CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College Rainbow 6: Siege team entered the quarterfinal match on Wednesday afternoon as the three seed against #6 Harrisburg Area Community College and after a nearly five-hour day, the Golden Eagles came out on top 2-1 to advance to their first ever semi-final in the title.
The afternoon started with confusion, as after a late start, the teams originally prepped for a best of five match before midway through having it turned to a best of three. The Golden Eagles and Hawks ended up restarting the match at nil-nil.
The two sides split the opening rounds of the restart, but Harrisburg went up 3-1 with a quick run to take the edge. The Golden Eagles rallied to win their next round and were able to switch to defense only down 4-2.
The defense for the Golden Eagles was immaculate in the first three rounds as they took their first lead and it led to five straight wins on defense to take the game 7-4 with a clean sweep.
"Taking the two first losses that didn't count, it' can get to your head," Head Coach Cindy Benites said of the teams resolve. "The fact that they didn't let that put them down and came out with a win for the first map, I couldn't have expected a better outcome for them."
Kiara Kershaw and Jeffery Ice led the way with 13 kills each and Diego Frometa-Batezini added another 11 in the win to give the Golden Eagles the 1-0 edge in the best of three match.
"It was so important for our morale to win that round," freshman Elias Platt said. "We had great team play, we communicated efficiently, and we used our gadgets great."
In the second game, the Hawks came out strong on attack taking the first three rounds before LCCC was able to pick up a win to make it 3-1. The team split the next two as they moved to attack down 4-2.
Harrisburg was able to close out the game with a sweep of the next three assaults from Laramie County and forced the match into a winner take all third game after taking the second game 7-2.
The Golden Eagles struggled as a team with no one picking up more than six kills while a pair of Hawks controlled the map with 27 kills between them.
"Clubhouse isn't really our map and we didn't know if they had strategies and they did and it was a big blow to everyone," Platt said. "I stepped out afterwords just to get some air and everyone else followed and we sat in a circle and we talked and we worked out our battle plans, and that was very essential for what happened because what we talked about played out very well."
LCCC moved to attack starting out the third game and dropped the opening round after a near win but they rallied back in the next round to even the match at 1-1 and the trading continued through the rest of the Golden Eagles attacks to move the teams to 3-3 at the midway point.
The team closed out the match strong with a four-round sweep on defense to win the game and the match to move on to the semifinals.
The Golden Eagles were led by Kershaw again with 12 kills to lead three in double figures along with Frometa-Batezini and Platt both adding ten.
The win moves Laramie County into the semifinals where they will face off with the number two seed USC Sumpter on Tuesday, April 18th with match time scheduled for 4:30 pm. The match will be streamed on the LCCC esports twitch page. Benites said she is excited for the team to have a chance to push back on a team they played earlier this season.
"Pulling out a win agianst Harrisburg in that third map just makes it known that everything they have practiced all year, they are able to use that and hopefully we will come out with a win against USC-Sumpter."
The team has been morphing through the season to get their best lineup, and Platt said the chemistry for the team took off about the middle of the year has set them up for success in the semifinals.
"Diego and I joined the team about midway through the season and something about the team just clicked. We all had synergy, we all had our buddies that we knew how to play off of and everyone one the team came together to form one cohesive unit that we could play around and play with."