JACKSONVILLE, Ill.- The Illinois College Esports team has had a competitive season so far this year. The team has competed in countless competitions gaining experience. Below is the event recaps for the back half of the team's schedule against Midwest Esports Conference (MEC) opponents.
2/24- Illinois College 2, Purdue University Northwest 0
Illinois College matched up against PNW well this week with a roleswap sending Kevin "SageWave" Tran into the jungle and moving Peter "255" Forman to adc. 255 was able to use his Twitch pick to win some explosive team fights throughout the series. IC also put Carlos "Usopp" Cortes into the top position. IC took the series 2-0 after achieving early gold leads in both games and closing out with strong macro plays.
Coach's player of the game:
Peter Forman "255"
2/25- Illinois College 0, Grandview University 2
IC was challenged with a tough matchup vs. Grandview. The Blueboys were able to keep the games close within the first 10 minutes but when it came to midgame skirmishing and macro decision making, Grandview was able to close out each game within 30 minutes.
Coach's player of the game:
Kevin Tran "SageWabe"
2/26- Illinois College 0, Briarcliffe College 2
IC was able to open up against Briarcliff with a dominating early game and solid macro player up to around the 35-minute mark. Then, Briarcliff was able to win a major team fight in the late game and closed the game entirely off of that one fight. Briarcliff took this momentum and played a clean game 2 to take the series 2-0.
Coach's player of the game:
Kevin Tran "SageWabe"
3/4- Illinois College 0, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2
IC faced off against Illini Esports at the PNW LAN event hosted by Unified. On stage, the Blueboys put up a solid fight each game, keeping gold within 2k at the 15 minute mark before falling 2-0.
Coach's player of the game:
Noah Postin "TheDicey"
3/5- Illinois College 2, Drury University 0
IC was able to secure their first LAN event win this season with a convincing 2-0 victory over Drury. This came from explosive gameplay by top and jungle Carlos "Usopp" Cortes and Peter "255" Foreman. Kevin "SageWabe" Tran was able to hold around 10 cs/minute each game and represented a late-game threat that put pressure on Drury the whole series. Drury attempted a 1-3-1 split style comp both games and fell to the 5v5 comp that IC drafted.
Coach's Player of the game:
Tristan Fissette "Loneforce"
3/11- Illinois College 0, Ohio Northern University 2
IC was faced with a tough challenge against the Polar Bears of ONU. Enemy ADC Kai99 was able to take Zeri into both games and put the pressure on IC. ONU was able to attack IC's mid jungle and secure solid gold leads at 15 minutes in both games resulting in a 2-0 loss for the Blueboys.
Coach's Player of the game:
Carlos Cortes "Usopp"
3/12- Illinois College 0, Ottawa University (Kan.) 2
IC came out strong vs Ottowa the #1 seed of the regular season, achieving gold leads as late as 15 minutes into the game. Around 20 minutes of each game the gold was close, before Ottowa's fast decision making lead to midgame skirmishes that they snowballed for a 2-0 victory.
Coach's Player of the game:
Peter Forman "255"
