THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK ESPORTS... The Upper Iowa University Esports team swept their week of competition with a pair of wins in Valorant and Rocket League. The Peacocks won their first-ever Valorant match with a 2-1 victory over Central Methodist University (Mo.) on Monday before clinching a thrilling comeback victory against George Fox University's Team Gold with a reverse sweep to win 3-2 after starting in a 2-0 hole on Tuesday.
NECC VALORANT - 10/4... Upper Iowa claimed their first Valorant win in program history with a 2-1 victory over Central Methodist University (Mo.). The Peacocks started strong and claimed their first-ever map win by a score of 13-5 on the map "Icebox." The Eagles tied the best-of-three match at 1-1 with a 13-7 win on the map "Bind," but Central Methodist withdrew from the contest and forfeited the third map to give UIU a 2-1 win and even Upper Iowa's record at 1-1.
Map 1 (Icebox): The Peacocks had a dominant start to the first map as team captain
Caleb Glube clutched out a win in the first round, flipping the script after Central Methodist looked to be in control with a three to one player advantage. UIU put together a flawless round in the second round as they wiped out all five Eagles players without losing a single Peacock. Upper Iowa claimed a win in round three, and the Peacocks won rounds four and five while only losing one member of their squad. After flawlessly winning round six, the Peacocks controlled the economy and controlled the map against CMU.
A week after winning a program-best seven rounds in a loss last week, Upper Iowa opened their first map by winning six straight rounds to go up 6-0 in the best-of-13 map before Central Methodist managed to win their first round in round seven. UIU reclaimed control in the next round to go up 7-1, but CMU won round eight as the teams traded wins in four straight rounds. The Eagles secured a narrow, last-second victory in round 10 to bring the score to 7-3, and CMU won their third round in a row to cut their deficit to 7-4 in the 11th round.
The Peacocks won the 12th round to reclaim some momentum and go up 8-4 before switching sides on the map. In their first round on their new side, UIU picked up a win to go ahead 9-4. Firmly reclaiming the momentum, the Peacocks picked up a flawless round in the 14th round to go up 10-4 in the best-of-13 contest.
Upper Iowa won their next two rounds to go up 12-4 and bring it to a match point, but CMU was able to survive and keep the game going with a win in round 17. The Peacocks clinched their first map victory as a program with a flawless round in round 18 to win the opening map by a score of 13-5 and take a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-three match.
UIU Stats
Map 2 (Bind): UIU opened the second map on the attacking side, but the defending Eagles picked up the round one win to go up 1-0. Glube picked up a triple in the second round to tie things up 1-1 in the second round, and the Peacocks kept the momentum on their side with wins in rounds three and four to take a 3-1 lead.
A frenetic finish to the fifth round saw the teams wipe each other out, but CMU ended the firefight with the lone player standing and was able to defuse the spike with just second remaining to cut their deficit to 3-2. A similar finish in the sixth round saw
Cody Lawrence eliminate a CMU player while defusing the spike before getting eliminated, but he was able to secure a clutch win for UIU as the spike blew up and put UIU up 4-2.
Central Methodist won the next two rounds to tie the match at four rounds apiece. The Eagles picked up two quick kills in the ninth round, and UIU let the clock run out to save up some economy and give the team a better chance to compete in the ensuing rounds as CMU took their first map lead of the night at 5-4.
The play paid off in the next round as UIU was fully equipped and pushed hard early to collect three kills while losing just one to have a 4-2 player advantage. UIU won the round thanks to a three-kill round from new member
Aiden Zeller, as UIU tied the map at 5-5. Upper Iowa took an early advantage in round 11 and planted the spike, and even though CMU was able to wipe out the Peacock team, UIU claimed the clutch win as
Robert Ngo held off the Eagles long enough to have the spike explode and give UIU a 6-5 lead.
In the last round before switching to the defending side, Upper Iowa was unable to extend their lead as a Central Methodist win made it 6-6 going into the switch.
UIU had a 5-2 player advantage in round 13, but CMU was able to plant the bomb and pick up an unlikely win to go up 7-6 in their first round as attackers. The Eagles won the next two rounds to take a 9-6 advantage in the best-of-13 map. UIU was a second or two away from defusing the spike in the 16th round after making a couple of nice kills, but a long-distance ultimate ability from an Eagles player killed Glube while he was attempting to defuse the spike, winning the round for CMU and giving them a 10-6 lead.
The Eagles won their sixth and sevenths straight rounds to go up 12-6 and pull within one round of the map win, but Ngo picked up a triple as the Peacocks stayed alive with an impressive win in the19th round to cut their deficit to 12-7. Central Methodist was able to bounce back to win the 20th round and clinch the map win to tie the best-of-three match at 1-1.
UIU Stats
Map 3 (Split): Central Methodist was forced to withdraw from the match in the third round, giving UIU a 2-1 win by forfeit after two tightly contested maps. The Peacocks picked up their first Valorant win as a program to improve to 1-1 on the season in NECC competition.
Team Stats:
Aiden Zeller - Three-kill round (x4)
Caleb Glube - Three-kill round (x2), Clutch (x1)
Robert Ngo - Three-kill round (x1), Clutch (x1)
Cody Lawrence - Clutch (x1)
UIU Team - Flawless round (x3)
Upper Iowa's first week of competition was expunged from the record as a scheduling error saw them face a team from a higher division, turning the week into a bye and taking an uneven defeat off the UIU record books.
COACH'S QUOTES... "Peacock Valorant finally won their first map this week. It has been a long time coming, but I had faith in the team and faith in the process, and we had a good feeling going into this week. Even though we took the map three win by forfeit, we like and play well on the map "Split" and felt confident heading into the winner-take-all map." - Head Coach,
Jim Lowery
NECC ROCKET LEAGUE - 10/5... Upper Iowa matched up against a team from George Fox University in Rocket League for the second time in three weeks, this time facing GFU's Team Gold in a matchup of two teams with 1-1 records. Looking to even the score against UIU after a thrilling Peacock win in week one, GFU took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match. Upper Iowa took full advantage of a lengthy timeout to collect themselves after seeing their backs put against a wall, and the Peacocks responded with three consecutive wins to claim a 3-2 comeback victory and improve to 2-1 on the season.
George Fox scored the first goal of the first game at the 3:48 mark before doubling their lead to 2-0 with 2:15 on the clock.
Sean Odegard assisted
Brady Krupa on a goal with 59 seconds left, but GFU claimed a 2-1 win in the first game to go up 1-0 in the best-of-five contest.
George Fox scored 15 seconds into game two to go up 1-0 early, and GFU doubled their lead to 2-0 with a goal 41 seconds later at the 4:04 mark. Krupa scored at the 3:35 mark off an assist from Odegard to cut the UIU deficit in half, but GFU regained their two-goal lead at the 2:52 mark as they went up 3-1.
Cody Lawrence and Odegard had back-to-back shots bounce off the crossbar at the 2:15 mark as the Peacocks narrowly missed a chance to score. Neither team would score another goal as GFU held on to take a commanding 2-0 advantage in the match.
In the third game, GFU took a 1-0 lead early once again with a goal 30 seconds into their potential match-clinching game. Krupa assisted Odegard on a goal at the 3:06 mark to knot the score at 1-1, and the duo flipped roles for UIU's second goal as Odegard scored off a Krupa assist at the 1:59 mark to take a 2-1 lead. GFU took a slow dribble all the way into UIU's goal at the 1:18 mark to tie the score at 2-2, but Krupa scored off an Odegard assist again late in the match with just 19 seconds left to give UIU a 3-2 lead that they would not relinquish as the Peacocks staved off elimination to force a fourth game.
Krupa gave Upper Iowa an early lead with a goal 29 seconds into the fourth game as UIU scored first for the first time of the match. George Fox tied things up just 12 seconds later, but Odegard scored off a Krupa assist at the 4:06 mark to go up 2-1. After a few minutes without action following a high-scoring first minute, Krupa doubled the Peacock lead to 3-1 with a goal at the 1:14 mark. GFU scored with just 16 seconds remaining to cut their deficit to 3-2, and GFU put in a goal with just one second on the clock to force overtime. Lawrence made a game-saving save on a GFU shot 41 seconds into the overtime period, and Odegard scored the golden goal on the counterattack to give the Peacocks a 4-3 lead after 51 seconds of extra time, forcing a winner-take-all fifth game.
In the deciding fifth game, Odegard saw a shot sail just high and bounce off the crossbar at the 2:54 mark, but the missed shot turned into an assist as Krupa cleaned up the rebound to give UIU a 1-0 lead. The Peacock duo connected for another score just four seconds later after Krupa assisted Odegard to put UIU up 2-0. GFU scored at the 2:14 mark on a long shot to bring the score within one at 2-1, but Odegard scored a long shot off a bounce at the 1:44 mark to extend the UIU lead back to two at 3-1. George Fox kept it close by scoring a goal with 56 seconds left to bring the game within one score once again. Lawrence, the stellar substitute, made a save at the buzzer to clinch the 3-2 win for Upper Iowa and complete the comeback as the Peacocks won the match by a score of 3-2.
UIU Match Stats:
COACH'S QUOTES... "After losing game two, we took advantage of our timeout to reset. The players got up, walked to the front of the room, took a deep breath, walked back to their seats, and decided that we were the better team. We stopped making bad touches, forced them to create their own opportunities, and when they couldn't, we took advantage." - Head Coach,
Jim Lowery
UP NEXT... The Peacocks will play the University of British Columbia - Okanagan on Monday, Oct. 11 at 8:30 p.m. in Valorant before facing the Concordia University - Wisconsin in Rocket League on Tuesday, Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. Head to Twitch.tv/Peacock_Esports to cheer on the Peacocks and catch all the UIU action live or as recorded broadcasts after the completion of the contests.
