Esports Takes Down FIU and NYIT in Opening Weekend of Tespa Overwatch Championship

Esports Takes Down FIU and NYIT in Opening Weekend of Tespa Overwatch Championship

HARTSVILLE, S.C. - The Coker College Esports Overwatch team started their season today with 3 games in the Tespa Overwatch Championship, going 2-0 in the National League and 0-1 in the Regional League.

The first match of the day was against the New York Institute of Technology in the National League Bracket. The first map was King's Row and Michael Ponton started the season off with a bang by getting a team kill with a Dragonblade after being Nano'ed by Madison Schmidt. This allowed Coker to steamroll all the points, now all they had to do is hold off the Bears and while they managed to take the first point, Coker held them off at a chokepoint right outside the point. The next map was Nepal, during the final fight Dustin Brown was able to land Graviton Surge right outside the point, stopping the Bears in their tracks to take the round. In the next round, the Bears were able to come back and force a third and final round but this time it was Andrew Schick's turn to use the Graviton Surge to keep the players off the point to win the map, giving Coker the match win 2-0.

Next up was Florida International University in the second match in the National League. The Cobras returned to Nepal where they got a quick round win with Ponton consistently separating the Panthers with Mei's walls. The second round was back and forth with each team trading the point, but with some big plays by Dalton King on Reinhardt, Coker was able to take the point, win the map, and take the match 2-0. The second map was Blizzard World and Coker was set up to attack first. Although the push started off slow, Jonathan Gill was able to keep his team alive with multiple Transcendences and Sound Barriers, allowing his team to push through the entire map. Now they had to defend, and the Panthers were able to push through the first two points very quickly but with some good scouting from Schick, the Cobras were able to hold them off and win the match 2-0.

Last up was the Cobras first Regional League match against the University of South Carolina. The first map was Dorado and the Cobras started the game strong with a unique team comp with four DPS characters. This allowed them to push the first two points quickly but were sadly stopped just short of the third. Next, they didn't allow the Gamecocks to get a single point and took the first map. The next map was Volskaya Industries and this time USC came out with unique strategy strategy of their own. They played Mei on the first point defense and Coker was not able to find an answer for it, and this allowed the Gamecocks to hold them perfectly. During the defense stage for Coker, they were able to get a couple of quick kills, but USC managed to rally back to take the point and the second map. The final map was Junkertown, and it turned out the be the closest of the three maps. The beginning was not looking good as USC was able to counter the Cobra's Bastion strategy but after a quick switch to Pharah, they were able to push the cart just short of the second point. Coker was able to hold USC at the first point for a good bit of time but they were eventually able to break through. USC then used this momentum to push to the second point, winning the map and the match 1-2.

After these games this puts Coker at 2-0 in the National League and 0-1 in the Regional League. The Cobras will be back for their Varsity League matches this Tuesday against Full Sail University at 8PM EST, you can catch the action at www.twitch.tv/cokeresports. You can also follow them on at twitter at www.twitter.com/cokeresports. The Esports team would also like to extend a special thank you to Argandr and KCM for casting the matches.