Mario Kart and Valorant Kick Off Their Fall Seasons Thursday

October 3, 2024 - - Week 1 of the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports fall season continued on Thursday night with Mario Kart and Valorant getting their seasons going at the LCCC Esports Practice Facility inside the  Campana Center for Ideation and Invention.

Mario Kart 8

Reigning Tier 2 Spring National Champion Robert Rogers (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS) made the jump to Tier 1 for the 2024 fall season and picked up a forfeit win in his first crack at Premier Series competition.  In his second match, a best-of-seven against Danville Community College, Rogers dominated his way to a 4-0 sweep.

Collin Zielinski (North Olmsted, Ohio/North Olmsted HS) easily won his best-of-seven week 1 match up against North Arkansas College in six races.

Valorant

Like Rogers, the Valorant team is moving up to a higher tier for the fall 2024 season. 

Playing their first match in Tier 1 play Thursday night, the Valorant team, consisting of Broday Taylor (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Kylie Zeman (North RIdgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Tyler Misconish (Strongsville, Ohio/Strongsville HS), Ethan Stump (Elyria, Ohio/LCCC Early College), and Mason Henderson (Vermilion, Ohio/Vermilion HS).

The Commodores kept things close in the first round but fell to Bryant & Stratton College-Virginia, one of the top teams in Tier 1, 13-9.  The second round did not improve for LCCC as Bryant & Stratton won 13-2.

Taylor racked up 39 kills and Henderson had six bomb plants while Zeman and Misconish each had 13 assists.  Zeman and Stump both cracked the 20-kill mark with 21each.

Street Fighter 6

Nehemiah Hopkins (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria HS) lost his Tier 3 match to open up the fall 2024 season.

Next Up:

NJCAAE Week 1 will conclude tomorrow evening with Super Smash Bros. Crew Battles and LCCC's debut in Rocket League. Coverage on athletics.lorainccc.edu and twitch.tv/commodoreesports begins at 6:30 p.m.