Pride finish 2024 spring seasons with pair of championships

 

Heading into the College Call of Duty League Midwest Regional Playoffs, the Pride would face off against tough opponents in Iowa State and Baldwin Wallace. Alec dos Santos, Ben Blackburn, Ethan Klecker, Gavin Breed, and Dominick Gaspie gave it their all but unfortunately would come up short, losing their two matchups and ending their Spring season in the Top 24 of the Midwest.

 

 

Tommy Rea took on ECPI University in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference playoffs. After a runner-up performance in the Fall semester, Rea would unfortunately have his Spring post-season cut short after suffering a 1-2 loss to ECPI.

 

 

Looking to defend their Fall championships, Jacob Schemmel, Jeffrey Dema, and Derryl had their eyes on continuing their dominance throughout the ECAC postseason. In the semifinals, the Pride would finish in 2^nd place for Duos and 7^th place for Trios, qualifying the team for the Finals. In the championship matches, the team was able to carry their momentum forwards and put up a strong performance against their opponents, finishing in third place for Duos and ending as the runners-ups for Trios, awarding the Pride with a third place and second place trophy.

 

Closing out the remainder of the Fortnite season, the Pride headed into the NACE Starleague Collegiate Series Split 2 Championships after qualifying for the playoffs through their performance in the first Open back in March. In the championship match, the Pride picked up a single Victory Royale and kept consistent placing in the remaining games, ending overall as the 3^rd place Duo.

 

 

In the ECAC playoffs, Daniel Mycroft would make quick work of all of his opponents, sweeping through the entire competition all the way up to the Finals matchup against Cumberland University. In the championship series, Mycroft would once again sweep the series 3-0, claiming the first ECAC Madden championship for the Pride.

 

Meanwhile, Mycroft would make his way down to Detroit, Michigan to compete in the RallyCry Collegiate Madden Championships, held in conjunction with the NFL Draft. Facing off against Towson University for the second time, Mycroft was able to defeat his opponent with a 3-1 scoreline to take home another Madden championship.

 

 

Coming off of a turnaround season in the National Esports Collegiate Conference, the Junior Varsity Valorant team of Michael Pettke, dos Santos, Emily Nelson, James Vandun, Fabian Dominguez, and Blackburn would unfortunately have a short post-season run, falling to Bellevue University in the first round of the Midwest Navigators Division playoffs. The Varsity team would unfortunately have a similar outcome, as Spencer Cavaco, Tawan Khwanthongyim, Kevin Nguyen, Kyle Caruso, and Matt Archer would take on the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign for the third time in the Spring, and would be unable to secure the victory to continue their playoff hopes. The Pride would eventually pick up a forfeit win against Purdue University to finish 3^rd place in the Midwest Champions Division playoffs.

 

Finally, while the Varsity squad was also able to keep up their streak of qualifying for the Round of 32 after making it into the College Valorant North Spring Playoffs, the team would go up against a very strong opponent in Concordia University, St. Paul. The Pride would end up being defeated 0-2, giving them another Top 32 finish and unfortunately falling short of accumulating enough championship points to qualify for the CVAL National Championship.

 

Overall, the Pride close out the 2023-2024 competitive season as their best yet, winning 7 championship titles and adding 10 trophies to their collection.