Esports battles through a competitive week
MEQUON, Wis. – The CUW esports team competed in nine competitions on the week in four different games.
"After some immediate success, this week was more of a week of lessons," said head coach Lewis Smith. "The biggest couple were smash blowing a lead and Rocket League starting very slow, but I'd rather have these issues early on so that we can get back on track with a lot of season left. The team is dedicated and focus, so this will help us in the long run."
The Super Smash Bros team of junior Gideon Cain (Cedarburg, Wis.), sophomore Angel Uriostegui (Round Lake, Ill.), junior Ryan Schroeder (Seattle, Wash.) and junior Nathanael Quezada (St. Charles, Mo.) opened Friday night with a 2-0 victory over Syracuse with 12-8 and 12-11 victories with Wolf, Lucas, Daisy and Palutena.
The Falcons then fell short against MSOE, 1-2, to close the night. The Blue and White opened the match with a 12-10 victory in game one, to only fall 9-12 and 10-12 in the next two games.
"They were a really good team," said Uriostegui. "But we lost because we got tilted. We were in our own heads a little too much. However, learn from it, and on to the next."
Cain led the Falcons with 18 kills in the two matched, with Uriostegui adding 17 kills.
The hearthstone duo of senior Charles Kingma (Port Washington, Wis.) and junior Jack Kral (Kohler, Wis.) fell in a tight battle to the Milkchuggers on Monday, 2-3.
The Milkchuggers opened the night taking the first game with the Broom Paladin deck. CUW responded with a victory with the Bomb Warrior deck. CUW went with the Face Hunter deck for the two games and fell in the third game, but rallied to take the fourth game. The Milkchuggers' Bomb Warrior deck took the victory in the fifth game against the Falcons' Soul Shard DH deck.
"It was a very exciting match," Kingma stated. "I was a single card turn away from winning on a couple of occasions, but they had RNG go their way with a couple of clutch discovers and draws to help them seal the series. It was very well played on both sides."
On Wednesday night, the team of freshman Kodee Keys (Dupo, Ill.), sophomore Austin Lichtenstein (Johnsburg, Ill.) and sophomore Colby Williams (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) secured a 27th-place finish out of 200 teams in the PlayVS Week Two Tournament. Williams led the team with 10 eliminations on the night.
In the PlayVS Week Three Tournament, the Falcons finished in 36th place out of 200 teams on Monday night.
"This week we did extremely good off spawn never lost a fight off spawn," said Williams. "But one place that we need to improve is on our rotation mid-game fights. That is where we normally leave a lot of points on the table. The end game, I think we are doing much better than we were and I think I am getting used to rotating us as a trio compared to rotating as a duo with Augi last year. I am not too happy with a 36th-place finish, but still happy that we are close to getting into those tops slots if we clean up some stuff as a trio."
The Rocket League team had a rough week with four losses including three from the state of Michigan in Northwood, Michigan Tech and Michigan State. On Tuesday, the Falcons fell to Northwood and Michigan Tech with 0-3 scores. Junior Austin Esterly (Lombard, Ill.) secured 10 saves against the Huskies of Michigan Tech.
Thursday night saw a 0-3 loss to the Redbirds of Illinois State and a 1-3 loss to the Michigan State Spartans. The Falcons were able to take the third game from MSU, 3-2, but the Spartans would claim the victory with a 3-1 victory in the fourth game. Easterly scored four goals against the Green and White.
The Falcons are scheduled to compete in six events over the next seven days.
