ANNVILLE, Pa. – Spring break has come and gone and with the very small amount of matches over the past two weeks, we decided to combined week six and week seven into one recap. In these weeks, we saw a stack of matches for the Rocket League and Rainbow Six teams alongside a pairing of matches for Smash, Overwatch, and Valorant. We also saw Halo start their Spring campaign in the College Halo League.    

Rocket League— The two week stretch for Rocket League saw six total matches played with four in week six and two in week seven. It began on Monday February 27 where the circumstances saw the need for substitute Brycen "Fuzzi Wuzzi" Geiger to step in for both matches played. The first match was a meeting with Edinboro University for NECC play where the services of Tyler "Frencheii" Franquet were unavailable. The substitution didn't affect the Dutchmen much as LVC was able to take the series in a convincing 3-1 victory. Later that night, Geiger would fill in once again, this time for Mason "magarz" Garza against a highly ranked Saint Clair College squad in NACE play. While the series would end in a 3-1 victory for Saint Clair, the substitute didn't disappoint with late game heroics in game two where he would find himself a hat trick with a game-tying goal right at the end of regulation and then the game-winner in overtime to put the series at a 1-1.

The team then met a familiar foe in Alvernia University on Wednesday March 1 in a battle for the number one seed in the Appalachian Conference heading into the King of Prussia LAN Finals. The matchup would once again not disappoint after a game one stomping from LVC in an 8-0 victory that would prove to be an outlier. After game one, Alvernia struck back with a 4-3 win to even the series. The Golden Wolves won game three 4-2 to go up 2-1. The Dutchmen didn't falter as they managed to take game four and send the series to a deciding game five. Game five was an overtime thriller as the teams traded goals. LVC ultimately ended on top once again to remain undefeated in the Appalachian regular season and locked in for the top seed in the playoffs. The week concluded with the team facing Robert Morris University in NECC play. It was another close series for the team as the squads traded game wins throughout and the series went the distance to five maps. In the end, LVC found a way to come out on top in game five with a 3-2 victory in both game five.

During the week of spring break the team had two more matches. The first came on Thursday in a NACE meeting with Kansas State University where the services of Geiger would once again be called upon in place of the captain Franquet. The substitution didn't affect much for the Dutchmen as it was a fairly comfortable 3-1 victory for the team to put them at 3-2 in NACE with just one more match left. The Dutchmen closed out the two-week stretch with another familiar foe in Howard Community College. Unfortunately, the players of Howard did not appear for match time, resulting in a forfeit as LVC moved to 5-0 in the NECC Challengers Central Atlantic Division. 

Valorant— Tasked with just one match in the two-week span, the Valorant team looked to continue their journey in the NECC Champions Division with a win. The team had a meeting with Stony Brook University who has had similar struggles within the division. This series looked like a return to form for the team as they had a solid start on Pearl with a 13-6 victory that they controlled throughout. They headed to the new map in the pool, Lotus, where the team narrowly avoided overtime with a 13-11 win, to closed out the series 2-0. The win put the team at 2-3 and in sixth place in the division. The Dutchmen will have a tough opponent in Alvernia University this week to decide the first seed in the Appalachian Conference heading into the King of Prussia LAN next month.

Rainbow Six— With four total matches over the stretch, the Rainbow Six team split match days with two in each week. First, the team met with the first place Fanshawe College in their first NECC matchup of the stretch. The Fuel would prove to be too much for LVC as they took a comfortable 2-0 (7-1, 7-1) victory over the Dutchmen. Two days later, the Dutchmen looked to bounce back as they faced Keiser University Sarasota in NACE play. This was a solid series that gave LVC a 2-0 (7-5, 7-1) victory over the Seahawks. Over break, the team would see another two matchups with one in NECC and one in NACE. It started on Wednesday with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in an NECC match. This was a highly contested series the entire way with an LVC comeback on map one giving them a 1-0 edge to start things off. UNC Charlotte responded with a 7-3 win to send it to the decider on Bank. Here, the teams traded rounds and it came all the way down to a round 15 that would end in UNC Charlottes' favor, giving them the series win and putting LVC at 3-2 in the NECC Challengers East Division and in the fourth place spot. To close out the stretch, the team met Kettering University's Academy roster in NACE play. The team was able to regain from the previous night's defeat and take the series with Kettering in a 2-0 victory that would keep them undefeated in NACE at 4-0. The Dutchmen will see three more matches this week as they look to get back on track in NECC along with remaining undefeated in NACE.

Super Smash— The Smash team faced just one matchup over the past two weeks as a few of the players prepared for the Collision Major in New Jersey over the break. The NACE match saw them take on Montgomery County Community College. LVC managed to edge out a 2-0 victory, taking the first set 5-0 and the second set 2-0. This week they will meet two opponents with Eastern University and Widener University on the docket to close out the NACE regular season.   

Overwatch— Also with just one matchup in the last two weeks, the Overwatch team looked to stay positive on the semester. They faced Quinnipiac University in week six. in a match that was won fairly handily by LVC in a 3-0. The win gave the team a 3-1 record with the final three matches of their NACE regular season scheduled for this week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Halo- The team saw thier first set of action as they met with Rochester Institute of Technology and Illinois State University in week six. The team started off hot for the season with a clean 3-0 sweep of RIT in their first match seeing a 5-0 CTF, 50-26 slayer, and a 4-0 King of the Hill. The Dutchmen saw a much tougher match in Illinois State two days later where they managed to take game number one in a strong battle. They fell in the rest of the series from there as Illinois State won the series 3-1. The team is currently 1-1 in the College Halo League with a cross-conference matchup against DePaul University coming this week.

While there were a plethora of matches covered before and during the break, we'll see roughly the same amount of matches in this coming week with a few of our teams opting to push their scheduled contests from spring break to this week.Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@lvc_esports) and Instagram (@lvc_esports) for future updates on our matches and events along with our twitch channels twitch.tv/lebanonvalleycollege and twitch.tv/lvcesports when matches overlap. If you would like to get involved with the program, message our head coach Eilliot Kleckner on discord (hockeyman23#2541). This week will certainly be a long one that we are looking forward to compete in!