KEENE, N.H. – Keene State College Varsity Esports is gearing up for all seven teams to compete weekly for the first time during the week of September 29th, following the season openers for three of its teams in late September.
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.
KSC Overwatch opened their Fall 2025 campaign against Alvernia University on Wednesday, September 17th.
Map 1: Ilios
The Owls won the opening coin toss and were granted map selection for the first game. The Owls chose their typical favorite from previous seasons, Ilios. The Golden Wolves won the initial team fight to take the point control, and would hold it for the first half of the map. The Owls took a team fight to gain control, and held it for 32%. Following an intense team fight, the Golden Wolves regained possession of the control point and progressed to 100% to win the first round in this best of three game mode with a score of 100%-32%.
The second hill featured scrappier fights between the two squads, with Alvernia taking control first, progressing to 26% before the Owls took over following an elimination by Keene State's Shea "Hotpocket" Castriotta on Alvernia's reaper, followed by eliminations on Alvernia's two supports by Connor "HoodNut" and Eli "Goofymcgoob" Volpini. The Owls were able to hold the control point to 37% progress, but Alvernia once again backed the Owls up and secured the control point. The Golden Wolves held the point to 100% to win hill two, and the game 2-0 to take a 1-0 series lead.
Map 2: Hollywood
Losing Ilios meant KSC were granted map selection once again, choosing Hollywood for the Hybrid game mode. In the game mode, teams are tasked with alternating attacking and defending an initial neutral capture point before moving a payload cart across the rest of the map, doing so with as much time remaining as possible.
The Golden Wolves attacked first, and with four minutes allotted to capture the point, did so with three minutes and ten seconds left. Alvernia kept the momentum going from their quick capture and kept KSC on their backfoot through the entire second point. On the final straightaway to finish Hollywood, Alvernia had five minutes and 28 seconds to finish the map. The Owls made a strong stand at this point, winning multiple teamfights in a row and holding Alvernia at bay. Alvernia did end up breaking through KSC's defenses and were able to finish Hollywood with two minutes, 53 seconds remaining.
On attack, the Owls were held strongly by Alvernia, as they were unable to capture the first point of Hollywood and subsequently lost the map, giving Alvernia a 2-0 series lead heading into the Flashpoint game mode of map 3.
Map 3: Suravasa
The Owls were able to select map three as they lost Hollywood, and selected Suravasa as the Flashpoint map. In this first-to-three game mode, teams are tasked with capturing neutral points and holding them to 100% progress, similarly to the Control made mode. In Map three, the Owls held strong against Alvernia, taking Flashpoints for some progress, but were unable to secure any of them to 100%. The Owls were able to get as close as 99% on the third point, but Alvernia recovered and secured the third point after the first and second, to win Flashpoint and the overall matchup 3-0.
What's next: KSC Overwatch takes on Michigan Tech on Wednesday, 9/30 at 7 PM EST.
Keene State Rocket League
KSC Varsity Rocket League opened up their 2025-26 campaign with a match against the Patriots of George Mason University.
Game 1: George Mason came out firing against the Owls, taking a 5-0 lead within the first minute and 42 seconds. The Owls succeeded in holding the Patriots scoreless for the next two minutes before the Patriots re-opened scoring with a goal with one minute, 49 seconds remaining, followed by another nine seconds later. The Owls were able to get goal in, as Andrew "Aurorxs" Sorcinelli scored the KSC Rocket League goal of the season, with one minute, 25 seconds left to bring the score to 7-1 GMU. GMU responded shortly thereafter with their own goal, followed by Alex "normal" Nimiroski earning his first goal of the season with 33 seconds left to bring the score to 8-2. Aurorxs then scored his second goal of the game just 12 seconds later after a pass off the right side wall from normal. GMU would take game 1 with a score of 8-3.
Game 2: George Mason would open up this game with four goals in the first two minutes and 25 seconds of game time, but the Owls succeeded in holding them back, as they only allowed one goal from GMU for the final two minutes and 35 seconds. However, offense was hard to come by for KSC, as GMU stymied multiple attempts from the team to get on the board. The Owls avoided a shutout in this game with a goal by Jack "Jackattack1600" Manning as time expired; his first of the season and the first for him as a member of KSC's Varsity squad. GMU took this game with a score of 5-1 and entered match point territory.
Game 3: The third game would prove to be the most exciting and back-and-forth affair in this series, as the Owls and Patriots traded goals with one another. GMU would open with a goal in the opening seconds of the game and Jackattack1600 would respond with a goal at 54 seconds to tie the game at one all. Just six seconds later, Jackattack1600 scored again off a pass from normal, to give the Owls their first lead of the series. Eleven seconds later, GMU scored a goal of their own to tie 2-2, and 23 seconds after that, they took the lead with another goal.
GMU would bring the game to a 4-2 lead in favor of the Patriots with another goal at the 2 minute mark. KSC responded with another Aurorxs goal coming from a Jackattack1600 assist to bring the game within one goal with a score of 3-4. Aurorxs scored once again just seconds later, once again securing a pass from Jackattack1600 to tie the game at 4-4. All this came within the first 2 minute, 39 seconds of the five minute game. The second half, however, was all GMU. The Patriots would go on to score five unanswered goals and win the third and deciding game 9-4, resulting in a 3-0 series victory.
The Owls were scheduled to take on the University of Cincinnati on the evening of Tuesday 9/23, however Cincinnati were unable to field a team of three, and subsequently had to forfeit the match, moving the Owls to a 1-1 record on the season.
What's next: KSC Varsity Rocket League takes on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 8:45 PM on Tuesday 9/30. The game will be streamed on PCL's official Twitch channel: (twitch.tv/playvs_college).
KSC Rocket League Academy Red began their Fall 2025 season against Lebanon Valley College on September 23rd.
Game 1: LVC opened up the series with the first goal at 44 seconds by Maroon720. The Flying Dutchmen would take a 2-0 lead at the two minute, 19 second mark, once again by Maroon720. With less than two minutes remaining, the Owls came alive as Ryan "Dreamz" Morrison scored the first goal of the season for Academy Red, assisted by Aidan "Maudlu" Law, with just over two minutes remaining. The Owls would tie the game two all just five seconds later as Maudlu scored his first goal of the season, assisted by Captain Eric "Twisty9" Carlo. With 40 seconds remaining, LVC took the lead once again with a goal by Samis. Samis would strike a second time 24 seconds later, to give the Flying Dutchmen a 4-2 game lead with 16 seconds remaining. This would ultimately be the final score as LVC took a 1-0 series lead.
Game 2: The Owls started game two hot as Dreamz scored a goal after just eight seconds of game time, rebounding a missed shot by Twisty9. The Owls would hold this 1-0 lead for the entire first half of the game, at which point both teams began trading blows. Samis would tie the game with a goal with 2 minutes, 41 seconds remaining and the Owls responded just three seconds later as Twisty9 scored a goal off the ensuing kickoff, assisted by Dreamz. Dreamz scored his second goal of the game with one minute and 14 seconds remaining to stretch KSC's lead to 3-1. This 3-1 would last, and the Owls took game two to tie the series 1-1.
Game 3: The first half of the third game was dominated by KSC, as they held a 3-1 lead one minute and 44 seconds remaining following goals by Dreamz (2) and Twisty9. However, the second half belonged to LVC and they managed to tie the game with just seven seconds remaining, sending it to sudden-death overtime. The Flying Dutchmen completed their comeback as Maroon720 scored the game winning goal 12 seconds into the overtime period.
Game 4: The fourth game was firmly controlled by LVC, as they took a 4-0 lead within the first two minutes and 14 seconds. The Owls got on the board with two minutes and 12 seconds remaining after a goal from Twisty9. The teams would trade one more goal a piece as the game came to a close, with LVC winning 5-2 and the series 3-1 overall.
What's next: Rocket League Academy Red will take on Penn College at 8:30 PM on Tuesday 9/30.
KSC Rocket League Academy Black
The team will begin their Fall 2025 PCL season on Tuesday, September 30th against the New Jersey Institute of Technology D3 at 7 PM EST.
Keene State VALORANT
The team will open their PCL season on Thursday, October 2nd at 7 PM against King University.
Keene State Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Keene State SSBU were to open their season on Friday, September 26th versus Norwich University; the game was rescheduled to Sunday, October 12th at 4 PM.
The team will officially open up their season on Friday, October 3rd at 7 PM vs Immaculata University.
