LCCC Valorant and Super Smash Bros. Crew Battle Place In Top 4 of NJCAAE Playoffs
April 28, 2024 - - The Lorain County Community College Esports program finished the National Junior College Athletic Association Spring Playoffs with two teams placing in the top four over the weekend. On Friday, the Super Smash Bros. Gold Crew Battle squad finished fourth in the Tier 3 playoffs while the Valorant team won their third place match on Saturday with a 3-0 sweep against Dutchess Community College.
5v5 Valorant - Best-of-Five
The Commodores lost last Thursday to College of DuPage in the semi-final round of the Tier 3 playoffs so they faced Dutchess Community College in the 3rd place consolation match and swept the Falcons in three rounds using a comeback in every round.
LCCC got down early in round one, 8-2, but then ripped off an 11-3 run to take the first round. LCCC used another comeback in round two after getting down 9-7. This time they used a 6-2 run to win 13-11. In round three, they got behind again in the early going, 4-2 but surged ahead to take the lead and finish Dutchess off 13-10.
Brody Taylor (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS) amassed 81 kills for a team-high. Justin Kozelka (Munson, Ohio/Ohio Virtual Academy) chipped in 61 with Tyler Misconish (Strongsville, Ohio/Strongsville HS) getting 57. Kylie Zeman (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS) led in assists with 41 and had 18 bomb plants for a match-high.
3v3 Super Smash Bros. Crew Battle (SSBUCB) – Best-of-Three
The Gold team – consisting of Christopher Gonet (Lorain, Ohio/LCCC Early College), David LeBron Jr. (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS), Jason Thomas (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview 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 moved them into a showdown with Heartland Community College on Friday in the Tier 3 Semis. The Commodores lost to Heartland CC, the No. 1 seed, and then fell to Lackawanna Community College in the consolation match to place fourth in Tier 3.
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.
For more information on LCCC Athletics, visit athletics.lorainccc.edu.