ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley College esports team followed up its opening week of matches with a strong slate of competition that gave many of the Dutchmen a chance to shine.

Rocket League— Looking to rebound from their loss last week, Rocket League took on Wilkes University for the third time in the past year. Last time, LVC came out on top in a 4-2 series in a mid-season matchup. In this series, the Flying Dutchmen started with a quick 2-0 series lead, in a similar position to last week's matchup. Despite dropping a close game three, LVC responded by winning games four and five to take the series in a 4-1 fashion. The team, now 1-1 in the regular season, will begin its League of the East regular season against Widener University on Monday, Oct. 12, and then face Seton Hill University on Wednesday, Oct. 14.

Valorant— Coming off a forfeit win last week, the young Valorant roster finally started its regular season, meeting up with Hagerstown Community College on Thursday. Jaren Boles opened the series with an ace in round one, setting the tone for the rest of the night. The Dutchmen rolled to a 13-1 victory on Map 1 (Sunset) with a complete team effort as Thomas Mills led the way with a 21/8 KD, with Boles (16/4) and Travis Belcher (13/7) not far behind. Freshman Nirdesh Siwakoti posted a 100% KAST (KAST measures each round you positively contributed to your team). Heading into Hagerstown's map pick, Split, things ended much more closely. In a back-and-forth battle, the Dutchmen still came out on top in a 13-10 win, closing the series out 2-0 to remain undefeated. Split leaders included Boles with a 23/13 KD and Belcher just behind at 21/15. Valorant looks forward to taking on Marist University White on Monday, Oct. 12, along with the kickoff of the League of the East season against Saint Francis on Friday, Oct. 16.

Super Smash— The Super Smash Bros. team closed out the week late Thursday night against Illinois College. Sophomore Dylan Serapiglia opened things up for the Dutchmen, taking out four stocks from the Blues. From there, Illinois brought things back in its favor, following efforts from LVC's Joseph Cremen and Sylvia Carnell, bringing both teams to their final players. For LVC, that would be junior Adam Felker, who dropped a close last encounter 1-0, as LVC went down 1-0 in the best-of-three match. In the second set, LVC decided to open things up with Felker and he took the first seven stocks of Illinois, giving LVC a great opportunity to force a third and final set. Despite this, the final member on the Illinois College roster took eight stocks from the Dutchman, ending the series in a 2-0 fashion. The team will look to bounce back in NECC play against Edinboro University on Tuesday, Oct. 13 before matching up with Hood College to begin League of the East play on Wednesday, Oct. 14.

Keep up with the Dutchmen on X (@lvc_esports), Instagram (@lvc_esports), and catch matches live on our Twitch channel at twitch.tv/lebanonvalleycollege. If you would like to get involved with the program, reach out to head coach Harold Bowman (hbowman@lvc.edu) to learn more.