Valorant Falls To Dutchess Community College In NJCAAE Spring Season Finale
April 4, 2024 – Week 7 of the NJCAAE Spring Season continued Thursday night with the Lorain County Community College Esports team competing in 1v1 Mario Kart and 5v5 Valorant.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 1v1 – Best-of-7
Robert Rogers (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS) took his opponent from Southern State Community College down to the wire to a seventh and deciding race but fell in the final round to finish his spring with a record of 4-3 in Tier 2 play.
Collin Zielinski (North Olmsted, Ohio/North Olmsted HS) won his match against Seward County Community College 4-2 in Tier 3 play and finishes with a 3-3 record during the spring season.
Valorant – 5v5 – Best-of-3
The Commodore Valorant team got down early in the first round to Dutchess Community College ultimately falling 13-7. Brody Taylor (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS) and Justin Kozelka (Munson, Ohio/Ohio Virtual Academy) led the Commodores in kills during the first round with 16 apiece. Ethan Stump (Elyria, Ohio/LCCC Early College) and Kylie Zeman (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS) had double-digit kills for the Commodores as well.
Round two was a little closer but the LCCC still fell 13-9 even after holding an early lead against Dutchess. Taylor and Kozelka were dominant again for the Commodores in round two with 27 kills going to Taylor while Kozelka had 20 with a team-high 13 kill assists. Stump had another double-digit kill round to go along with his 10 assists. Zeman had six bomb plants in both rounds.
The Valorant team finishes the spring with a 4-3 record and will await their playoff position as the rest of the results from Thursday come into the NJCAAE.
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 the following 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.