CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College Rainbow 6: Siege team finished their postseason run the best way possible, clinching a national championship after a five-hour match with the Marshalltown Community College Tigers for the first in the title for the LCCC Esports team with a 3-1 (7-5, 8-7, 4-7, 8-6) win.
The match lived up to the hype, and that was evident from the start when the Tigers became the first team in the postseason to score more than a pair of round wins over the Golden Eagles on the Tower map, just seeing LCCC pull out the win 7-5.
Marshalltown answered the opening game with a rush on their attack phase in game two, going up 6-1 in the race to seven and it seemed like the match was going to be evened at a game apiece.
LCCC responded the way champions do, rolling off wins in seven of the next eight games to take the double-overtime win 8-7 and pull within one game of clinching the title.
In the third, the momentum from the rally by LCCC faded, and Marshalltown was able to again go up big 6-2. This time the rally from the Golden Eagles fell short 7-4 and the match went to a fourth game.
If a national title was going to be won, game four was the one to feature.
Neither Marshalltown or LCCC were able to pull away like they had in the opening games. The longest run of rounds won was two and the teams were even at five all going into the last stages.
The Tigers won the next game to go up 6-5 to put pressure on LCCC and the Golden Eagles responded. Not only by winning the next game, but by sweeping the final three games to end the match in dominant style with an 8-6 overtime win and a 3-1 match win to secure the title.
The Golden Eagles showed balance the entire game, with regular season kill leaders Kiara Kershaw and Justin Cherubin leading the way, but massive efforts from Leondro Ebell on the outside to swing the momentum and add a third gun which consistently was recording double-digit kills in each match.
The win gives the LCCC Esports program their third national title in school history, and their second in the last calendar year.
The full team is expected to return for the spring season and the team is expected to compete for the Tier 1 National Championship in the Spring 2024 season.