Imaginology Spring Clash Tournament Recap - Beaten, but Not Broken

The Coastline Community College Esports Club VALORANT and Rocket League teams competed last weekend, on April 24th and 25th!

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This last weekend, Coastline’s Esports Club’s VALORANT and Rocket League teams got their feet wet by competing in their first ever public tournament, the OC Fair Imaginology Spring Clash Tournament. Though both of our teams lost, one thing that they were able to walk away with was competitive experience and a deeper thirst to prove themselves. Anxious for more tournaments to come, Coastline's teams' defeats will only drive them towards victory in the future.

Valorant

VALORANT Tournament

Going into the tournament, the CCC team knew that they were up against giants. Their opponents, the HHH team was an all Immortal team, which is the second highest rank you can be in VALORANT, and CCC was not quite to that rank themselves yet, being Bronze, the second lowest rank in VALORANT. As a result, the best two out of three tournament went 2-0 with HHH winning it all. At the end of the first round, Gee had five kills, JayLunatic had four kills, Meatboy had two kills, WeberHoops14 had one kills, and Bigkeat31 had no kills. The second round saw some progression with Gee totaling fifteen kills, WeberHoops14 with six kills, JayLunatic with six kills, Meatboy with three kills, and Bigkeat31 with two kills. In the first round of the tournament, with twelve matches needed to win, CCC didn’t win a single one, but consistently got one or two kills on the enemy team per match. Our VALORANT team just needed to be a bit more patient with their shots and more selective of their starting gear so that they could work together seamlessly as a team. That aside, the game really came down to experience, and the HHH team had a lot more both individually and as a team.

Things got exciting when CCC picked up one match in the second half because of their calculated team work and excellent reading of the enemy’s tactics. JayLunatic, one of CCC's expert VALORANT players, after avoiding the enemy's sight, snuck behind and got one kill then unfortunately died himself. Not long after, another CCC player, Bigkeat31 layed down some fire to draw the enemy's attention, as his teammate Gee from behind a wall was able to, without hesitation, take out two enemy players with his shotgun, leaving the teams at 4 players for CCC and 2 for HHH. Gee continued to scout out the last remaining players and got one more enemy player down with precise aim with his machine gun, but went down himself from the last enemy standing. With the pressure mounting to get one point on the board for CCC, Meatboy pulled the trigger to take out the last remaining enemy, and with that, they landed their one and only round win for the tournament. You could see a lot of improvement throughout the game from round to round with the CCC team, especially in the second half of the tournament. As the commentators said, they started to “learn the dance” of the other team.

After the tournament was over, JayLunatic commented that “I honestly felt like it was a win for myself, I had never/rarely played against that high of levels being stuck in bronze… and to go toe to toe a few rounds was fun”. JayLunatic and Gee especially performed surprisingly well against the stacked opposing team and were good sports for Coastline Community College.

CCC’s VALORANT team competition took place last Saturday, April 24^th, against a team called HHH from Orange County. VALORANT is a 5v5 first-person shooter game where opposing teams pick unique characters with special abilities and switch sides from attacker and defender as they battle it out. If you’re interested in learning more about VALORANT, check out my “How to Get Into VALORANT” blog.

For parents and students alike interested in catching the opening chat before the tournament, the start of the VALORANT stream, streamed through EsportsCCP, began with a conversation about all things collegiate esports. Some of the topics covered included how to get into esports, whether or not you need a coach, how to get colleges to notice you as an esports athlete, and the various other jobs that exist in the esports world outside of being a professional player. This chat featured Katherine, the Esports Professional Expert for Coastline’s Esports Club, and Dr. Emerson, a Dean at Coastline Community College. Also in attendance was frequent visitor to Coastline College meetings, the collegiate esports coach Atomic_B, rocket league collegiate athlete Quanzec, and Westminister College esports recruiter BuisterGold.

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Rocket League Tournament

Unfortunately, the Coastline Rocket League team’s game didn’t get streamed because they didn’t make it far enough into their tournament on Sunday, April 25^th. _Mr Withered_, a member of the CCC Rocket League team, informed me of the complete wash their game was. He told me that they lost 5-0 in their first game and 10-1 in their second game. In his words, he said “the whole thing felt impossible”, but they gave it their best effort and had fun competing against such high ranked players. The day before, _Mr Withered_, BananaSlugg, and 3clips321 competed in a ranked Rocket League tournament, put on through the game itself, and they won. Before their tournaments, they practiced in ranked and casual modes to warm up. “It was for us to understand what we are capable of” says _Mr Withered_. Their standard formation is _Mr Withered_ and 3clips321 as attackers and BananaSlugg as defender and goalie. “With that in place, we went through the entire rank tourney with just that and we won”. _Mr Withered_, BananaSlugg, and 3clips321 put on a good show and performed exceptionally well for Coastline Community College. They are looking forward to future Rocket League tournaments.

Although Coastline’s Rocket League team lost their tournament, they still compete in in-game tournaments and find success there. They have been fueling up their desire to win a public tournament and look forward to future opportunities where they can compete again. Rocket League is a 3v3 sports game where players control cars that have rocket thrusters as they work together to play soccer. If you’re interested in learning more about Rocket League, check out my “How to Get into Rocket League” blog.

Similar to the situation that happened with the VALORANT tournament, CCC was outmatched with one Platinum, one Diamond, and one Champion ranked players against the opposing team of three Grand Champions, which is the highest rank in Rocket League. These tournaments were open entry, so any level of player could join. That’s why both our Rocket League and VALORANT teams were outmatched from the beginning. The stream was still enjoyable, as there is a high level of Rocket League play from other collegiate teams from across the states. The stream was commentated by Pwr_Ryan, Squidd, and Perino, who chatted before the tournament about how to get into casting and game commentary.

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After losing to extremely high leveled teams, both the Rocket League and the VALORANT Coastline teams are hungry to prove themselves in future tournaments to come. The Coastline Community College’s Esports Club currently has around thirty members and is looking for players to fill out their Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, and CS:GO teams. They are also always looking for more players for VALORANT and Rocket League and welcome anybody and everybody to come and compete casually and competitively in their friendly gaming community.