

• Valorant vs. Nazareth, 7pm EST, Livestreamed in Rec 137

Tuesday

• Smash Bros. vs. Purdue Northwest, 7pm EST, Livestreamed in Rec 137

Wednesday

• Rocket League vs. Indiana University, 6pm EST, Livestreamed in Rec 137

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