CHEYENNE, WY – After a delay of a week due to server issues, the top seeded Laramie County Community College Call of Duty: Warzone team of Isaiha Ahrens and Dimitrios Chronopoulos ran through the postseason on their way to a third national championship in the title since the spring of 2022, and the second for each of the competitors.
The Golden Eagles defeated Iowa Western in the championship match on Saturday night in the best of five, not dropping a round to the Rievers who entered the match as the second overall seed.
Round one got off to a great start for the Golden Eagles duo, going up 8-3 at one point in the kill count, but the aggressive style of play LCCC uses saw them get caught in a crossfire, and both Ahrens and D.C. were eliminated.
Iowa Western nearly closed the gap but both of their players lost their gulag battles after they were separated from each other and eliminated on the main map, and LCCC picked up the win 8-6.
Round two went almost the exact same way. The only difference was the Golden Eagles pushed out to an 8-1 lead in the match before both were eliminated. Iowa Western once again charged back but one of the team was eliminated quickly and the other Reiver was not able to make it to a buy back station before being eliminated and LCCC went up 2-0 after the 8-6 win.
The third game was much less intense for the Golden Eagles. LCCC once again pushed out to an early advantage, but the Iowa Western strategy of playing slow backfired in the round when they were caught in a corner and eliminated from the match early.
That gave the game to the LCCC duo who finished out the map to pick up 12 kills before being eliminated to take the win 12-6 and the match 3-0 for the national title.
The title is the second for both Ahrens and Chronopoulos. Ahrens was a part of the first National Championship team in the spring of 2022, while Chronopoulos was a part of the Spring 2023 National Champions.
The duo is planning on returning to competition as a team in the spring as they look for the three-peat in the 2024 campaign.
The postseason opened for the Golden Eagles with a pair of wins on Friday afternoon when they quickly did away with Shelton State Community College in the opening round 3-0 (24-7, 8-4, 8-4) before finishing off Northland Community and Technical College in a sweep as well 21-4, 10-3, 10-3.
Saturday's matches began with a semi-final victory for LCCC over fellow Region IX opponent Northwest College. The Trappers gave the Golden Eagles a strong battle with LCCC barely taking round one 6-5 before a 14-kill performance by one Northwest player evened the match at 16-13.
LCCC watched the Trappers get eliminated quickly in their third round to take it 7-1, and in the fourth, the Golden Eagles outpaced the Trappers 12-9 for the win.