Rocket League - Spring ’21 in Review
Written by Josh Klausmeier
MEQUON, Wis. – The Concordia University Wisconsin esports team, run by Coach Lewis Smith, has multiple video games that are played at a competitive collegiate level. Reigning as one of CUW esports' first teams to be created and start competing is Rocket League. Rocket League is one of the most popular professional competitive video games right now, and it would make sense that the collegiate scene is no different from the professional scene.
The CUW Rocket League trio one consisted of Austin "Twodoglucky" Esterly, Ethan "GreenEcho51" Koch, and Alex "Biggzy" Reimer, and they competed in the Maryland Esports Training Arena (META) League, The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) League, and the PlayVS League. What made this trio as good as a team was their connection. Being one of the most experienced teams for CUW esports made them very established and they had a very good system going between the three players. This enabled them to be able to compete in three different leagues in one season. In the META League, they lost by a tiebreaker to just barely miss the playoffs in that league. In the NECC League, they made the playoffs but lost No. 2 Boise State in the first round. In the PlayVS League, which is the most competitive Rocket League collegiate league, they were not able to clinch a playoff position.
The CUW Rocket League team also had a second trio compete, and this trio consisted of Evan "Acre" Moody, Aaron "Sausage Llama" Huntley, and Zachary "TheZRM" Mulso. This Trio competed in just the NECC League this season. The second trio had a very rough start to their season. To elaborate on this, Coach Smith said, "Every team, the first semester, they really hunker down and start competing at the highest level, which is a steep learning curve and is very unfriendly." Trio two had gone winless the entire season until the last week of the season. However, most of those losses were scored at 3-2, which means that most games were very close but did not end their way.
Austin will be the only member of trio one that will be returning next season. When asked about the future of the Rocket League Trio One team, he said, "I am looking forward to a fresh start and transferring what I learned from Biggzy and GreenEcho51 into the new varsity squad. I am also excited to lead my team so that we can grow and become a mentally consistent squad." Austin is very excited and very hopeful for next season.
The members of trio two, as well as the new recruiting class, will be competing for the two open spots on Trio 1 for the next season. All the same opportunities that were available this season will also be available next season for the team to compete in, keeping Rocket League at the top for popularity. Trio one next season will be losing two very good and valuable players, but I believe that the new trio created will exceed their results from last season. Austin will be bringing so much talent and game knowledge he has learned from his two years playing collegiate Rocket League and will be building his new team in the way he sees success that I think this will be the trio to look out for now.
