CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College esports team was busy on Friday night with a pair of national championship matches for the Call of Duty: Warzone and Rainbow 6: Siege teams.
Both matches ended up with LCCC on the winning side as the Warzone squad of Isiaha Ahrens and Dimitrios Chronopoulos took down Central Community College 3-1 in their best of five match and that was followed up by a clean 3-0 sweep by the Siege team to capture the fifth and sixth national titles in program history.
"It feels like I graduated both school and the esports team," Ahrens said after the win. "I was here the second year (the program) started and it's been a long journey. Different coaches, different layouts in how things worked, so it's come a long way."
Call of Duty: Warzone – 3-0; 17-11, 5-4, 3-5, 14-4
The Golden Eagles knew they would be in for a fight against the only team that bested them all season in Tier One and the match didn't disappoint.
In the first game, LCCC was in a back-and-forth pace on the consoles when the match was tied with Ahrens entering the Gulag and winning his one on one to tie the map at eleven all. The Golden Eagles would then team up again with a buy-back for D.C. and closed out the map with style, taking the first kill race 17-11.
The maps got tougher as the two teams were ranked high enough to get put into some more competitive lobbies, and the kill counts for both teams dropped fast on the second map. LCCC was still able to take the early edge and Central fell behind 2-0 in the match after dropping the map 5-4.
"I kind of wish the lobbies were a little more mediocre but it's skill-based match making so it just depends what team you are playing and this team was really good so most of the players in that lobby were the same skill as us," Ahrens said.
Central picked up their first win in the third map when Ahrens ran into a quick death in the gulag and left D.C. on his own. The lobby was a tough one again and D.C. managed just three kills and Central eked out the win 5-3.
In the fourth game, the lobby became a little more camp heavy and the game's pace slowed down. LCCC picked up the early lead at 2-1, but CCC rallied back to lead it 3-2 and again at 4-3 when both of their players were eliminated.
Ahrens and Chronopoulos went out looking for two more kills, but the duo found another 11 kills instead and rolled to a massive 14-4 win on the final map.
The match secured the third straight Warzone national title for the Golden Eagles and the first at Tier One. It is also the third individually for Ahrens and Chronopoulos who are both graduating at the end of this semester.
"Me and D.C. first semester came out and fried and moved up to Tier One and did the same thing," Ahrens closed.
The LCCC program has now won four of the last five national titles they competed for and has established itself as one of the premier programs for Warzone in the country.
Rainbow 6: Siege – 3-0; 7-2, 7-2, 7-2
The Golden Eagles have been dominant all season long and as they entered the title match for Siege against Marshalltown Community College expectations were high.
The Tigers got off to the fast start though, picking up a win in the opening map while on attack, but LCCC didn't fade and rallied to win four of the next five maps to go onto the attack up 4-2. The team swept their way through the defense phase and rolled to a 1-0 lead in the match with the 7-2 win, including a pair of flawless maps in the final three.
"The early drops were just kind of beginning jitters and you always have to get those knocked out whether that's by a loss or a win, that's how we do it," Tyler Soffe said.
Map two was almost the exact same story except LCCC was on the attack first. Once again, they dropped the opening map but earned victories on the next four to go up 4-1. Marshalltown did pick up a win in the final defense stage to make it 4-2 but LCCC was unstoppable on the defensive side this time and rolled to three straight round wins to go up 2-0 in the match.
It seemed like it was meant to be on the final map when the Golden Eagles picked up wins in the first three rounds to stun the Tigers. Marshalltown only managed to win one of the maps in the first six before LCCC switched to attack.
The opening round of the Golden Eagles assault went to the Tigers, but the hill was too big to climb, and the Golden Eagles were too much to handle as they routed the attack in the final two maps to win by the same 7-2 score in all three games.
"Respectfully we are just better," Team Captain Kiara Kershaw said. "We've been working so hard in the offseason and through practicing and everything we've gotten so much better. Army has really helped us take that next step to play our best game and be able to trust each other the way they do."
The sweep finishes off an undefeated season for the Golden Eagles in Rainbow 6: Siege and gives the team back-to-back national titles.
The entire group of five is expecting to return next fall to defend their title and they look to join Call of Duty: Warzone with a three-peat of their own.
"It'll be a different challenge too," Soffe said, as the league is taking out the tier system for Siege next semester. "I'm looking forward to being able to compete as a group again and just handle our competition."
More information on the LCCC esports team can be found at www.golccc.com.