OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Esports programs put together another banner year under fifth-year head coach Daniel Peaslee as the Rocket League team captured its third consecutive NACE Varsity Plus Championship while the Super Smash Bros. Kings team put together its first winning season in program history.

Rocket League

The Rocket League trio of Javier Cerrillo Soto (Cl0ver), Jadon Maxwell (Brainz) and Luis Reyes (S0l) put together another incredible season as the team captured both the NACE Varsity Plus East 4 regular season and tournament titles, capturing the program's seventh championship in the last three years.

During the regular season, the RL squad nearly put together an unblemished season as the Evangels went 6-1 and were able to edge out Messiah (5-2) and Eastern Tennessee State (5-2) for the conference regular season championship with its 3-1 win over Florida Southern on Nov. 4.

Earning a bye for the NACE Varsity Plus East 4 Tournament, the Evangels were immediately rematched against Florida Southern in the semifinal on Nov. 11 and were able to grind out 3-1, 2-1 and 3-2 victories to come away with the 3-0 sweep.

MACU then had to square off against the only team that defeated it during the regular season, Lawrence Tech (Mich.) in the championship match. However, after suffering a tough 3-2 defeat on Nov. 4, the Evangels completely turned the tables on the Blue Devils.

In the best of seven series, Mid-America Christian thoroughly dominated LTU on its way to a 4-0 sweep by getting wins of 4-1, 3-1, 3-0 and 3-1. In the contests, Cl0ver was simply incredible in the attack, netting six goals, including putting up a hat trick in the opening 4-1 win.

"During the last match of the season before playoffs, I told the guys something I should have told them earlier in the season. No more taking matches to the last round. Just in it in three! That's all you get." stated Peaslee. "When we wrote the match numbers on the whiteboard, we only wrote the minimum number of rounds for us to win. When we went into the championship, what usually was a best-of-five situation was a best-of-seven match. We wrote four rounds on the board to document the four rounds of scores. The guys stuck by this and played extremely well every round. They were in-sync and locked in for the match, bringing home another MACU Esports championship. Their skill and dedication are gifts they are using for Jesus, MACU and each other. I'm proud of all their hard work in yet another winning season!"

The result marked the third consecutive fall season where the Evangels captured both the NACE Varsity Plus regular season and tournament championships, first accomplishing the feat during the 2022 fall season with a 4-1 win over Kansas to capture the East 3 Championship and then picking up a 4-3 win over Messiah for the East 6 Championship in 2023.

During the 2022 fall season, the Evangels also competed in the NECC as well as OACE, where the team captured all three championships by winning the OACE Grand Finals over Oklahoma City on Nov. 19 before taking the NECC Emergents Central Championship with a 4-0 win over Health Sciences & Pharmacy (Mo.) on Dec. 9.

Super Smash Bros.

Competing with two teams during the fall season, the MACU Super Smash Bros. Kings team put together the best season that a SSBU squad had ever accomplished at Mid-America Christian. The Evangels finished the year with a 5-2 record in NACE Varsity Plus East 5 competition while the Knights team wrapped up the year with a 2-5 mark in East 7 play.

The Kings, consisting of team captain James Orquiz, Malcolm Roberts, Austin Kyle and Joshua Waller with John Gia in reserve, put together a remarkable run during the regular season help the Evangels finish third in the East 5 regular season standings.

Matched up against Loyola-New Orleans in the NACE East 5 Quarterfinals on Nov. 14, the Evangels found themselves down early as the Wolfpack took six of the first nine stocks from MACU. However, Malcolm Roberts playing as Min Min put together an incredible run through LUNO's squad, taking nine stocks while losing just one against three straight opponents to give MACU the 5-0 win in the opening contest.

The second match was tightly contested as Joshua Waller playing as Joker picked up a win to tie the match up at 6-6, but a late run by the Wolfpack gave Loyola-New Orleans a 6-3 lead in stocks. While Roberts was able to get MACU back in the win column with a 3-2 victory, the Evangels still had their backs against the ropes as he had to win the final match without losing a single stock. However, the freshman phenom came up clutch by taking the final three stocks to give MACU the nail-biting 1-0 win, propelling the Evangels to the 2-0 match victory.

The win marked MACU's first ever win in NACE Varsity Plus Tournament play.

Meanwhile, the Knights, led by team captain Hope Walker and joined by Elijah Bates, Jack Search, Cesar Stokes and reserve Aaron Dodson wrapped up their regular season on a high note with a 2-0 win over Howard Payne (Texas) to lock up a spot in the East 7 Tournament. However, the Evangels fell to eventual East 7 Champion North Texas in the quarterfinal round on Nov. 14.

Overwatch 2

After winning the NACE Starleague Varsity Plus West-Central 2 Championship last spring, the Overwatch 2 squad consisting of team captains Aaron Dodson (Immortal) and Rushell Herrera (SpicyGhost), key returner Hayden Linville (Golden) and newcomers Lantis Wolfe (Mantis), Irving Mejia (IrvingPro002) and James Ramey (Crewdog) were looking to try to repeat while competing in the East 9 division this fall.

After suffering a 3-0 loss to open the season, the Overwatch 2 team bounced back in a big way by winning three of its next four matches to get back above .500. However, the Evangels had a tough finish to the regular season, losing its last two matches in league play to fall to 3-4 to finish sixth in the East 9 standings.

Facing off against a Capitol Tech team that it upset 3-2 during the regular season, the Evangels found no such luck in the East 9 Quarterfinals as MACU fell 3-1 on Nov. 12 to see its season end.

League of Legends

The MACU League of Legends team made its return after missing the spring season due to graduating some key pieces, including Alex Shell (walmart evolved), Chris Swinney (OGKingJr) and Ethan Davidson (ddavidson), the Evangels returned to action with a mix of returners and newcomers to compete in the 2024 fall season.

Along with team captain John Gia (Yohon), the Evangels also brought back Tristin Barton (Ponyboy1221) and James Orquiz (exiledmex) as well as last year's reserve Christian Martinez (FlyingXyzan). As for newcomers, MACU welcomed in Enzo Nogue (Noguetti), Jorge Rios and Alanna Winston (Airyn).

However, it was a tough season for the League of Legends team competing in the Division VII West B region as the Evangels went 0-7 during the regular season.

Valorant

For the first time ever, MACU Esports added a Valorant team captained by Joshua Waller (Okghost86) and Lantis Wolfe (Mantis) with the team as a whole consisting of Myles Garcia (Nobueno0718), Emma Garland (Bunny_Egg134), John Gia (Yohon), Justin Collins (Zoldyklap52) as well as Malcolm Roberts (Mj) in reserve.

Competing in the NECC Division IX Midwest A grouping, the Evangels struggled in their first season as a program, notching just one win to wrap-up the year with a 1-6 league record. However, MACU will be looking to be building to its Valorant roster heading into the spring with some new additions that will be seeking to make an impact in the program's second semester of competition.

The MACU Esports teams will return to action in the spring semester with completion resuming in early February.