CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College Call of Duty: Warzone opened Super Regional play with a pair of matches, winning their opening match with Coastal Bend Community College 3-0, then moving on to hold off a resolute Missouri State University – West Plains in a 3-2 win to punch a ticket into the championship match.
The win over Coastal Bend secured a spot for the Golden Eagles in the National Championships which are slated to begin on April 19th with the top four teams from the Super Regional facing off in semifinal matches based on seeding from the Super Regional.
"I think it took some pressure off of them and it's good to go do it in a less pressure situation so they can just focus on the national finals and the big games we have for that," Head Esports Coach John Kershaw said.
The opening round of the quarterfinals got LCCC off to a strong start with a 15-5 win for the Golden Eagles in the first of two matches on the day.
That was just a taste of their control of the match with both Dimitrios Chronopoulos and Isiaha Ahrens rolling through their opening match with scores of 13-7 and 25-12 to clinch a spot in the National Championship field as a top four team in Tier 1's postseason field.
"We were kind of stressing out because the PCs were lagging, but the first match was a good warmup," Ahrens said afterwards.
The Golden Eagles faced off against Missouri State University – West Plains in their second match of the super-regional and opened what turned out to be a classic match with a 5-4 loss in the opening round.
Both teams exploded with a kill fest in the second round that saw LCCC just edge out the Grizzlies 22-19 to even the match at 1-1.
"We just worked together and played together," Ahrens said of their rally back. "It was just a lot easier to solo everything at the beginning of the season, but working together helped us get us farther into the round. We place higher and get more kills because of that."
The match went to a fifth after LCCC dropped the third round 13-9 but bounced back to win the fourth round 15-7.
In the deciding round, the two sides were neck and neck throughout, and both Golden Eagles were eliminated before the Grizzlies, but LCCC had tallied enough kills to hold on for the 17-15 win to take the deciding round of the match.
The Golden Eagles now move on to the super regional championship match this Friday at 4:00 pm, where they will face the winner of Central Community College and Dallas College – North Lake, who will play their semifinal match on Friday at 2:00 pm.
"It's going to be a buildup," Ahrens added, saying they are hoping to have a rematch with Central in the super regional championship. "Every round we are just expecting more and more from each team. We are looking forward to playing the one team that beat us all season so we are just building up to this moment because we already know what to expect from them from last time."
The National Championship seeding will be decided after the super regional's championship and third place matches, and that competition will begin on April 19th.
LCCC will enter the national championship bracket looking for their fourth title since the start of the program, winning three of the last four. This will be their first chance at a Premier Season title since the tier system was introduced.