Eagle esports opens spring season
By Eben Rosentrater – Sports Editor
The CSC Eagle esports team opened its first week of division play across all games over the week, resulting in a mixed handful of victories and defeats overall.
The Eagles opened up the season on Jan. 28, with a 6-10 loss in Chess to Butler University, of Indianapolis.
Chess.com team captain Joshua Kruse, senior of Gurley, said much about the squad’s performance against the Bulldogs.
“We learned a lot from the loss, not only from the games themselves but how the rounds will be for the future.” Kruse stated in a text, “We look forward to the upcoming matches and will continue to put the work in.”
The following matchup for the varsity Call of Duty squad ended similarly to the Chess squad.
Despite reaching the divisional championship in the fall semester, the squad found themselves at odds with highly-ranked University of Akron Zips, of Akron, Ohio.
The Ohio-based squad made a playoff run similar to the Eagles’ in the fall season, and unfortunately swept the Eagles 0-3. This was the first regular season loss the Eagle COD squad had seen all year.
“It was a tough matchup to start with. Akron is one of the top ten esports programs in the nation,” CSC Student Head Coach Drew Kurtenbach stated in a text. “Anytime you take on a team from there, it’s going to be hard. I’m confident in them to bounce back.”
However, the Eagle esports club bounced in the following Rocket League and Overwatch matches against New Hampshire Technical Institute, of Concord, New Hampshire, and Bluffton University, of Bluffton, Ohio.
The Eagle Rocket League trio won nearly every match of the fall season by 3-0 sweep. They continued this trend, defeating NHTI 3-0 to start off the season.
As for the Overwatch squad, they opened their inaugural season with a 3-1 victory over Bluffton University, an exciting prospect for the brand new team.
“This is a game we just added so I can’t be more proud of starting it off with a win,” Kurtenbach stated. “The whole team bounced back hard after a map on loss, and to win three straight games was huge.”
Every Eagle esports squad is available to watch at www.twitch.tv/chadron_state_esports.