NJCAAE Playoffs Come To An End This Week
April 22, 2024 - - Tuesday night will kick off a big week for the Lorain County Community College Esports program. In a span of five days, the Commodores will seek a national title in four different events: 1v1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (SSBU), 1v1 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (MK8D), 3v3 SSBU: Crew Battle (SSBUCB), and 5v5 Valorant. All matches will be streamed live on LCCC's Twitch Channel: CommodoreEsports.
1v1 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Best-of-Seven/1v1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Best-of-Five
Going for two individual titles in the Tier 2 – Contender Series this week is Robert Rogers (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS), who will try to fight his way back into the 1v1 SSBU Championship starting Tuesday night 8 p.m. His opponent for that will be the winner of the Marshalltown Community College/Hinds Community College match which takes place at 7 p.m. A win for Rogers there would send him to the Tier 2 Finals on Wednesday night.
Once he is through with SSBU, Rogers will attempt to stave off elimination in the MK8D Playoffs on Thursday night (7p.m.). Rogers took his first loss of the tournament in the winner's bracket finals vs. SUNY Onondaga Community College on Saturday and needs one win vs. Marshalltown Community College to set up a rematch with Onondaga in the Tier 2 Mario Kart Finals.
3v3 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Crew Battle – Best-Of-Three
The LCCC SSBUCB Gold team – made up of Josh Conde (Lorain, Ohio/LCCC Early College), Christopher Gonet (Lorain, Ohio/LCCC Early College), David LeBron Jr. (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS), Jason Thomas (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS), and Nehemiah Hopkins (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria HS) – advanced through the second round of the Tier 3 SSBUCB Playoffs last week thanks to a forfeit win against Herkimer Community College. The easy pass moves them into a showdown with Heartland Community College on Friday in the Tier 2 Semis.
5v5 Valorant – Best-of-Three
Last Saturday, Valorant defeated one team from the College of DuPage in a clean 2-0 sweep but if they want to play for a national title they will have to defeat a second team from DuPage this Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
The Valorant team – consisting of Ethan Stump (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria HS), Brody Taylor (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Cadence Buckles (Elyria, Ohio/LCCC Early College), Kylie Zeman (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Justin Kozelka (Munson, Ohio/Ohio Virtual Academy), and Anthony Gonzalez (Lorain, Ohio/LCCC Early College) – has yet to lose a single round so far in this postseason. They opened tournament play with a strong showing against SUNY Jefferson Community College last Thursday winning both rounds by a combined score of 26-2.
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 of that collegiate institution. 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.
