OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Esports fall 2023 season will be ending this week with two of its teams battling for championships as the Rocket League team will be battling Messiah in the NACE Starleague East 6 Championship on Monday while the League of Legends squad will face off against the University of Hawaii-West O'ahu for the NECC Emergents West title on Wednesday.
The Rocket League team enters Monday's championship by putting together another remarkable regular season with an 11-2 overall record and a perfect 7-0 record in NACE Starleague play. Captained by Luis Reyes (s0l), the trio featuring Jadon Maxwell (BrainZ) and Javier Cerillo Soto (Cl0ver) have been the centerpieces of the highly success squad.
The Evangels battled Mary Washington (Va.) in the East 6 Semifinal and put together a commanding 2-0 lead through the first two games after defeating the Eagles 7-1 and 4-1. UMW battled back to win the third game with a late goal to secure a 4-3 win over MACU, but the Evangels were able to grind out a hard-fought 2-1 win in game four before wrapping up the best of seven match with a 5-3 victory in game five, securing the 4-1 final.
The Evangels will be looking to try to repeat as NACE Starleague champs after defeating the Kansas Jayhawks 4-1 for the East 3 title on Nov. 28, 2022. That NACE Starleague Championship was one of three titles the Rocket League squad won during the fall 2022 campaign as MACU also claimed the NECC Emergents Central Championship with a 4-0 sweep over Health & Sciences of St. Louis on Dec. 9, 2022 as well as the OACE State Championship on Nov. 19, 2022 by defeating crosstown rival Oklahoma City by a score of 3-0.
The championship contenders faced each other earlier this season on Oct. 30 in a thrilling five-game match where four of the five contests were decided by one goal while MACU pulled out the 2-1 win in game five on Cl0ver's game-winning goal in overtime.
The League of Legends team of captain John Gia (Yohon), Ethan Davidson (ddavidson), Tristan Barton (Ponyboy1221), Chris Swinney (OGKingJr) and Alex Shell (walmart evolved) enter the title tilt after putting together an 8-3 record during the season and went 4-1 in NECC Emergents West play.
The Evangels opened NECC Tournament play with a strong 2-0 win over Omaha, advancing to the semifinal round to face Montana in a rematch. In last week's semi, the third-seeded Evangels had to battle back from a game down to the Grizzlies with absolutely dominant performances in game two and game three to secure the 2-1 win, marking the second time MACU took two out of three against Montana after also facing the Griz in the regular season on Oct. 18.
The Evangels will be facing against a Hawaii-West O'ahu team that has been on a Cinderella run in the Emergents West Tournament. After going 3-2 in league play, fifth-seeded UHWO upset No. 4 seed Oklahoma City Community College in the Quarterfinal and then stunned top-seeded New Mexico Tech 2-1 in the Semifinal round last week.
The Rocket League Championship is slated for a 6 p.m. start on Monday while the League of Legends title bout will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The matches can be watched on MACU Esports' Twitch channel.
