Esports Rundown: Valorant, Rocket League making strides

DEFIANCE, Ohio - Defiance College Esports continues some of the busiest weeks of the fall so far while churning out positive outcomes in multiple gaming competitions.

Starting with WHAC Rocket League play, the Yellow Jackets fell 3-0 (11-1, 12-2, 16-0) to undefeated Rochester Christian on Wednesday. Asa Moledor, Cooper Sloan and Blake Bowman all scored one goal apiece while Sloan made 10 saves during the Warriors barrage.

Defiance earned two wins in NECC Rocket League action on Thursday. The varsity team overcame a 2-0 deficit to pull off the comeback against Carroll with a  3-2 victory (0-2, 1-4, 4-2, 3-2, 4-1) to improve to 3-0 in that conference. The Gold team picked up their first win of the fall season with a 3-0 win over Carlow.

Last Monday, the Valorant team fell 2-1 to North Dakota State but picked up their first map win so far. Auston Howland keeps posting gaudy numbers with 86 kills and had average combat score of 395, including an impressive 509 in one map. Daniel Aranovsky posted 43 kills and Damien Martinez added 32 to boost the team with an ACS over 150 (215, 160 respectively). Lydia Fernandez, Elijah Mayes, and Fernando Sanabria Nieves also competed for the Yellow Jackets.

The Yellow Jackets have three WHAC matches for Rocket League this week beginning on Tuesday night against Cornerstone. On Wednesday night, the Rocket League team squares off against Lawrence Tech and Aquinas from the Defiance Esports Lab. The WHAC Rocket League schedule has just one more week of the regular season before the conference play-in tournament takes place on Oct. 29. DC also had NECC matches in Rocket League on Thursday before Overwatch 2 matches up against Ohio Wesleyan on Friday night.

-JACKETS-