CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The Coe College Varsity Overwatch team competed in the Iowa Esports Collegiate State Championship for Overwatch this past weekend March 4th- March 5th. The tournament was hosted online by the Coe Esports Program, welcoming the best teams across the state to compete for the Championship.
The tournament started on Saturday with Group Stage Matches. There were six teams in each group. Group A consisted of Iowa State JV, St. Ambrose, Cornell College, Iowa Western Community College JV, Iowa Central Community College and Morningside. Group B consisted of Iowa State Varsity, University of Iowa, UNI, Coe College, Iowa Western Community College Varsity and Grand View University. The top three teams in each group would advance to the Upper Bracket while the bottom three teams in each group would advance to the Lower Bracket.
Coe went 3-2 in the Group Stage with wins over Grand View, UNI and Iowa Western Varsity. The Kohawks dropped matches to Iowa State Varsity and Iowa. In the end, Coe would take the sixth seed in the Upper Bracket. The top six teams in the Upper Bracket were first-seed ISU Varsity, second-seed St Ambrose, third-seed Iowa, fourth-seed Cornell, fifth-seed ISU JV and sixth-seed Coe.
Coe would start bracket play with a rematch against the University of Iowa where we lost our group stage match 1-2. It was a back-and-forth match but Coe would end up getting the win over Iowa 3-2 and advance on the winner's side.
In the second round on the winner's, side Coe would take on St. Ambrose the second seed in the bracket. While Coe did find some footing in one map, St. Ambrose proved too tough with their lineup and won the match 3-1.
After losing to St. Ambrose Coe would drop to the loser's side in this six-team double-elimination bracket. Coe's first match would be against ISU JV where Coe found itself in a hole right away down 1-0. In the end, Coe was able to turn it around and get a 2-1 win to advance to the loser's side semi-finals.
Coe would find itself taking on longtime-rival Cornell College. Going back to the Fall, Coe was able to get a 4-3 win over Cornell in a best-of-seven match and knew this matchup would be tough. Coe started off hot with a dominating first-map win and then continued that hot streak to a 3-0 win over Cornell.
Coe now advanced to the loser's side championship to play its way back into the championship match against St. Ambrose. Coe would find itself again facing an opponent it lost to in the group stage. ISU Varsity had been dominant prior to a 3-2 loss to St. Ambrose in the semifinals. Coe went down 1-0 after map one but bounced back in map two to tie it up. ISU Varsity took Map Three in a close map and would take the 2-1 lead. Coe would need two map wins to pull the upset over Iowa State to advance to the Championship match. Coe went to overtime on Map four but squeaked out the win to go to a deciding map five. In map five, Coe would close out the match in dominating form to take the 3-2 win over Iowa State and advance to the championship.
In the championship match, St. Ambrose would get a 1-0 lead for being on the winner's side as there would be no IF match. St. Ambrose started hot, taking the first two maps and a 3-0 lead in the first to four championship match. Coe did not give up as they took map four to make it 3-1. In the end, St. Ambrose was too much for Coe and won map five to take the championship 4-1.
"I am really proud of how our team competed this weekend," said Esports Director
Curt Kimm. "We were able to play the best Overwatch teams in the State and proved we can compete with anyone. While we didn't get the Championship, being the second-best team in the state isn't something to hang your head on. This team showed their resiliency all weekend and I am excited to see this team continue to get better."
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