JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College esports team earned a 2-0 win over 14th-ranked Grand View University on Thursday night. The win improves the team to 6-2 overall on the year.
Game 1's early game was incredibly slow as the only fighting was trading in lane. This played into IC's game plan, as their team composition was based around teamfighting that started around 10 minutes into the game. Most of the early and mid game were small skirmishes that went into IC's favor, giving them a small goal lead of around 1,000 17 minutes into the game.
The game-changing fight in game 1 came 25 minutes into the game with a dive of the tier 1 tower top, getting a 3 for 0 fight and baron right after, ballooning the gold lead from 2,000 to 7,000 in the span of about 30 seconds. IC took all the outer towers with the first baron buff plus the midlane inhibitor. One more teamfight win mid lane and IC was able to push and end in 33 minutes with the final kill score of 20-7 in favor of IC.
Game 2 had a little more fighting in the early game, with IC having a 500 gold lead 10 minutes into the game with a 4-3 kill lead in favor of IC. Solo laners were ahead of the game curve for IC, so 1-3-1 lane assignments for IC expanded the lead through pulling Grand View's team apart and not letting them teamfight. The first big fight of the game came around 22 minutes into the game around dragon. Grand View went for a pick on top laner for IC, but IC was ready for it and went 3 for 1 and got baron buff off of that play and grabbed a 6,000 gold lead. IC as able to take all of the outer turrets with the baron push, then a solo kill top netted them top inhibitor as well. One baron later from pressure in the sidelanes and IC was able to take game 2 in 35 minutes with a final kill score of 22-15.
The season continues on Friday evening for the esports team with a 5 p.m. matchup against Wichita State University.
