Kentucky eSports eliminated in round three as Maryville wins Overwatch LAN
Members of the Kentucky Wildcats eSports team take on Kennesaw State in the first round of the 2023 Kentucky Overwatch LAN at The Cornerstone on April 2, 2023. UK won 2-0. | Photo provided by UKY eSports
April 12, 2023
Kentucky eSports hosted 16 teams for its “Overwatch LAN” tournament at The Cornerstone on April 2.
The tournament consisted of two brackets with 16 rounds played in the winner’s bracket and 14 rounds played in the loser’s bracket. Each round was a best-of-three matchup, with the grand finals being a best-of-five.
The rounds consisted of three game modes. The first would be “control”, the second “escort/hybrid” and the third, if needed, would be a “push” game mode.
Any team that lost in the winner’s bracket would have a chance to play through the loser’s bracket and work their way back to the grand finals, which would be played between the winners of each bracket.
Maryville University claimed victory in the grand finals after a dominating run through the entire winner’s bracket while Kentucky was eliminated in the third round of the tournament, despite being part of one of the night’s most exciting matchups.
In round one the No. 7 UKY Blue team would take on No. 10 Kennesaw State.
Map one saw a heavily contested back-and-forth game played on Lijiang Tower, which Kentucky would win 2-1.
Kennesaw State would not go easily however and pushed the Wildcats just as hard on the second map, Shambali Monastery.
Kennesaw State would get out to a 3-0 lead, fully completing its escort mission, before it would be Kentucky’s turn to attack.
On the attack the Wildcats managed to even the score 3-3 and force overtime.
In the event of overtime on an escort mission, each team is given an allotted amount of time based on how quickly they completed their previous push. The first team pushes as far as they can in their allotted time before the other team has to surpass that distance or lose.
The Wildcats would start overtime on the attack and their attempts were mostly stifled and they made little progress, giving Kennesaw State only a short distance to go to win the map and even the series.
The Kentucky defense would prove to be even more resilient however as it stopped the Owls from reaching their destination, claiming the map victory and thus the series 2-0.
Kentucky would then lose its next matchup against Converse University, resulting in it being moved to the loser’s bracket.
In the loser’s bracket UKY Blue would defeat USF 2-1 before finally being knocked out of the tournament by Ball state in the next round, losing 2-0.
While day one would see the end of the Wildcat’s tournament run, this would not be the case for Maryville University.
The Maryville Saints came into the event as heavy favorites and would dominate every round they participated in prior to the grand finals, winning every matchup 2-0, including a matchup against the winners of last year’s Overwatch LAN, Converse University.
Converse would go on to defeat Ball State 2-1 and then Ohio State Scarlet 2-0 in the loser’s bracket finals to secure its ticket to the grand finals, as well as a chance at redemption.
Game one of the finals would see Maryville pushed harder than it had been in any previous matchups in the tournament.
A total of three back-and-forth rounds took place before Converse ultimately took game one, giving it a 1-0 lead in the finals and handing Maryville its first defeat of the tournament.
Maryville adjusted its strategy for game two and secured a 3-0 lead over Converse during the escort mission.
Converse would come very close to forcing overtime before ultimately falling after completing two checkpoints. Maryville won game two 3-2.
The momentum of Converse faltered as Maryville returned to form and handily won the remaining two games, winning the grand finals 3-1 and being crowned the champions of Kentucky’s Overwatch LAN.
The Kentucky eSports program is set to host the UK vs. UofL Weekend at The Cornerstone on Sunday, April 16.
