St. Edward’s Call of Duty esports team played its last regular season game against Blinn College.
The first match was play style Hardpoint on map Embassy. St. Edward’s took an early lead, yet Blinn caught up quickly, getting the score as close as 37-31 points. St. Edward’s held their ground to go up 103-56 with four minutes left. Mauricio Pallares, known by gamertag Thresh, secured a triple kill to recapture the area with less than three minutes left. With three and a half minutes on the clock, St. Edward’s held the objective area to win the match 250-95.
The second play style, Search & Destroy, was played on map Breenbergh Hotel. In the first round, David Sauseda, known by gamertag Eons, planted a bomb, giving the team a win in less than a minute. Switching sides to defending the objective, Hilltoppers won the second round by eliminating the enemy players. The team also won rounds three and four, but ultimately lost the fifth round by running out of lives. However, they secured a win for both of the final two rounds, winning the match in a landslide 6-1.
The final play style, Control, was played on the same map, Breenbergh Hotel. As a play style, the objective is to capture or defend two points on the map, with the restriction of only 30 team respawns. In the first round, St. Edward’s tried to capture the control points, but lost the round after running out of lives. St. Edward’s had to defend the objective control points in the second round and won with 23 remaining lives to Blinn’s seven. In the third round, the team captured both points, winning with 19-11 lives. In the fourth round, St. Edward’s switched to defending once again. The enemy team captured point A, but St. Edward’s won by eliminating all enemy lives, with 16 of their own left over.
In preparation for their playoff games starting soon, the esports team practices like any other collegiate athletic team. They play what they call “scrims,” or scrimmages, and make sure their academics are in order.
“If not other college teams, then amateur professionals,” David Sauseda said about who they play with in scrimmages. “In two weeks, us as a team (will) become family,” Sauseda said, acknowledging that playing “scrims” helps them to play together for playoffs.
