THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK ESPORTS... The Upper Iowa University Esports team closed their fall campaign with a pair of hard-fought matches. The Peacocks fell by a score of 2-0 in their best-of-three Valorant match against Purdue University's Team White on Sunday before falling by a score of 3-1 in their best-of-five Rocket League match against Buena Vista University on Tuesday.
NECC VALORANT - 11/7... Upper Iowa fell by a score of 2-0 in the best-of-three match against Purdue University's Team White. Opening play on the map "Icebox," the Peacocks fell by a score of 13-6 in the best-of-25 map. On the second map, "Ascent," the Peacocks fell by a score of 13-9 as the Boilermakers clinched a 2-0 win in the match.
Map 1 (Icebox): Starting on the attacking side, the Peacocks took an early 1-0 lead on the best-of-25 map after
Caleb Glube got UIU's first and fifth kill of the opening round against Purdue. Upper Iowa continued their strong start with a flawless second round as they wiped out the Boilermakers without losing a single player. Purdue cut their deficit to 2-1 after wiping out the Peacocks and defusing the spike to get back in the game. A Boilermaker win in round four tied the map at 2-2, and Purdue pushed their lead to 4-2 after a fourth straight win. The Peacocks got back on track with a win in round seven to cut their deficit to 4-3, and a three-kill round from
Syafiq Aqim Zainal in round eight helped UIU secure a win and tie the map at four rounds apiece. Glube picked up a round-ending triple kill in round nine to put UIU ahead 5-4, but a strong tenth round from Purdue tied the map at 5-5. The Boilermakers won each of the next two rounds to go up 7-5 and take an economy advantage into the switch. PU won its first round as the attackers to go up 8-5, and they took an 11-5 lead after continuing a strong start on the attacking side. The Peacocks got impressive play from Zainal and
Aiden Zeller in round 17 as Zeller got two kills, and Zainal finished with three kills and a late defuse as the last man standing to cut UIU's deficit to 11-6. The Peacocks could not continue their comeback as Purdue won the next two rounds to claim a 13-6 win on the map and go up 1-0 in the best-of-three match.
UIU Stats
Map 2 (Ascent): Starting as the defenders on map two, the Peacocks took an early 1-0 lead once again after
Cody Lawrence defused the spike bomb. Purdue pulled off a thrifty and flawless second round to tie the score at 1-1 and take the momentum, and they carried that momentum to a 2-1 lead after winning round three. Upper Iowa got back on track with an impressive win in round four that saw them work very well as a team and Zainal defuse the spike to tie the map at 2-2. Purdue won the next three rounds to reclaim a lead and go up 5-2, but a thrifty win for the Peacocks in round eight cut the UIU deficit to 5-3. The Boilermakers orchestrated a flawless round nine to go up 6-3, and the teams traded wins in the next two rounds to make it a 7-4 game. Purdue went on another three-round streak to go up 10-4, but the Peacocks put together a strong attack in rounds 15 and 16 to cut their deficit to 10-6 after back-to-back wins. Glube got the opening kill in round 17 as the Peacocks looked for a third consecutive win, but Purdue won the round to go up 11-6. A three-kill round from Zeller gave the Peacocks a win in round 18 and cut the Purdue lead to 11-7. UIU had a 3-v-3 situation in round 19 after planting the spike, but the Boilermakers broke through with a coordinated push to wipe out the Peacocks and defuse the spike to send it to a match point with a 12-7 lead. Glube drew first blood in UIU's must-win round 20, and eight combined kills in an 18-second stretch saw the Peacocks come out on top of an intense firefight after a round-winning double-kill from Zeller to extend the match and being UIU within four at 12-8. A three-kill round from Glube in round 21 helped Upper Iowa cut their deficit to 12-9, and the Peacocks looked to be in good shape in round 22 after three quick kills gave them a 4-v-2 player advantage. Despite the strong start, Purdue got a four-kill round from one of their agents to win the round and clinch a 13-9 win on the map and a 2-0 win in the match.
UIU Stats
NECC ROCKET LEAGUE - 11/9... Upper Iowa matched up against Buena Vista University in Rocket League on Tuesday. BVU took early leads in each game of the high-scoring match, but UIU took the early lead in the match with a win in game one. After winning game two, the Beavers came out on top in a long overtime period in game three before thwarting a UIU comeback in a high-scoring game four to claim a 3-1 win over the Peacocks in the best-of-five contest.
In game number one, Buena Vista struck first at the 3:25 mark to go up 1-0. The Beavers quickly doubled their lead to 2-0 with a goal just 15 seconds later, but
Brady Krupa needed just two seconds to answer by scoring a goal off of the kickoff to make it a 2-1 game.
Sean Odegard assisted Krupa on a goal at the 1:58 mark to tie the score at 2-2. Odegard connected to Krupa again with 1:11 on the clock and gave the Peacocks their first lead at 3-2, but the Beavers answered with a goal just six seconds later to knot the score at three goals apiece. Krupa assisted Odegard to quickly reclaim the UIU lead with 57 seconds on the clock. Odegard assisted Krupa again on a long goal with 21 seconds on the clock to put UIU up 5-3, and the Peacocks held on to go up 1-0 in the best-of-five match.
BVU took a quick 1-0 lead for the second game in a row with a goal just 15 seconds in, but the Peacocks quickly answered after
Cody Lawrence assisted Odegard on a tying goal just six seconds later. Krupa recorded a save and scored a solo goal on the counterattack with 3:08 on the clock to give UIU a 2-1 lead. BVU scored an impressive, long goal with 1:35 on the clock to tie the score at 2-2. Lawrence and Krupa made back-to-back saves with just over a minute remaining before the Beavers claimed a 3-2 lead with 1:02 on the clock after a strong offensive push. Krupa saw a last-second shot miss wide as UIU attempted to send the game to overtime, but BVU held on to tie the match at 1-1.
Odegard made an early save in game three as Buena Vista threatened to score another early goal, but BVU was able to convert on a bad UIU touch at the 4:21 mark to go up 1-0. Odegard quickly answered with a goal just six seconds later to make up for the UIU mistake and tie the game. The Beavers scored with 3:56 on the clock to go up 2-1, and they went up 3-1 after a goal at the 2:54 mark. Odegard scored a solo goal with 2:11 on the clock as UIU cut their deficit to 3-2. Krupa played a ball to the front of the goal that Lawrence dunked in to tie the game at three goals apiece with 1:23 on the clock. After going to overtime, the teams traded dangerous attacks and strong defense, and it took a whopping 3:28 of extra time before the Beavers scored the golden goal on a counterattack to claim the 4-3 win and take a 2-1 advantage in the match.
In a must-win game four for the Peacocks, Buena Vista scored first once again after a goal just seven seconds into the game. Krupa missed a shot that bounced off the top of the crossbar at the 4:35 mark, and BVU scored with 4:09 on the clock to go up 2-0. A missed UIU touch led to a third Beaver goal at the 3:18 mark as UIU faced a 3-0 deficit, and BVU pushed their lead to 4-0 with 2:57 on the clock. Krupa came up with a quick answer just six seconds later to put the Peacocks on the board, but the Beavers reclaimed their four-goal lead at the 1:57 mark after going up 5-1. Odegard slow-played a ball and juked out a pair of BVU defenders with 1:40 on the clock as UIU made it a 5-2 game, and Krupa assisted Odegard on another quick goal with 1:34 on the clock to cut the UIU deficit to 5-3. Odegard returned the favor with a long assist to Krupa at the 58-second mark as UIU made it a 5-4 game, but BVU scored with 45 seconds on the clock to go up 6-4. The Beavers held on to clinch a 3-1 win in the best-of-five match.
UIU Match Stats:
The Peacocks see their fall season come to a close after compiling a 3-5 record in Rocket League and a 1-6 record in Valorant. Upper Iowa will resume play in the spring, but fans can head to Twitch.tv/Peacock_Esports watch recorded broadcasts of the fall action in the meantime.
