BOSTON – Debuting their new varsity status on the collegiate esports scene, the Northeastern Overwatch and Rocket League teams recorded a pair of splits during their respective season-opening competitions on Saturday and Sunday.
OVERWATCH
Northeastern advanced as far as the Round of 16 during Saturday's Harrisburg University Esports Invitational, as powered by Nerd Street Gamers. All matches were contested as best-of-five maps with all tiebreakers taking place on Ilios.
The Huskies nearly swept their group stage matches, bookending 3-0 victories against St. Ambrose and Michigan around their 3-2 defeat to Purdue. NU won the opening two maps during its middle game against the Boilermakers (Lijiang Tower, Watchpoint: Gibraltar) but conceded the comeback across the next three, settling for a second-place finish in Group F and a bid to the knockout stage.
Pitted against the Group C champion and eventual tournament finalists, Northeastern did its best while attempting to contain Northwood during the Round of 16, despite exiting the field by its 3-0 defeat.
ROCKET LEAGUE
Northeastern was one of nearly 100 teams competing in Sunday's Open Qualifier that produced the first set of eight teams for the 16-team Eastern Conference of the fall 2020 Collegiate Rocket League (CRL) national championship. The double-elimination qualifier was contested primarily of best-of-three matches during its early rounds.
Rewarded by seed with a bye to Winners Round Two (round of 64), the Huskies started their pursuit with back-to-back 2-0 wins against Georgia (4-3, 2-0) and Illinois (8-2, 6-3). Upon reaching the Winners Round Four (round of 16), NU was relegated to the elimination bracket courtesy of its 2-0 loss (3-2, 3-1) to ÉTS (Montreal, Quebec).
Entering in Elimination Round Five, Northeastern traded opening games during its match against Louisville, overcoming its 4-3 loss to equalize with its 3-1 win. Dueling during the final game, the Huskies conceded first and were unable to recover, playing to the 1-0 loss to drop the match, 2-1.
At the time of its defeat, Northeastern was among the final 24 teams competing in the CRL Open Qualifier, needing three more victories to obtain one of the eight Eastern Conference berths.
UP NEXT
The Northeastern Overwatch team will await its next fall 2020 competition while the Rocket League team returns to the second of two CRL Open Qualifiers on Sunday, Sept. 27.
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