The St. Edward’s Call of Duty esports team ends their season ranked fourth in the NACE Starleague varsity premier fall 2023 season. After a 6-1 record during the regular season, the team once again lost to Oklahoma Christian University.
Before the match, David “Eons” Sauseda reassured his teammates.
“No matter the results today boys, we win,” Eons said.
The first playstyle, Hardpoint, was on map Breenbergh Hotel. The playstyle has an objective area players must capture, uncontested by enemy players. Oklahoma Christian University took a strong lead, amassing a 24-4 lead over the Hilltoppers. Team captain Johnny “Vanity” Albano then held ground, closing the gap to 27-11. Their next capture gained 90-23. St. Edward’s last captured ground got up to 216-51. They lost the round 250-51.
The next playstyle, Search and Destroy, was played on map Embassy. The game mode has two bombs that teams take turns either protecting or attacking. Each team member is only given one life with no respawns. The first team to amass six round wins, wins the match. The first two rounds were lost by St. Edward’s. After Mauricio “Thresh” Pallares got the first kill on round three, his teammates followed the momentum and ended up winning the round. Thresh then defused the bombs on the following round, gaining a 2-2 tie with Oklahoma Christian University. The following round was also won, giving St. Edward’s their first lead at 3-2. Oklahoma Christian University tied it back up with the next round. Vanity then secured a win after clutching a 2v4, where two Hilltoppers went up against four OCU players. Vanity was also the last player alive in the following round, but ultimately lost. Eons was the last alive after a 2v2 but also lost the round. The final score was 6-4.
Control, the last playstyle, was played on map El Asilo. Similar to Search and Destroy, teams take turns either protecting or attacking two points on the map. However, each team is given 30 team lives for each round. St. Edward’s won the first round. In the second round, Lucas “Ballah” Muccio had a five killstreak and secured point B; however, the team ran out of lives and lost. Oklahoma Christian University secured both points in the next round. With less than a minute left, St. Edward’s had only seven lives to Oklahoma Christian’s 17– which quickly turned to 2-15. Eventually, the Hilltoppers ran out of lives and lost the round. The round’s final score was 3-1.
With the recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the team looks forward to running it this upcoming spring season. Next semester they will be expanding their gameplay from one league to two or three. Stay updated on their social media.
