St. Edward’s squared off against Cal State Fullerton University’s (CSFU) esports on March 5, who are currently ranked 23rd in the College XP Call of Duty league (CXP). As always, the teams take turns playing three different playstyles, and whoever amasses three rounds, wins the match. St. Edward’s won the match 3-0.

First off was Hardpoint, where the goal is to hold an area uncontested by the enemy team to amass one point per second. It was played on map Sub Base, a map that St. Edward’s hardly ever plays on. Lucas “Ballah” Muccio started off with a double kill to capture the hardpoint early in the round. They then captured the next area, and Ballah maintained control over it until he was killed with a score of 52-7. St. Edward’s then followed the pattern with the next area and broke the threshold of over 100 points before CSFU regained control of the objective area. Hilltoppers communicated flawlessly to get back on the clock, cutting CSFU off at 57 and pushing their lead up to 172-61. Team captain Johnny “Vanity” Albano attained a 10-kill killstreak, with David “Eons” Sauseda following shortly after with a five-kill killstreak. St. Edward’s won the match with a final score of 250-66. Ballah topped the leaderboard with an astonishing 3:08 time in Hardpoint, referred to as hill time, and nine kills. Eons amassed 20 kills, and Mauricio “Thresh” Palleres and Vanity tied at 21 kills. 

Search & Destroy was the next playstyle, played on map Karachi. Search & Destroy gives each player only one life with no respawns, and has teams switch sides to either attack or protect two bombs on the map. One team has to amass six round wins to take the match. Ballah drew the first kill, referred to as the First Blood, and the team eliminated all enemy’s lives to win the round. Thresh then clutched the next two rounds, being the last alive in both – killing remaining enemies to go up 3-0 in this match. Thresh then drew the First Blood and obtained a five-kill killstreak, but ultimately couldn’t win as the last alive against three enemies. In the following round, Eons was last alive against two enemies, but couldn’t acquire the win. Vanity was then the last alive in the sixth round, but also couldn’t pull off the win alone, causing CSFU to tie up with a 3-3 record. Vanity then obtained a double kill, and shortly after killed the last enemy, winning the seventh round and killing three of the four enemies single-handedly. In the following round, Thresh drew First Blood, then activated a killstreak perk to kill an enemy, and Eons and Vanity finished off remaining enemies to win. In the ninth round, Thresh was the only one alive against all four CSFU players, and lost the round. Hilltoppers won the tenth round, taking the match with a tight 6-4 record.

The final playstyle, Control — where there are only 30 total team lives and teams switch between protecting or defending two points, was played on map Highrise. The first round was hectic, with constant kills on both sides, but ultimately Hilltoppers ran out of respawns and lost the round. The second round was interesting, as Vanity had accidentally killed his teammates and was suspended from playing the rest of the round. Ballah obtained a five-kill killstreak and the three remaining players won the round without their team captain. In the following round, Thresh secured point “A,” and the team later captured point “B” to win the round. CSFU then answered back by capturing both points and winning, tying up the score at 2-2. The tiebreaker round was won by Hilltoppers after capturing both points “A” and “B,” with a final score of 3-2. St. Edward’s won the overall match 3-0.

Since the last coverage of their loss to Oklahoma Christian University on Feb. 27, the team has played multiple games in the College Cod League (CCL). In review, on March 3, the Call of Duty team played against Florida Gulf Coast University, and won 3-0 with 250-166 in Hardpoint, 6-3 in Search & Destroy and 3-0 in Invasion. On March 4, Hilltoppers played two matches: one against Newberry esports, and a following match with Louisiana State University (LSU). They lost against Newberry 1-3, and won against LSU 3-1. St. Edward’s now stands at third place in the Division 1 Southeast section of the CCL with a 9-1 record. The team was also recently ranked seventh on the leaderboard of CXP, the same ranking they were given on Feb. 29. Their record is 4-1. Stay updated on their social media.