RIVER FOREST, ILL. – As the fall semester nears the end, Concordia University Chicago Esports reflects on their semester and the two seasons they played throughout the course of the last 16 weeks. Overwatch, coming off of a national run during the spring semester, looked to pick up right where they left off while the Cougars would add an entirely new game for the first time in program history with Super Smash Bros. making their debut. In their second fall semester under Head Coach Joshua Mol, the Cougars continue to expand their offerings and improve each season.
Overwatch
Overwatch finished the fall season with a final record of 2-4, picking up clutch victories over Missouri State White and Bluegold Esports Varsity.
The squad played in their placement tournament on September 19
th, where they took on Mizzou Club Caspian. Their first game was against Lijang Tower, where the team got off to a rocky start, dropping map one to Mizzou 80%-100%. After dropping map one, the team came back to take maps two and three 100%-33% and 100%-71%, respectively. This helped the team secure game one in the best-of-three series.
Connor Bleazard (Saint Joseph, Mo.) aka Bostino and
Luis Cortes (Maywood, Ill.) aka Mr. Frong led the way. The second map was Esperança, which they took handily, 1-0, to win their first match of the bracket.
The second match in their placement tournament was against UND Green. They found themselves struggling early on to make a foothold, which resulted in the Cougars playing out of their comfort zone, dropping games one and three, falling into the lower bracket. Strong play from
Damian Avalos (Chicago, Ill.) aka Sen and
Julia Pataluna (Commerce City, Colo.) aka Goosed helped the Cougars fight.
The third and final match in the placement tournament was against the University of Saint Francis (Indiana). This time the Cougars would not play from behind for the entirety of the first map.
Connor Lewandowski (West Dundee, Ill.) aka Lewie led the way in the 2-0 sweep with perfect focus and positioning. The second map became a fast-paced game, but the Cougars led the way right from the start. Strong shot calling from Bostino led the team to a final 2-1 record in the placement tournament.
Kicking off the regular season, the Cougars faced off against North Park University in their first best-of-five games for the season. In game one, the Cougars focused on their team coordination with Bostino and Mr. Frong at the lead. The Cougars secured game one after Bostino went 28-6-9 with 16k damage and Mr. Frong went 21-13-11 with 8k damage.
In the second game, the Cougars were lucky to play a map they were familiar with and took an early lead after attacking right away. The Vikings were able to hold strong on defense and eventually stormed the Cougars, winning 2-1 overall in the game two to even the match. Goosed kept the Cougars fighting through with supportive play in the back line. In game three, the Vikings played off their momentum from game two and took an early lead in the push. Even with the Cougars mounting a comeback to trail by only ten meters, they ended up dropping game three to go down 2-1 in the series.
Game four put the Cougars up against the wall, but the squad wouldn't go down without a fight. With the leadership and playmaking of Bostino's Sigma pick, they stormed to an early 3-0 lead on attack in less than three minutes. On defense, the Cougars would bend but not break and take the game in a 3-1 fashion. Coming down to the final game, the Cougars were unable to mount a fight until they were down 2-0 in the game. They fought hard to secure at least one game, but the Vikings were able to overcome and steal the final game 3-1, resulting in the Cougars falling in their first match of the season 3-2.
In match two the following week, the Cougars took on Missouri State White, where they were able to secure their first win of the season in a 3-0 sweep. Bostino led the charge in game one, dealing 10k damage and blocking 10k from Missouri. Lewie went 19-0-1 with 5k damage dealt throughout the game. In game two, the Cougars held all control despite the Bears picking the map. Bostino had another strong performance on tank going 38-7-1 with 22k damage, which gave the supports from Sen and Goosed plenty of time to heal with both healing 11k each. In the third game, the Cougars started with a commanding 3-0 lead on attack before the Bears could even get their defense started. Missouri State was finally able to muster an attack, but the Cougars held the line with Mr. Frong finding key targets to stall out Missouri's attack. Mr. Frong went 27-2-6 in game three to help secure the 3-0 match victory for the Cougars.
CUC would go on to face Waldorf University the following week, falling in a hard fought 3-0 match. The two teams battled right out of the gate, and the Cougars even took round one, but dropped two and three to lose game one. Strong play from Goosed and Sen gave the team a chance to secure the win, but they would be just unable to overcome the Warriors. In game two, the Cougars were able to hold them to just one point on Rialto but would be unable to match their record. Game three saw the Cougars battling back on Flashpoint, but would end up losing 3-1, falling overall 3-0.
Needing to bounce back after a tough loss, the Cougars faced University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Bluegold Varsity. Despite some early struggles in game one, CUC would be able to take the lead after a 2-1 victory led by Bostino on tank who went 38-4-5 with 12k damage while protecting his team from 10k damage. Game two saw the team take a push to utilize different angles to disrupt the control style from the Blugold. Mr. Frong and Lewie created chaos that led the team to second game win, going up in the match 2-0. Mr. Frong went 16-4-5 with 8k damage while Lewie went 20-1-6 with 12k damage. In game three, the Cougars lucked out with a familiar Kings Row map, which was one of the squad's most played maps last season. The experience on this map held strong as they didn't let the Blugold touch the objective once with perfect defense. On attack, the Cougar supports gave the rest of the team enough time to pick off priority targets to win game three and the series with a 3-0 sweep. Goosed and Sen kept the team thriving and able to focus on targets easily. Goosed went 4-3-3 with 5k healing while Sen went 10-7-2 with 4k damage and 5k healing.
After their bye week, the Cougars resumed play with a tough match against the University of Illinois Springfield, where they struggled early on against the higher seeded team. The Prairie Stars took game one with an easy 2-0 after leaving few openings for the Cougars to counterattack. In game two, the Cougars picked Eichenwalde and were able to take an early 2-0 lead but could not hold the defensive end and would fall in game two 3-2. Needing to pick up a win, the Cougars battled in game three, but would fall 3-0.
With playoffs on the line in a do-or-die matchup with Rockford University, the Cougars would be forced to forfeit their final match of the season, and narrowly miss the playoffs. The would finish the fall season 3-4 overall, with both of their wins coming from a 3-0 sweep.
Super Smash Bros.
Smash finished the fall season with a final record of 3-4, while making their first appearance in the NECC Playoffs.
The team played in their placement tournament on September 16
th, where they battled against Coe College and Indiana State Sycamore. In match one against Coe, the team struggled early on with a new roster playing together in competition for the first time. The Cougars were unable to take stock in the crew battle until their number two,
Cameron Hall (Chicago, Ill.) aka Succulence took two from Coe's starer. The Cougars wouldn't be able to take advantage until
James Bruxvoort (Holland, Mich.) aka Phantom Armor took their last stock, but the Cougars would ultimately fall 12-5 once again and drop the matchup against Coe 2-0.
In their second placement match, the team lost 12-2 overall against Indiana State Sycamore. The team couldn't make much movement as their Luigi player didn't lose stock until the Cougars had lost nine of 12. Phantom Armor was able to take two from the Sycamores before falling to end the team's activation tournament 0-2.
Week one of the official season started with a matchup against Buena Vista Gold on September 23
rd, where the team once again struggled to get going. The Cougars lost game one 12-4 as Phantom Armor tried to hold the line against strong play from the Beavers's captain. In game two, the Cougars tried to hold strong once again, but the Beavers were able to take all 12 CUC stocks while only losing two of their own, leaving the Cougars with the 2-0 loss to start the season.
Week two for the Cougars saw a much better battle in their most competitive match yet against Thomas More University Blue. The team had a back-and-forth battle in game one where Succulence and Phantom Armor led the charge by taking six stocks from Thomas More before falling in game one 12-7. Game two saw a new challenge as the Saints used a different player to lead off and the Cougars were unable to find any competitive angles or footing against their aggressive playstyle, falling in game two and losing the match 2-0.
Still looking for their first win of the season, the Cougars took on University of Michigan-Flint Maize where they once again fell 2-0 in another promising match. In their closest game yet, the Cougars fell in game one 12-10 and game two 12-8.
Chrisovalanti Charisis (Elmwood Park, Ill.) aka Hashbrown got his first game win of the season to start off game two with Ganondorf over Incinaroar 3-2. Phantom Armor on Dark Pit in game one was able to take nine of UM-Flint's 12 stocks before their team captain was able to sweep the rest of the CUC squad to take game one. Even with strong battles from the Cougars, the team fell to 0-3 on the season.
Trying to finally turn a corner on the season, the team took on Alpena Community College Lumberjacks finally picking up their first program win in Smash. Phantom Armor took all 12 of the Lumberjacks's stocks, only losing two of his own in the process while leading the Cougars to a 10-0 win in game one. Heading into game two, Phantom Armor let his team handle the rest of the Lumberjacks. Succulence was able to take the first six stocks with Zelda while Hashbrown was able to take two with his Ganondorf and
Daniel Pineda (Chicago, Ill.) aka Red was able to get his first game win of the season taking the last four stocks to lead CUC to victory.
Riding momentum after their first win of the season, and the previous bye week, the Cougars jumped right back into action, picking up the 2-1 win over Augustana College Gold. In game one, the Cougars struggled to get consistent against the Vikings's Cloud and Wii Fit Trainer, dropping game one 12-5. Phantom Armor secured five stocks for the only tally for the team. In game two, the narrative flipped completely as everyone got involved for the team win. Phantom Armor and his Dark Pit rallied against the Vikings's anchor, pulling clutch win with one stock left to force a game three. After taking control in game two, the Cougars showed no signs of slowing down. Phantom Armor took the following eight stocks in game three while Hashbrown took the final four to finish the match 2-1 and improve the Cougars to a 2-3 record, with playoff implications on the line.
In their final regular season match of the year, the Cougars faced off against University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, securing the 2-0 victory and their spot in the NECC Playoffs. In the match with the pointers, Phantom Armor led the way while taking a total of 17 of 24 total stocks needed, taking all stocks by himself in game one. In game two, every CUC player was able to take at least one stock while Hashbrown was able to take four to secure the victory and playoff spot.
Heading into playoffs for the first time in Smash, the Cougars were facing the number one seed Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, as the number eight seed. Knowing they were in for a tough battle, the Cougars only managed to get two stocks the entire B03. Hashbrown and Red both managed to get a stock in their matches in game one, but ultimately fell in that game 10-0. After having all momentum stripped in game one, the Cougars were unable to make anything work in game two, falling 12-0 to end the season with a final record of 3-4.
CUC Esports looks to play Smash and Overwatch in the spring semester with the hopes of adding one more game. For more information on CUC Esports, or if you're interested in learning more about CUC Esports, head to cucougars.com.
