JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College esports team started off the Riot League of Legends Tournament with an easy 2-0 victory over Heartland Community College, improving to 1-0 on the season.
Riot's Collegiate League of Legends season is comprised of over 300 teams, with 82 coming in the North Conference. The North Conference includes 13 states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin) and four Canadian provinces (Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon). IC ranks as the No. 9 seed in the north heading into the first match vs Heartland Community College.
Game 1 started and ended fast for Illinois College. There were two quick kills in the mid and bot lane before the 5-minute mark, which gave them an early $2,000 gold lead. This enabled a large snowball to both of these lanes to win on their own. At that point, the jungler helped get the top laner ahead and all three lanes would be able to win on their own for the rest of the game. IC was able to take neutral objectives of dragon and rift herald when they spawned. Heartland was constricted of all their resources of lane farm and jungle farm since they were so far behind.
This lead was pushed to get all three inhibitors down at 16 minutes and end shortly after. Illinois College was about five seconds away from a perfect game, which means that no one dies and no objectives were given up, but there was one death in the enemy team's fountain as IC took game 1 in 17:46 with a final kill score of 24-1.
Stat leaders on the team went to Tony "King Me" Bautista-Foti with an 8/0/5 KDA and 36% of the overall damage, followed by Dalton "Prankuru" Swaino with a 4/0/3 KDA and 21% of the overall damage.
Game 2 was very similar to game 1, which was domination from start to finish for Illinois College. There was an early first blood before minions spawned in a jungle skirmish, giving Dylan "IC Storm" Cawthon a very early lead. Very shortly after, there was a solo kill top and a 2v2 kill bot to give IC an early 3-0 lead before the 4-minute mark. The pace of the game escalated very quickly as there were kills almost every minute, with IC having an 18-2 kill lead at 10 minutes. Heartland was able to take rift herald this game, but this did not amount to anything since they were not able to leave their base at this point of the game.
Game 2 ended in 18:22 with a final kill score of 44-5 in favor of Illinois College.
Stat leaders on the team went to Tony "King Me" Bautista-Foti with an 18/2/4 KDA and 31% of the overall damage, followed by Adam "IC Chill" Lee with a 10/1/9 KDA and 25% of the overall damage.
The next match is scheduled for February 2 at 3 p.m. with the opponent to still be determined.
