After claiming the Big South Championship on Feb. 3, the Winthrop Rocket League team made another run in the Collegiate Esports Invitational Rocket League Championship, this time coming in second place overall, which put an end to their undefeated record throughout the entirety of the tournament.
“We basically ran unopposed through to the finals, I think we had two or three goals scored on us through the entire tournament until the finals, we were just crushing it,” said Head Esports Coach Josh Sides.
The team was dominant throughout the tournament, not losing a single game until the finals, where they lost 4-1 against UT Arlington.
“They are a CRL team, which means that they are one of the top 16 teams in the west, so we realized we had [a] task ahead of us with that. We had been watching their games throughout the day, and we might have went into it with the wrong tactics in place for the game, and in hindsight, we have some things to work on,” Sides said.
Sides said that they are still extremely proud to have made it that far as they had some incredible performances leading up to the finals.
“Beating UNC Asheville 12-1 in the second game of the Big South Finals, I was just wondering how many we could score at that point. Usually Rocket League games are 2-1 or 3-1, but 12-1 was pretty incredible from the guys,” Sides said.
With the addition of two new players on the roster, Matt “JKFoshizzle” Kelly and Tristian “Tcorrell” Correll, the team had yet to make their first appearance in the collegiate Esports scene until this tournament.
“This was the first collegiate tournament we played in. We had done a couple of amateur tournaments and semi-pro tournaments, just like single–weekend or single–day type of events, but yeah this was our collegiate debut for the team,” Sides said.
Even though the team maintains a positive attitude about their performance in the tournament, they are still finding ways to improve their chemistry and level of play.
“We are brand new. We have two new players on our A-team this semester, so we’re still building those synergies together. At the point of the finals, we had been playing together for five weeks, so it’s a long way to go,” Sides said.
Although the team came just shy of the championship, this won’t be the only time that they get to compete this semester, as there are many more opportunities for Winthrop to win big.
“Rocket League has a big schedule this semester. There’s so much buy–in in the collegiate space for Rocket League right now, there’s just so many different tournaments,” Sides said.
Going forward, the team is looking to improve however they can, and they hope to be back in the finals again soon.
“The team is coming together, and we have big expectations for them this year,” Sides said. “It’s a really strong team.”
