KEENE, N.H. – Keene State College Esports' five teams completed its first full week of competition for the Spring 2026 PCL season during the week of February 9th, going a combined 3-2.
 
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. For Spring 2026, all five KSC Esports squads are competing within the Ranked designation.
 
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. Occasionally, games are also streamed on PCL's official Twitch: twitch.tv/PlayVS_College.
 
Rocket League Varsity
Keene State Varsity Rocket League was slated to take on DePaul University in their PCL Ranked 1 season opener. However, DPU were unable to field a full team and forfeited the game, giving KSC a 3-0 series victory and improving them to 1-0 on the season.
 
What's next:
Keene State Varsity Rocket League takes on Sam Houston State University on Tuesday, February 17th at 7 PM.
 
Rocket League Academy
KSC Rocket League Academy took on Radford University B in their season opener on Tuesday, February 10th.
 
Game 1: To begin the series, both teams held each other scoreless for nearly an entire half of the first game. The stalemate was finally broken by Radford's "NinjaMike9" with an unassisted goal at 2:23. First-Year Owls Joe "julio" Aste tied the game up with an unassisted goal of his own at 3:21. This tie would end regulation and signal KSC Academy's first sudden-death overtime period of the season. 26 seconds into the period, Senior Aidan "kCrona" Law redirected a miss by Ryan "Dreamz" Morrison into the net to secure a game one victory for KSC; putting them up 1-0 in the best-of-five series.

Game 2: Unlike game one, the second game of this series was marked with immediate offense by both squads. JoshTrippin got the scoring going early in the second game of the series, with an unassisted goal at 0:11. Just seconds later, NinjaMike9 expanded Radford's lead to 2-0 at 0:29. Dreamz would then knock in his first goal of the season at 0:50 to cut the deficit to one goal, with an assist by Julio. At 1:15 JoshTrippin would reestablish a two goal lead for Radford off an assist by C-L-UU. C-L-UU would then score their first goal of the series and widen the gap to a 4-1 Radford lead at 3:23. Yet another Radford goal came at 4:25 as NinjaMike knocked in a shot assisted by JoshTrippin. This 5-1 lead would signal the final score as Radford tied the series with the Owls.


Game 3: The third game in this contest was scoreless for over a minute until JoshTrippin scored at 1:06 to give the Highlanders a 1-0 advantage. NinjaMike9 would then score at 3:58 and again at 4:23 to bring Radford's lead to 3-0. A final goal game at 4:30 as JoshTrippin knocked in a goal immediately following the kickoff from the previous Highlander goal to give Radford a 4-0 victory in game three.
 
Game 4: Game four was the most defensively intense game of the series as both teams remained scoreless for the entirety of regulation, which necessitated another sudden-death situation. After 21 seconds of overtime, C-L-UU scored the dagger to give Radford a 1-0 game four victory and a 3-1 series victory over KSC, who move to an 0-1 record.
 
What's next:
After starting the season with a loss, KSC Rocket League Academy looks to get their first win of the season as they battle Wilmington College at 7 PM on Tuesday, February 17th.
 
Overwatch
KSC Overwatch battled Texas A&M - Kingsville in their season opener on Wednesday, February 11th.
 
Map 1: Ilios
Having won the opening coin toss, TAMUK selected Ilios as the Control map. Keene State is very familiar with this map and showcased it as they opened the best two out of three mode with a 100%-0% victory on the first hill. On the second hill, the Owls maintained their strong performance with yet another 100%-0% victory, giving them a 2-0 map victory and a 1-0 series lead.
 
Map 2: Kings Row
Texas A&M - Kingsville selected Kings Row as the second map of the series.
 
The Owls began on defense, attempting to stop TAMUK from capturing the control point to begin moving the payload within four minutes. For over three minutes KSC held TAMUK at bay, stymieing multiple attempts with decisive teamfight victories. The final teamfight of KSC's defense was the scrappiest with several Owls going down and resulting in a portion of capture progress gained for TAMUK (42.1%) which gave them a win condition; though the Owls would wipe the rest of the team in overtime and stop capture progress at 57.9%. This meant the Owls needed 58% capture progress on their attack to win Kings Row.
 
On attack, Keene State also had four minutes allotted to secure the necessary 58% capture progress. Only needing 59 seconds, Keene State overwhelmed TAMUK and captured the control point and therefore won Kings Row with a 1-0 score, taking a 2-0 series lead.
 
Map 3: Suravasa
Texas A&M - Kingsville selected Suravasa as the Flashpoint map as Keene State were in match point territory. In this first-to-three game mode, the Owls faced little opposition as they captured point one with 100% progress and TAMUK 0%.
 
On the second point, TAMUK were able to secure the flashpoint first and grabbed 26% progress before the Owls took control; holding onto it for the remainder of the point and taking a 2-0 map lead. The third point featured back and forth control by both teams, with KSC taking it first and getting to 98% progress before TAMUK managed to force them out. The Javelinas were able to get 55% point progress before KSC won a final teamfight to regain control, winning point three and resulting in a 3-0 Suravasa victory and 3-0 series lead to improve to 1-0 on the season.
 
What's next: KSC Overwatch look to improve to 2-0 on the season as they face Rowan University on Wednesday, February 18th at 7 PM EST
 
VALORANT
After having won the PCL Ranked 6 VALORANT Championship in Fall 2025, KSC VALORANT opened their quest for a repeat championship on Thursday February 12th with a match against Emerson College.
 
Map 1: Bind
Starting on defense, the Owls took a commanding 7-0 lead in the first-to-13 map. The Lions broke through with an eighth round win on attack. Despite this, KSC maintained control of the game, and would eventually win rounds 9-14, giving them a 13-1 victory on their first map of the Spring 2026 season.

Leading the way for KSC was Junior Thomas "Chumbladorfian" Czwakiel with 18 kills, including three First Bloods.
 
Map 2: Haven
The second map of the series saw increased competitiveness as Emerson won three out of the first four rounds, prompting a timeout by KSC Coach Anthony "Ant" Venceslau. The breather would turn out to be just what the Owls needed, as they went on to win eight straight rounds to take a 9-3 lead heading into the second half. Like the first half, Emerson started in control by winning the first two rounds to shrink KSC's lead to 9-5. However, the Owls would recover and took rounds 15-18 to win Haven by a score of 13-5; defeating Emerson College 2-0 and moving to 1-0 on the season.
 
Junior Jeremy "yerrei" Giguere was on fire during Haven, leading all players with 27 kills; 10 more than the second highest in the game (Emerson's "wizeo" with 17). Second for the Owls in kills was Chumbladorfian with 15.
 
What's next: After starting the quest for a repeat PCL championship with a victory, KSC VALORANT looks to keep their momentum going against UNC Pembroke at 7 PM on Thursday, February 19th.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Keene State Smash Smash Bros. Ultimate opened their campaign against Camden County College on Friday, February 13th.
 
Match 1:
Opening the action for the Owls was Sophomore Matthew "squidman" Silvestri as Mario against CCC's first player, who entered as Sonic. Squidman built an early lead for KSC as he took away two of Sonic's three available stocks before losing his first. CCC's Sonic player fought back and tied the stock count at one each before Silvestri defeated Sonic fully to give the Owls a 10-9 stock advantage. Entering next for the Cougars was their second player as Palutena, who defeated Squidman after a back-and-forth exchange while retaining three stocks. With the game tied at 9 stocks per side, KSC's second player entered: First-Year Evan "BlueShell" Giardina as Pikachu. BlueShell managed to take away one stock from Palutena but was defeated, which shifted the advantage to CCC with 8 stocks to KSC's 6.
 
The third player incoming for the Owls was Sophomore Brody "ph4r0h" Freehling as Min Min. Freehling took away the remaining two stocks from Palutena while losing two themself, which kept the KSC deficit at two stocks with a 6-4 score. Entering next for Camden County was their third player as Kirby. With one stock and a hope to narrow CCC's lead, Freehling's final stock was taken by Kirby before they could take any stocks from Kirby, bringing the score to 6-3 in favor of Camden County.

Anchoring the Owls in game one was team captain, Junior Aidan "Sour" Zimmer, as Piranha Plant. Sour took all three of Kirby's stocks, but lost two in the process. With a 1-3 stock advantage, CCC's final player entered as King K. Rool. Sour managed to eliminate a stock from King R. Rool, but was defeated, which gave the Cougars a game one victory in this best-of-three series, with a 2-0 stock score.
 
Match 2:
Opening up the second match of the series for Keene State was Senior Tyler "Tadpole" Adkins as Chrom, facing up against CCC's Sonic player. The two exchanged blows back and forth, but Tadpole would emerge victorious with one stock left, which granted KSC a 10-9 lead. The second player from CCC in the second match was their Kirby player, who promptly took away Tadpole's last stock which tied the match at 9 stocks all. Next up for the Owls was BlueShell as Sephiroth. Both players took stocks from one another, leading to a scenario where both had one remaining and over 100% damage taken. Sephiroth and Kirby spent significant time dodging attacks from one another while trying to grant their team an advantage. Kirby would come out on top, securing a 7-6 advantage for CCC. In third for KSC was Sour, as Yoshi. With three stocks available and only one to take from Kirby, Sour managed to hold all three stocks while defeating Kirby which critically tied the match at six per team.
 
Next for the Cougars was their King K. Rool player, who three-stocked Sour and kept all three of theirs, which gave CCC a 6-3 advantage. Anchoring the Owls was Ph4r0h as Min Min, who was tasked with three-stocking two straight Cougars to give the Owls a chance at a series-deciding third match. Ph4r0h fought hard and was able to take away two King K. Rool stocks, but was unfortunately defeated, resulting in a 4-0 stock victory for CCC and a 2-0 series win. As a result, KSC SSBU begins their season with a 0-1 record.
 
What's next: KSC SSBU's next opponent is Harrisburg University at 7 PM on Friday, February 20th.