Tiffin University's esports program won the Great Lakes Esports Conference championship in Counter Strike:Go, as the team competed in four postseason tourneys.
The GLEC ran postseason tourneys for League of Legends, Counter Strike, Overwatch, and Rocket League. Counter Strike featured one bracket, while the other divisions had multiple divisions based on regular season win-loss records.
The Dragons enjoyed a bye in the first round of the Counter Strike Championship bracket and then defeated Trine 2-1 for the title. Details on the win over three maps are below.
Map 1: Inferno
Tiffin started slow on the attacking side despite a few clutch rounds from Breno "bigHand" Acedo. Breno was able to fight through one versus three clutches for some rounds but it was hard standing up to the pressure from Trine. With a mixture of nerves and Trine's defending side aggression, it was a slow start. Forcing a map score of TU 5 – Trine 16, it will go to the next.
Map 2: Mirage
Mirage is a TU CS:GO staple, always being a great map for the Dragons. Tiffin finds themselves exerting the pressure. Specifically, Team Captain Omar "Omie" Ibrahim was calm in difficult scenarios. Being captain, Omar stepped up in a three versus one clutch scenario on the defending side. Winning the key round resulted in a huge lead of TU 10 - Trine 5 at halftime. Antonio "Mr.Reliable" Diaz also had a standout performance with consistent aim and play, forcing player amounts in TU's favor. Tiffin takes the game victory thanks to opening duels as a key tactic, ending in a TU 16 – Trine 8 score.
Map 3: Train
The final map of Train is known to be tricky and heavily reliant on executions in tandem with mechanics. Tiffin started on the attacking side with strong resistance. The map has always been difficult for the Dragons but this time, it was different. A strong Trine defense led to a 6-9 deficit going into the second half. Moving onto the defense, with strong leadership from shotcaller Josh "Josh22" Solorio and impactful awp play from Jonathon "Ayero" Ayers, the team took the Championship at an extremely close 16 - 14 scoreline.
In other tournaments, the Dragons were unbeaten in the Upper Consolation bracket in Rocket League, defeating Trine 3-0 and Marietta 3-1. In League of Legends, the Dragons defeated Defiance and Manchester by 2-1 scores before falling to Mount Union 2-0 in the Consolation bracket. Finally, Tiffin beat Marietta 3-2 before falling to Mount Union 3-0 in Overwatch.