Valorant & Super Smash Bros. Crew Battle Teams Grab Wins in Week 5
March 22, 2024 - - Lorain County Community College Esports concluded week 5 of the NJCAAE spring season Thursday and Friday with competitors playing Mario Kart, Valorant, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Crew Battle.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 1v1 – Best of 7
Robert Rogers (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS) faced a tough opponent Thursday night in Mario Kart with Marshalltown Community College's Brannen Kent who came into the match undefeated at 4-0. Kent took three of the first four races and led 3-1 before Rogers won races five and six to force a seventh and deciding race. Both players were neck and neck into the final lap of race seven but Kent pulled away in the final stretch to get the win and remain undefeated. Rogers fell to 3-2 in the spring.
Valorant – 5v5 – Best of 3
Valorant had an easy night as they cruised to a 2-0 win over Highland Community College, improving to 3-2 in the spring. Playing for LCCC were Brody Taylor (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Cadence Buckles (Elyria, Ohio/LCCC Early College), Jay'Von Brooks (Chicago, Ill.), Kylie Zeman (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Justin Kozelka (Munson, Ohio/Ohio Virtual Academy), Anthony Gonzalez (Lorain, Ohio/LCCC Early College), and Tyler Misconish (Strongsville, Ohio/Strongsville HS).
Kozelka led the Commodores with 31 kills against just three deaths. Kozelka and Taylor both had "ace" performances (where one player eliminates all five of the opponent's players in one game). Taylor, along with Buckles, Brooks, Zeman, and Misconish also finished with double-digit kills for a complete team victory for the Commodores. Zeman and Misconish both had team-high assists with 12. Brooks had a team high four bomb plants.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 3v3 – Best of 3
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Crew Battle Blue Team easily won their match on Friday night with a 2-0 drubbing of Herkimer Community College. The win was a solid bounce back from Week 4 when the Commodores lost 2-1 to Marshalltown CC on March 15, 2024. Gabriel Beckstrom (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS) started for LCCC in round one and was able to get through two of Herkimer's competitors before he was eliminated. Nehemiah Hopkins (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria HS) finished off Herkimer for the Commodores to take the first round. That set the stage for the Rogers to come in and clean sweep all three of Herkimer's competitors in the second round to seal the win for the Commodores and improve their record to 4-1.
About CommodoreEsports:
LCCC's Esports team competes in the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports (NJCAAE) which is split into three tiers: Tier 1 - Premier Series, Tier 2 - Contender Series, and Tier 3 - Open Series. There is a fall season (September-December) and a spring season (February-April). LCCC has players that compete in Tier 2 and Tier 3. Tier 2 - Contender Series (CS) competition is the mid-level of NJCAAE competition for members with teams made up of eligible students while Tier 3 - Open Series (OS) competition is the open level of NJCAAE competition for members. In Tier 3, participants do not have to meet any Student Eligibility requirements. Both tiers of competition run for seven weeks before the postseason begins.
Currently, LCCC competes in seven gaming titles/competitions:
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a fighting game, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a racing game, that feature characters from the Nintendo gaming universe on the Nintendo Switch. With Super Smash Bros. players can compete in individual competitions in a best-of-five match or in crew battle, an elimination style game in a 3v3 format.
Valorant, a PC first person shooting game where teams of five players compete in a best two-of-three match where the objective is for one team to place and detonate a spike while the other team tries to diffuse it. LCCC also competes in Overwatch 2, another first person shooting game.
Tekken and Street Fighter, both hand-to-hand combat fighting games.
