December 18, 2020
Scranton, PA - The Falcons fall to the Northern Virginia Nighthawks in the NJCAAE Valorant National Championship match. Tonight's best of 5 championship series started out on Bind and immediately NOVA's defense started off strong. The Falcons tried several pushes onto B site but were almost instantly shut down each time. The Nighthawks were well placed on site and were able to lockdown the Falcons' every attempt to plant the spike. Edwin "Krypt" Acosta on Jett tried utilizing his maneuverability alongside of Nathan "Quakian" Ayers' flashes with Skye to push into the defense but NOVA had their feet firmly planted. It wasn't until the 9th round on Bind that the Falcons would win a round by very aggressively charging onto site and capitalizing on elbow control. The Falcons were beginning to pick up the pace, but the Nighthawks had all the momentum in their favor and did not let Lackawanna gain any more ground. Going into the Falcons' defensive rounds, they were down 1-11 and would not be able to grab any more rounds, losing the first map, 1-13.
The second map was set to Split, and Lackawanna had to come out swinging in order to gain some momentum. The Falcons started off with a beautiful B push through mid and were able to get numbers on NOVA early. After Lackawanna took the first round, the Nighthawks answered quickly with a crushing triple-kill to secure the second round. The Falcons' attack on Split was looking strong but they were getting too aggressive as time was running down and letting the Nighthawks pick them off one by one. NOVA began to pick up steam and halted any momentum that Lackawanna had. At the side change the score was 2-10 in the Nighthawks favor. The Falcons defense would need to perform perfectly in order to gain an advantage on this map. Unfortunately, NOVA's offense was too aggressive for Lackawanna to handle as they pushed onto site 3 rounds in a row with no contest, taking the second map and bringing the series to 2-0.
The third and final map of the series was set to Icebox which is a relatively new map to Valorant. Lackawanna had yet to play a competitive match on this map during the fall season and it proved to be a problem right away. The Nighthawks seemed to know Icebox like the back of their hands and began to run a clinic on the Falcons. On attack, NOVA would win the first 5 rounds in a row before Lackawanna made some defensive changes to win the 6th round. The Nighthawks would continue their offensive onslaught with very impressive snipes coming from Ayry The Falcons' defense managed to pick up 2 more rounds before the side change bringing the score to 3-9 but had a lot of ground to make up on offense with a 6-round deficit. Lackawanna was able to pick up their first 2 attack rounds with strategic plays and pushes on site, but NOVA didn't let up the pressure. The Nighthawks defense would go on to win the next 4 rounds in a row in order to seal the match and the NJCAAE Valorant National Championship, 3-0 over Lackawanna College.
The Falcons' Valorant squad finishes in 2nd place in the NJCAAE fall season in their first semester of competition in this game title. An amazing accolade for the team and the esports program. A huge shoutout to the Valorant roster, Edwin "Krypt" Acosta, Nathan "Quakian" Ayers, Logan "BeddyLogo" Bednash, Michael "Salimander"Bochnovich, and AJ "gummypwns" Smith for grinding all season long in-game and in the classroom. These student-athletes deserved to be in the national championship match, and this will not be the last time you see the Falcons' Valorant squad in action!
-submitted by Teddy Delaney
