Following a rough 2-2 record to start the season, the Winthrop University Rocket League Team turned it around in the past few games, achieving a two–game win streak with victories against Penn State University and The Ohio State University. These two wins brought the team much closer to having a successful season.
“We kinda got off to a rough start to this season, but it’s always nice to win your games against teams that have big name recognition like that,” said head coach Josh Sides.
Sides said the goal for the team is to make the playoffs, which after a rough start to the season means that they will have to win six out of the next eight games.
“We have a great group of guys and we’ve been practicing really hard the past couple of weeks trying to make this final push for playoffs. The guys are putting in a lot of time and effort to make sure we’re ready for our matches the next couple of weeks,” Sides said.
Although the team is on a win streak right now, this season does have its challenges in that not all the players competing on the team are on campus.
“One of the big things that we emphasize here at Winthrop is our culture, and a lot of that is being able to interact with each other. That’s a lot harder to do when you have players who are remote. It has definitely impacted the ability for our teams to gel,” Sides said.
In addition to some players competing off-campus, the fact that some of them are first-year students poses a difficulty for the team as well.
“There’s obviously something to be said about coming from high school to college, just in general. It’s a big change. A lot of people struggle their freshman year, and then [when] you add a sport on top of that it makes things even more complex. The awesome thing about being in our second year as a team is that we have players that have been through it already and can help the new guys along,” Sides said.
While Winthrop also competes in “Valorant,” “League of Legends” and “Overwatch,” there are no upcoming competitions for those teams at this time. “A lot of the competition for the fall semester happens early on in the semester so we’re past competing with ‘League of Legends,’” Sides said.
“We’re hopeful that we can make the playoffs, make a big run, and make the CRL tournament. That’s the big tournament for Collegiate Rocket League,” Sides said.
To keep up with the team, follow the Winthrop Esports account on twitch at twitch.tv/winthropesports. Games are held every Thursday at 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.
Photo by Olivia Essleman
