KEENE, N.H. – Keene State College Varsity Esports wrapped up its first full week of competition during the week of October 13th, going a combined 4-2 across its six teams.
Keene State Esports is a Varsity member of PlayVS College League (PCL). Formerly known as Playfly College Esports, PCL is one of the largest governing bodies of collegiate esports competition in the world. PCL sanctions competitions from colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, awarding scholarship money and hardware to successful teams each season (Fall and Spring).
 
KSC Esports teams compete in a regular season schedule and a playoff bracket, if they qualify. Divisions of play are divided into two categories: Premier and Ranked, with Premier being the highest level of play PCL offers. Premier competition includes scholarships and in-person end-of-season tournaments (known as LAN's). KSC's Varsity Rocket League and Overwatch 2 teams are designated for PCL Premier while KSC VALORANT, Academy Red and Black, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will compete in PCL Ranked.


All KSC Esports games are streamed on Twitch, at twitch.tv/KeeneStateEsports and twitch.tv/KeeneStateEsports2, as well as KSC Athletics' official YouTube page youtube.com/@keenestateowls1909.
 
Keene State Rocket League
 
KSC Varsity Rocket League battled Northwest Vista College, live on the PCL Twitch channel on Tuesday evening.
 
Game 1: KSC got on the board within the first minute as Andrew "Aurorxs" Sorcinelli scored at 0:59, assisted by Jack "Jackattack16000" Manning. Alex "normal" Nimiroski earned his first goal of the game, owing to Jackattack's second assist of the game, at 1:16. Aurorxs' second goal in game one came at 2:08. At 2:25, Aurorxs passed to normal, and normal scored the fourth goal of the game for the Owls to go up 4-0. NVC got on the board at 2:45 as RUBINO622d scored off an assist by Korusu. The Owls responded with their fifth goal of the game, this time by Jackattack, at 3:07. RUBINO622d once again scored for NVC at 3:27 to make the score 5-2. Jackattack hit once again at 3:40, assisted by Aurorxs, to give KSC another four goal lead. This 6-2 lead would stick and be the final score as KSC went up 1-0 in the series.
 
Game 2: The second game of this series was all Keene State, with a 9-0 final score. KSC goals came at: 0:27 (Jackattack), 0:38 (Jackattack, 2nd), 1:42 (Aurorxs), 3:23 (Jackattack, 3rd), 3:25 (normal), 3:50 (Jackattack, 4th) 3:58 (Aurorxs, 2nd), 4:07 (Jackattack, 5th) and 4:18 (Aurorxs, 3rd).
 
Game 3: Aurorxs got KSC on the board first, scoring unassisted at 1:34. This 1-0 lead persisted for the majority of the game until the final one minute and 19 seconds where offense poured out of both teams. At 3:41, normal scored unassisted to give KSC a 2-0 lead. Off the next kickoff, Korusu scored for NVC, assisted by itsDebo, making it 2-1 KSC at 3:49. On the next kickoff after that, KSC scored again, this time it was Jackattack being assisted by normal at 3:54. Aurorxs, at 4:17, threaded the needle and scored in the top right of the goal to make it 4-1. Aurorxs struck once again at 4:35, making it 5-1. This score would wrap up the series for KSC, as they took it 3-0, improving to 3-2 on the season in PCL Premier play.
 
What's next: KSC Varsity Rocket League takes on 1-4 Keiser University on Tuesday, October 21st at 7 PM EST.
 
KSC Rocket League Academy Red faced off with RIT Black on Tuesday evening.
 
Game 1: At 0:32 RIT opened up the series with a goal by ZombShakespeare, assisted by Forbsey1317. Forbsey would facilitate another goal, as Night knocked their miss off the top of the goal into the net to give RIT a 2-0 lead at 0:51. Eric "Twisty9" Carlo got the Owls back within one as he scored an unassisted goal at 0:59. ZombShakespeare struck again at 1:37, scoring a goal assisted by Night, bringing RIT's lead to 3-1. This lead was extended to 4-1 as Forbsey scored at 2:05, assisted by Night. Twisty9 kept the Owls in it by scoring his second unassisted goal of the game at 2:29 to get the score to 4-2 in favor of RIT.

ZombShakespeare knocked in their third goal of the game at 3:25, and Ryan "Dreamz" Morrison responded with a goal at 4:39; these two goals brought the game to its final score of 5-3 as RIT took a 1-0 series lead.
 
Game 2: A defensive clinic was put on by KSC and RIT in game 2, as they both remained scoreless for the entirety of regulation, forcing a sudden-death overtime period. With the ball firmly reset for the first time since the kickoff of game 2, this gave RIT an opportunity to break through, as ZombShakespeare scored 13 seconds into the period, and giving RIT a 2-0 lead on the series entering game 3.
 
Game 3: After winning the game for RIT in the last bout, ZombShakespeare scored yet another goal just two seconds into game three, to give RIT an immediate 1-0 lead. KSC responded in kind just after this, as Dreamz scored an unassisted goal at 0:09 to tie the game. Only one more goal was scored in this game, and it was by Forbsey at 3:42. This 2-1 score would give RIT the series victory at 3-0 and push KSC Rocket League Academy Red to a 1-3 season record.
 
What's next: Rocket League Academy Red eyes their second win of the season as they take on the 0-4 New Jersey Institute of Technology on Monday, October 20th at 8:30 PM. They will then face off with 4-0 Grace College on Tuesday evening at 8:30 PM.
 
KSC Rocket League Academy Black
Game 1: The Owls opened the series with the first goal, scored by Joe "Julio" Aste at 0:50, assisted by Adam "Stylobiko" Albik. This goal would hold as the only one in the first game, and KSC took the series lead at 1-0.
 
Game 2: Julio would once again get the Owls on the board, scoring at 0:36, assisted by Owen "Slend" Burrill. Off of the next kickoff, Stylobiko brought the Owls lead to 2-0, assisted by Julio at 0:40. Slend would get on the board next as he banged in a goal assisted by Stylobiko at 3:18. KSC extended its lead to 4-0 as Slend contributed his second goal of the game, assisted by Julio, at the 4:08 mark.
 
Game 3: Great defense by both squads characterized the third game of the series, as the teams remained scoreless until Slend broke the stalemate and got KSC on the board at 2:22. A second goal was put in by Stylobiko, rebounding a miss by Slend. Cincinnati Z got themselves on the board at 3:26 as Epicore scored an unassisted goal to bring the game within one. However, the Owls responded in kind off of the next kickoff as Julio capitalized off of an airborne ball, soaring for a goal at the 3:29 mark. Slend nailed another goal at 4:18 to put KSC up 4-1, assisted by Julio. Just 10 seconds later, Julio contributed a goal of his own to make the score 5-1. The Owls retained this lead, and won the series overall with a 3-0 sweep of Cincinnati Z to improve to 3-0 on the season.
 
What's next: KSC Rocket League Academy Black battles the 0-3 Harrisburg University of Science and Technology at 7 PM on Tuesday, October 21st.
 
 
KSC Overwatch took on the University of Cincinnati on Wednesday evening, live on the PCL Twitch.
 
Map 1: Ilios
KSC won the initial coin flip and selected Ilios for the first map.
On the first control point, Cincinnati got off to a hot start/ securing 65 out of 100% of point progress before the Owls took brief control, progressing it to 10%. Cincinnati would retake control and capture full progress to get the first point in the best-of-three game mode. The Bearcats kept the momentum up from the first game, and secured the second point first. This time, the Owls hung tighter as they took point control away from Cincinnati and progressed it to 39% against 58% from the Bearcats. The Bearcats would retake the point again and progress it to 100%, winning the first map and going up 1-0 on the series.

Map 2: Kings Row
Having lost map one, KSC got to choose the second map, and selected Kings Row. The Owls started on defense, with UC having four minutes initially to capture the first control point to begin moving the payload across the map. KSC held Cincinnati one minute and 50 seconds until UC were able to capture the point. Cincinnati would end up progressing the payload all the way to the end of the map, with two minutes and 44 seconds remaining.
 
On attack, Keene State were able to capture the control point with two minutes and 12 seconds left, setting themselves up for a payload push across the map. After an aggressive ultimate play by Shea "Hotpocket" Castriotta as Hazard, while Nano Boosted by Emily "DeathKitteh" Percy as Ana that eliminated three Cincinnati players, the Bearcats halted most momentum going forward. The Owls were unable to make it to the second checkpoint and as a result Cincinnati would win Kings Row 3-1, going up 2-0 in the series.
Map 3: New Junk City
 
The Owls selected New Junk City for the third map, and this would prove to be the closest and most exciting game in the series. In this first-to-three capture game mode of Flashpoint, Keene State got off to a blazing hot start by securing the first flashpoint to go up 1-0.
 
On point two, both teams jockeyed for control of the flashpoint, and at one point the Owls were up 99%-80% with point control. Cincinnati, however, managed to swing the point and tied the game up. After another large back and forth struggle between both squads on the third point, KSC would emerge victorious to take a 2-1 map lead by a narrow 100%-99% margin.
 
The rest of the map would be intensely close as teams continued to alternate point control with scrappy teamfights occurring. Cincinnati would win point two and tie the game 2-2, this time with a 100%-99% margin. On the final point, the story continued as neither team had a definitive edge. Keene State managed to get to 99% point progress on the point five, however Cincinnati would survive and take the final point at 100% to take flashpoint 3-2 and the overall series 3-0.
 
What's next: KSC Overwatch takes on Kennesaw State University (0-4) on Wednesday, October 22nd at 7:30 PM.
 
 
Keene State VALORANT
KSC VALORANT faced off with Butler University JV on Thursday night.
 
Map 1: Haven
KSC began the map on attack and got on the board first as team captain Hailey "HMeesh" Michaud clutched a one versus one situation with Butler's At0m attempting to defuse the spike. The Owls took the second round and Butler took the third to make it 2-1; this was the closest the game would be for Butler as the Owls generally ran away with map one, winning it 13-4 to take a 1-0 series lead. First-year Gavin "Melatonin" PIerce led all players in kills with 18, with Jeremy "yerrei" Giguere closely second with 16.

Map 2: Bind
The second map of the series, Bind, was firmly in Owl control for the majority of the map, with Keene State taking a 12-1 round lead on attack. The Bulldogs took some momentum back won rounds 14 and 15 to push back a bit, but the Owls were able to win round 16, winning Bind with a final score of 13-3, winning the overall series 2-0 and securing a standalone spot at first place in PCL's Ranked 6 East division.
 
Melatonin once again led all players in kills in map two, with. Second was HMeesh and Thomas "Chumbladorfian" Czwakiel with 14 a piece; HMeesh also led all players in assists with 11.
 
 
What's next: KSC VALORANT aims to improve to 5-0 on the season when they take on Virginia Commonwealth University on Thursday, October 23rd at 7 PM.
 
Keene State Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Keene State SSBU were scheduled to face off with Radford University Smash C on Friday evening at 7 PM, however Radford did not field a full team and were forced to forfeit. This brings KSC Smash Bros. to a 3-1 record on the season.
 
 
What's next: KSC SSBU is scheduled to compete against Harrisburg University of Science and Technology on Friday October 24th at 7 PM, however this game is in the process of being moved to a day and time to be determined.