MARION, Ind. - Both the Valorant and Rocket League teams kicked off their NECC Conference tournaments this week, leading to some incredible esports action!
The no. 1 seeded Valorant team started things for the Wildcats on Monday night, taking on no. 8 seeded UNCW in the NECC East Conference Quarterfinals. They certainly looked like the no. 1 seed on map 1, Fracture, as they jumped up to an 8-4 lead in the first half. And they never looked back, winning 5 straight rounds on their attack to clinch the map, 13-4.
The Seahawks were not ready to give up without a fight, however. On map no. 2, Lotus, the Wildcats built up another big lead on attack, before UNCW started making a comeback. They held the 11-10 lead over the Wildcats, before IWU caught fire, winning 3 straight rounds and taking the map 13-11. With the 2-0 win, the Wildcats will be headed to the East conference Semifinals against No. 4 Catawba Valley Community College. That match is supposed to be played on Monday night at 8pm EST, but due to some schedule conflicts, it may get rescheduled to another day.
Rocket League took over the reins for the rest of the week. They were supposed to play Indiana Tech in the GLEC on Wednesday, but an unfortunate server error from the developers of Rocket League, Psyonix, caused the match to be unplayable on Wednesday night. So, that match has been postponed to 7pm EST next Wednesday, April 1st.
The Wildcats were able to play their GLEC match against Mount Union on Thursday night. The powerhouse Mount Union team played very well, leading to a 4-0 loss for the Wildcats.
However, the main event for the No. 5 Wildcats Rocket League team was Thursday night's NECC Central Conference Quarterfinals against No. 4 seeded University of the Cumberlands. Even though the Wildcats were the lower seed, they were confident that their tough division would have more than prepared them for this match. And it certainly did, with the Wildcats winning 3-2 in game 1 and 4-0 in game 2. Cumberlands would not go down without a fight and incredibly built up a 4-2 lead on the Wildcats with only a minute and a half left in game 3. So it was go time for the Wildcats!
Jeb Byrd, "Drybbles", scored a quick kickoff goal to make the score 3-4, before scoring the game-tying goal with 23 seconds left to go in regulation! Overtime went fairly long, with both teams trying to break the tie. And who else but "Drybbles" would do it, this time with a double touch off the back board two and a half minutes into overtime!
In the No. 1 vs. No. 8 matchup, the No. 8 seeded University of Alabama Huntsville pulled an incredible 3-1 upset over top seed St. Cloud State, so that will be the Wildcats' opponent next week in the semifinals. We hope you'll join us for that, as well as the Wildcats' Valorant semifinal!
Standout Wildcats
- Mateo Ruffin, "Kryptic", led the Valorant team in eliminations on both maps, with 17 and 26 respectively
- Not only did Jeb Byrd, "Drybbles", put up all 5 goals in the third game against Cumberlands, but he also broke the single game record for the Wildcats in points, with 1290.
Upcoming Matches
Monday
- Valorant Semifinals vs. #4 Catawba Valley, 8pm EST (may be rescheduled)
Wednesday
- GLEC Rocket League vs. Indiana Tech, 7pm EST
Thursday
- Rocket League Semifinals vs. #8 Alabama Huntsville, 9pm EST
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