12/2/21

SCRANTON, Pa. -- The Lackawanna College Esports Valorant team kept their undefeated season alive with a 2-0 win over Monroe Community College in their first round NJCAAE playoff win on Thursday night.

The Falcons and the Tribunes started their playoff match-up on Split for their first map, with Lackawanna College choosing to start on defense. Initially, Lacakwanna College had some trouble keeping Monroe away from point. After the first five rounds, Monroe had the lead at 3-2. The ever-resilient Falcons bounced back, as they've done all year, and kicked into high gear for the rest of their defensive round. The Falcons would win out until the side change, taking seven rounds in a row on defense. The score was 9-3 Falcons when Lackawanna took over on offense. Similar to the first few rounds, Monroe came ready to play, as the Tribunes set up strong defensive measures to hold off the Falcons and win the first three rounds. The remaining rounds would go back-and-forth, but once the Falcons strategized a bit and found their way onto point, they would finish out strong. The final score on Split was 13-8, with Lackawanna College coming out on top and taking a 1-0 lead. Edwin Acosta (Gamertag: Axomaly) dropped a stellar KDA of 41/10/3 to help the Falcons to victory.
 
Ascent was the second map and the Falcons decided to substitute Lucas Fein (Gamertag: Shmippy) into the contest. The Falcons started out on defense yet again and this time around, every round was a battle. The rounds would go back and forth all the way to the side change, where the Falcons held a slim 7-5 advantage. Once again, it took a few rounds for the Falcons to find their rhythm on offense, but once they did, they took the reins and controlled the outcome of the second map. Lackawanna College would finish the match out in the 20^th round with a score of 13-7, moving themselves into the next round of the playoffs. Acosta was joined at the top of the Ascent leaderboard by Nathan Ayers (Gamertag: Quakian) with a KDA of 22/12/4 and Caden Delaney (Gamertag: bozi) with a KDA of 18/9/5.
 
The Lackawanna College Valorant squad moves on to the second round of the NJCAAE Valorant playoffs to face Bismark State College. The coaches are working out the date and time of this match so stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter to find out when round two will be played!