Sangamon Sun

The Illinois College Esports team participated in the Midwest Esports Conference LAN at the Hyatt Regency, Deerfield. On the first day of competition, Jake Petrovich secured second place in Smash, while other team members achieved first-place finishes in Madden, NBA 2k, and Mortal Kombat.

In Rocket League, IC completed the round robin phase with a 7-5 record, placing fourth among seven teams. Notably, they managed to win a game against Cleveland State University (CSU), the top seed. In their initial encounter with CSU, IC delivered a 3-0 victory with strong defensive play. This was CSU's only series loss during the round robin stage.

Earlier in the day, IC engaged Cornell College in a closely contested five-game series. After leading 3-0 in game five, Cornell tied it up before IC clinched victory by scoring three consecutive goals.

Later on, IC faced CSU again. Despite an early 2-0 lead by IC, CSU turned the tables and won the match. The final game was intensely competitive and extended into overtime before CSU's Ciprocate scored the decisive goal at 6:59.

Head Coach David Seering expressed optimism for day two: "We're heading into tomorrow with confidence knowing that we can take games and series off the best teams in the tournament. The day was a marathon with about 11 hours of games and we plan to go far on day 2."

The event will continue on Sunday at 10:00 AM in Deerfield.