The Winthrop University esports program added a national championship to its resume after emerging victorious in the Rocket League Collegiate Esports National Championship (CENC) earlier this month.
In just its second year of esports competition (and first year competing in Rocket League), Winthrop managed to take down its first three opponents in the national tournament before ultimately defeating the reigning Rocket League champs — Northwood University.
One of two new games Winthrop began playing during the fall of 2020, “Rocket League” is a vehicular soccer game that was first released back in July of 2015. At the competitive level, games are typically played with three people per team.
The three players that represented Winthrop in the CENC were Jared “Hound” Pickens, Matt “JKfoshizzle” Kelly and Tristian “tcorrell” Correll.
Pickens (who began competing for Winthrop in the fall) hails from Plano, Texas, Kelly (who joined the squad early this spring) is from Jenkintown, Pa. and Correll (who also began playing for Winthrop this spring) is a native of Lyman, S.C. While competing collegiately, Correll also plays Rocket League professionally as a member of the Susquehanna Soniqs.
Head Coach Josh Sides told The Johnsonian in April that Winthrop was unable to qualify for the Collegiate Rocket League (CRL) tournament this spring because Correll had a match with his professional team on the day of the CRL qualifiers. Therefore, the CENC was Winthrop’s top tournament.
The Rocket League CENC involved 16 teams that qualified through conference championships, play-in tournaments or at-large bids. After advancing past College of Staten Island in the first round and Oakland University in the quarterfinals, Winthrop met the University of Akron in the semifinals.
With a best-of-five series to determine who would advance to the championship, Winthrop won game one against the Zips by a score of 2-1. Each game was five minutes long, with only a one–minute break in between games.
The next two matches swung heavily in Akron’s favor as the Zips won by scores of 4-0 and 4-1, respectively. Facing elimination, Winthrop allowed Akron to score the first goal of game four but rallied back to win 3-1 and force game five.
In the final game versus the Zips, Winthrop was challenged with an early 2-0 deficit but again rallied back (this time behind a “JKfoshizzle” three-goal hat trick) to secure a 3-2 victory and a spot in the finals.
Just as Winthrop has a professional player on its roster, Winthrop’s opponent in the championship — Northwood University — has a professional player too.
Tied at 3-3, Northwood’s pro, Aaron “Noxes” Cadiz, scored a goal with five seconds remaining to hand Winthrop a loss in game one of the finals. In game two, Northwood outshot Winthrop 16-6, scoring four goals to Winthrop’s one.
Down 2-0 in the best-of-five finals, winning the championship would require Winthrop to reverse sweep Northwood. That’s exactly what the Eagles did.
It appeared as though Northwood was going to finish Winthrop off with ease in game three as the Timberwolves scored three unanswered goals in the first 84 seconds. However, the Eagles clawed back to tie the game at 3-3 and again at 4-4, and it was “Hound” who heroically scored the winning goal for Winthrop (with just two seconds left in the match) to keep the team’s championship hopes alive.
The Eagles carried that momentum into game four, easily defeating Northwood 4-2 behind three goals from the pro, “tcorrell.” Winthrop left no questions about it, scoring two goals in the final match (both credited to “Hound”) and holding Northwood scoreless.
On nine shot attempts by the Timberwolves in game five, Winthrop recorded eight saves, including five by “tcorrell,” who was named tournament MVP.
Winthrop’s coach expressed excitement on social media.
“I am so proud of these guys,” Sides shared on Twitter following the team’s comeback against Northwood.
Though Winthrop did not compete in the CRL championship, it’s safe to assume the Eagles would have performed well, as the eventual champion was Akron — Winthrop’s opponent in the CENC semifinals.
While Winthrop boasts in its Rocket League success, another esports team looks to continue to impress. Winthrop’s League of Legends team, highlighted by Tony “Saskio” Chau and William “Doxa” Lee, has advanced to the quarterfinals of the College League of Legends (CLOL) championship tournament and will face the University of Buffalo on May 28.
Graphic Courtesy to Collegiate Esports National Championship
