DAVENPORT, Iowa – The Illinois College esports team went 1-1 last weekend, winning a 2-0 decision over Drury University before falling to #18 Grand View University, 2-1.
The first series for the online week was played vs Drury. In game 1, Drury was able to take an early kill lead by getting their bot lane four early kills, but IC was able to counteract that with great farming numbers across the board to keep the game even. When the mid game hit, IC was down about 5,000 gold. Even with this deficit, IC was about to teamfight better than Drury to get back into the game by taking baron at 30 minutes and retaking the gold lead and close out the game shortly after. Game 1 ended in 34 minutes with a kill score of 23-15 in favor of IC.
Game 2 was a slow pace as well, but Drury was able to take an early lead that evened out 10 minutes into the game. IC was able to get favorable jungle fights to get leads, leading into free towers which ended up ballooning to a 7k gold lead at 20 minutes even though the kill score was still close at 14-10. The game ended off of more free picks in the jungle and IC just walked mid to end the game at 24 minutes with a final kill score of 19-10 with a 2-0 series win.
The second series of the week was played vs nationally-ranked Grand View.
The first game started slow, with only two kills in the first 10 minutes of the game, one for each team. IC was able to take control and played a slow and methodical playstyle, letting the top laner Dalton "Prankuru" Swaino split push and keep getting towers. Baron was taken around 27 minutes, which ballooned their gold lead to 7,000. One more teamfight win at dragon and IC was able to push and end at 32 minutes with a final kill score of 14-4.
Game 2 was a dominating performance for IC for the first 20 minutes of the game, when they had a 10-1 kill score lead and a 4,000-gold lead. Shortly after, the game starting falling apart as Grand View was able to get a couple picks, followed by teamfight wins and baron right after the teamfights, which completely evened the gold lead. Grand View's game winning fight was bot at 37 minutes, being able to get a pick and then elder dragon to end the game at 40 minutes with a final kill score of 20-20.
Game 3 was complete domination from Grand View. Every lane won on their own was almost the complete opposite of the previous game, when Grand View was the team with a 10-1 kill lead 10 minutes into the game. Grand View just snowballed their 8,000 gold lead at 15 minutes into brute forcing their way into the IC base and ending the game at 26 minutes with a final kill score of 21-5.
Next matchups are going to be against the University of Missouri and Robert Morris University on February 13 and 14.
