THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK ESPORTS... The Upper Iowa University Esports team fell in both their Valorant and Rocket League matches this week despite playing overtime rounds in each game. The Peacocks fell by a score of 2-0 in their best-of-three Valorant match against the University of Alabama in Huntsville's Team Yellow on Monday before falling by a score of 3-1 in their best-of-five Rocket League match against New Mexico Tech on Tuesday.
NECC VALORANT - 10/18... Upper Iowa fell by a score of 2-0 in the best-of-three match against the University of Alabama in Huntsville's Team Yellow. Opening play on the map "Bind," the Peacocks fell by a score of 13-4 in the best-of-25 map. On the second map, "Icebox," Upper Iowa bounced back, and the Peacocks and Chargers needed overtime rounds to decide the map winner. UIU lost the 26th round by mere fractions of a second, and UAH went on to win by two to claim the 15-13 win in the map and a 2-0 win in the match.
Map 1 (Bind): The Peacocks faced an early deficit in the best-of-25 map after Alabama Huntsville took an early 4-0 lead. UIU won the fifth and seventh rounds to cut the score to 5-2, but UAH reclaimed their early momentum by winning four consecutive rounds to take a 9-2 lead. Upper Iowa claimed a win in the 12th round as
Brady Krupa was the last player standing, cutting the UIU deficit to 9-3. The Chargers answered with wins in three consecutive rounds to go up 12-3 and come within one round of winning the map, but the Peacocks won the do-or-die 16th round after
Aiden Zeller got a late double kill to keep UIU alive and make the score 12-4. Alabama Huntsville thwarted the Upper Iowa comeback attempt with a win in the next round, winning the map by a score of 13-4 and taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three match.
UIU Stats
Map 2 (Icebox): Upper Iowa dropped round one despite holding a 3-2 player advantage as Alabama Huntsville took the early 1-0 lead. The Peacocks bounced back with a win in round two to tie the map at one round apiece, and they used that momentum to propel themselves to five consecutive wins and a 5-1 lead. The Chargers stopped the bleeding and prevented the Peacocks from taking a more commanding lead with a win in round seven, and UAH turned the momentum in their favor with six straight wins to go up 7-5. Needing to get back to their winning ways, Upper Iowa outlasted Alabama Huntsville in round 13 as
Robert Ngo was the last player alive and had enough time to defuse the spike bomb and make it a 7-6 game. UIU tied the score at 7-7 with a win in the next round, but UAH answered back to go up 8-7. The Peacocks strung together three straight rounds to go up 10-8 in the best-of-25 map, but the Chargers kept things close with back-to-back wins of their own to tie the map at ten rounds apiece.
Upper Iowa broke the tie with a win in the 21st round, and
Caleb Glube took out two Chargers in the next round after UIU was a man down early in the 22nd round. Ngo got a nice kill to make it a 3-v-2 advantage for UIU, but UAH turned the tables and took out the Peacock trio to win the round and knot the score at 11-11. Glube got a triple kill in the 23rd round to help the Peacocks pull within one round of victory at 12-11.
Syafiq Aqim Zainal got a late double kill in round 24 to give the Peacocks a 3-1 man advantage, but a triple kill from the last Charger standing gave UAH a clutch win and sent the map into overtime rounds. In the first overtime round, Glube was the last Peacock standing as he faced a 1-v-2 player deficit, but he got a kill in the final seconds before attempting to plant the spike. Glube looked to have completed the plant in the nick of time, but the timer went off a fraction of a second before the plant was complete, giving UAH the win and putting them up 13-12. Needing a win in round 26 to stay alive, UIU got the first two kills to claim a 5-3 player advantage. UAH got three quick kills late in the round to flip the script, and
Nick Finder was unable to get the clutch win despite taking out a Charger player. Alabama Huntsville claimed the 14-12 win in extra rounds to clinch the second map and claim the 2-0 win in the match in the process.
UIU Stats
NECC ROCKET LEAGUE - 10/19... Upper Iowa matched up against the New Mexico Tech Miners in Rocket League on Tuesday. It was a tightly contested match as two rounds were won by way of golden goal in overtime, and the Peacocks took a 1-0 lead with an overtime win in the first round. The Miners claimed a 3-1 win in the best-of-five contest with three straight wins, including an overtime win in round four.
The Miners took an early 1-0 lead with a goal just 33 seconds into the first game against UIU. The score remained 1-0 for the majority of the game, but
Brady Krupa scored off an assist from
Sean Odegard with just nine seconds left on the clock to tie the score at 1-1. The UIU duo connected in identical fashion after 24 seconds of extra time as the Peacocks claimed a 2-1 win in round one, thanks to Krupa's golden goal.
In round two, the Miners scored first once again as they took a 1-0 lead with 2:23 on the clock. NMT doubled their lead with a goal just 12 seconds later, but the Peacocks cut their deficit in half by answering with a quick goal at the 2:00 mark after Odegard assisted
Cody Lawrence on a goal. New Mexico Tech pushed their lead back to two with 41 seconds on the clock and held on to win by a score of 3-1 and tie the match at 1-1.
NMT struck first for the third consecutive game, going up 1-0 at the 4:19 mark. The Miners tapped in a goal with 2:14 on the clock to go up 2-0, and they scored again at the 1:51 mark to take a 3-0 lead. New Mexico Tech kept their foot on the gas and increased their advantage to 4-0 with 1:36 remaining. Krupa scored a solo goal to cut the UIU deficit to 4-1 with 34 seconds left, but the Miners held on to win 4-1 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Game four followed the same script as the first three after the Miners scored first at the 4:26 mark to go up 1-0. Krupa scored off an assist from Odegard at the 3:35 mark to knot the score at one goal apiece, and the score remained 1-1 when the buzzer sounded. In extra time, neither team was able to convert for an extended period as each squad played good offense and better defense. NMT saw a shot go just high at the 1:22 mark as it bounced off the crossbar, and the Peacocks played strong defense to thwart a number of dangerous shots by the Miners in quick succession. Neither team was able to claim an advantage after three minutes of extra time, but New Mexico Tech broke the tie at the 3:09 mark to clinch the 2-1 round win by golden goal and claim the 3-1 win in the best-of-five match.
UIU Match Stats:
UP NEXT... The Peacocks will play the University of South Alabama on Monday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. in Valorant before facing the California State University, Dominguez Hills in Rocket League on Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. Monday's Valorant match will be broadcast on the conference's Twitch channel, and fans can catch the action on Twitch.tv/NECC_Esports. Head to Twitch.tv/Peacock_Esports on Tuesday to cheer on the Peacocks and catch all the UIU action live or as a recorded broadcast after the completion of the contest.
