LCCC Tier 3 Valorant Team Advances In Postseason; Final Mario Kart Player Eliminated
December 7, 2024 - - Lorain County Community College continued in National Junior College Athletic Association Esports playoffs this week on Thursday with Mario Kart and Valorant.
Mario Kart 8 – 1v1 – Best-of-Seven
In the Tier 3 playoffs, Colin Zielinski (North Olmsted, Ohio/North Olmsted HS) picked up a 4-0 sweep against North Arkansas College and then earned a free trip to the next round after a forfeit from SUNY Jamestown Community College in the second round.
After that, Zielinski went toe to toe with East Georgia State College in the third round but lost in the seventh race which ended his fall season.
Valorant – 5v5
The Tier 1 squad, made up of Brody Taylor (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Kylie Zeman (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS), Mason Henderson (Vermilion, Ohio/Vermilion HS), Ethan Stump (Elyria, Ohio/LCCC Early College), and Tyler Misconish (Strongsville, Ohio/Strongsville HS) fell to West Virginia University Potomac State College, 3-1. Taylor led the way with 72 kills in the match while Zeman led in assists with 31 and had 9 bomb plants.
The Tier 3 squad, made up of Justin Kozelka (Munson, Ohio/Ohio Virtual Academy), Cadence Buckles (Elyria, Ohio/LCCC Early College), Gilbert Chambers (Collins, Ohio/Edison HS), Jacob Brown (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria HS), and Braylon Zeman (North Ridgeville, Ohio/North Ridgeville HS) earned a 2-0 win against Moberly Area Community College and will face Montgomery County Community College in the second round of the Tier 3 playoffs.
About CommodoreEsports:
LCCC's Esports team competes in the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports (NJCAAE) which is split into three competition 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 all three tiers, full-time students have a choice to compete in any tier. Tier 1 - Premier Series (PS) is the top-level of NJCAAE competition for members with teams made up of eligible students, Tier 2 - Contender Series (CS) competition is the mid-level of NJCAAE competition for members with teams made up of eligible students, and 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 but must be associated with LCCC. Both fall and spring seasons of competition run for seven weeks before the postseason begins.
Gaming titles that LCCC Esports plays in or has played in the past include:
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 and has also competed in Fortnite starting in 2024.
Madden, a football simulation game.
Tekken and Street Fighter, both hand-to-hand combat fighting games.