USC ESPORTS WRAP-UP #3
By: Richard Wang
Heya USC games! With NECC placements still ongoing, we have a quick rundown of the match results and highlights for you guys this week! In other news, the Esports team had their official media day last Friday! For the following few wrap-ups, look forward to hearing more from our teams through player interviews and highlights!
Media Day!
The Esports team hosted their first media day last Friday in the Leavey computer room, where competitive team, board, and content members got to do their headshots with the official Esports jerseys! For a club that mostly runs daily operations remotely, it was a good chance for people to match names to faces and run anything from casual play to impromptu practices on the sweet PC setups there (most of us are on laptops every other day of the week). Roster members were able to connect with their respective team managers and take their first team photos!
NECC PLACEMENTS:
Overwatch: Clean Sweeps and a Hazard Meta
The Overwatch team had a pretty insane week with placements, and the stats show. The Cardinal group placement stages both came out with two back-to-back 2-0 clean sweeps, which was especially impressive considering that the group had never played with each other before. On the other hand, The Gold Team had their hands full with a cutthroat match into a Hazard mirror dive comp; even with a first-round loss, a mental reset during a bye phase and a quick QP stack was all they needed to pull off a final convincing victory for their NECC placement! “Expectations were blown out of the water,” says Patrick who is “super proud of [his] players” with motivation and team morale starting off this season at an all time high.
League of Legends: Challenging The Best
The League of Legends team also came out strong in their placement matches with two wins against UCSC! In their third match, they played against Weber State, currently ranked as the top 2 LoL team on the west coast; while the match ended in a close loss, it was a hard fought challenge against the best. Starting next week, we’ll be cheering them on as the teams will be playing regular NECC season matches every Thursday and CCEL (California Collegiate League) every Friday as they continue to push their winning trend further and further!
Rocket League: Pushing the Offensive
Our Rocket League team also had their hands full last week with NECC placements: Cardinal continued to integrate their new players after a rough game against Purdue, losing 3-1 in their CCS game; looking ahead however, they'll get another chance to test their mettle against CRL this coming Sunday, so stay tuned for that! In other news, the Gold team held a bo5 scrimmage with DePaul’s JV team (~1300 mmr) ending with a final score of 6-1! After a loss in the 2nd game due to overcommitting on defense, the team pulled it back with a reverse sweep, pushing the offensive with great adaptation and pushes leading in a decisive victory. Gold will also be signing up for the Collegiate West Coast Series (CWCS) in the coming weeks. Both teams will also begin regular NECC matches this week.
Valorant and Marvel Rivals: Hitting a Stride
The Valorant Gold and White teams both went 1-2 during their NECC placements, starting in divisions 3 and 5 respectively. A good start to the season, and it’s clear that they have the potential to win even bigger with a bit more practice playing together as a team. The Marvel Rivals team are also in a similar position as they begin to hit their stride in figuring out a way for their roster’s triple support comp with Ultron to work in the competitive realm.