CHEYENNE, WY – The final weekend of the postseason is here for Laramie County Community College esports as three teams and individuals are still in the hunt for a national championship, with titles to be handed out on Friday and Saturday in Rainbow 6: Siege, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Mario Kart 8.
"We have had an impressive run already in the National playoffs with some big wins against our opponents. The teams have really shown their grit and dedication to competing for titles," Head Coach John Kershaw said.
Rainbow 6 punched their ticket into the national championship on Wednesday night with a 2-0 (7-0, 7-3) win over Wichita State University Tech for their fourth win over them counting the preseason. The WSUT had entered the match as the defending national champions, and had pushed LCCC in the Regional Final, but the Golden Eagles were all business, winning the first nine rounds on the way to the sweep.
The postseason wasn't a breeze through for LCCC though. The opening round saw Hawkeye Community College challenge the Golden Eagles with one of their best games of the season, and while LCCC won 2-0, the Red Tails did make the match interesting with game scores of 7-4 and 7-5.
LCCC will face Guilford Technical Community College in the National Championship match at 6:00 pm on Friday night at the Merrell Student Activity Lounge. GTCC enters after finishing as national runner-up last spring and took down Northern Virginia Community College on Wednesday night to punch their ticket.
"The R6 team continues to just keep getting better as the season progresses," Kershaw said. "This team is so evenly balanced and every one of them continues to get better. They all have a singular focus and that is to win it all and continue to cement their championship legacy. Leondro, Justin and Kiara continue to show why they are some of the top frags in the league while Cody and Tyler are the ultimate team players who always find a way to get it done no matter what is asked of them in the matches. When this team is communicating and locked in, there is no team better in the country. Meow."
The match will be streamed online at www.twitch.tv/lcccesports.
Jesse Wardle is also on the precipice of a national title in Mario Kart 8 after kicking off his postseason on Monday afternoon against Iowa Western Community College's Boo.
The match was tight, and actually saw Boo get the lead on Wardle 3-2 in the best of seven, but Wardle was able to rally and pick up wins in the final two maps to move out of the first round in the double-elimination bracket.
He faced Danville Area Community College in the winner's bracket semifinals and handled them easily on the way to a 4-0 sweep to move into the winners bracket final on Friday against Union County of New Jersey. Currently the match is scheduled for 6:00 pm, although it may be moved to 5:00 pm to allow for streaming and avoid it being at the same time as the Rainbow 6 National Championship match.
"Jesse looked at me after his last win against the #2 seed and told me 'Coach, you brought me here to win a national championship and that is what I'm about to do.'," Kershaw said. "That is Jesse in a nutshell, he a a stone-cold competitor who is focused on winning and bringing home that national championship for the Golden Eagles."
With a win, Wardle would move into the Grand Final and National Championship Match on Saturday. He is looking to become the first Mario Kart champion in program history.
The other team in the hunt is the duo of Isiaha Ahrens and Tyler Soffe in CoD: Warzone. The duo made it into the field as the eight seed and will be playing their pigtail match to make it into the quarterfinals on Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm.
With a win, they would face the top seed Dallas College – North Lake on Saturday in what would be a marathon for the Golden Eagles to win the fifth national title in Warzone in school history. They would have to win three matches on Saturday afternoon to take the title.
"Our WZ team continues to be the team to beat and assuming we go against Dallas in the second round, it will be a clash of titans. Whoever wins that match will be the national champion. Isiaha and Tyler are both locked in and ready to make that happen while continuing that impressive championship streak that they have had over the last 2 years," Kershaw said.
All matches can be viewed in the Merrell Student Activity Lounge, and you can enter the lounge on the southeast corner of Gold Hall, and then follow the sign to enter the gaming lounge. You can also stream matches at the above twitch link.
For updates, please visit www.golccc.com or follow along on the LCCC social media accounts.