The theme of the evening was the comeback, but in the end, the College of Staten Island could only come-from-behind in one of two games it faced off against Southern New Hampshire University.  In the game of Valorant, CSI suffered an opening point loss to the Penmen only to storm back to win two-straight to win 2-1, extending to 6-0 on the season and clinching a playoff berth.  In Overwatch, CSI came back after falling behind 2-0, tying the score at 2-2 before falling 3-2.  

VALORANT
The two teams matched up Valorant first, with CSI coming in undefeated and SNHU just one game behind in the standings.  The opening map of the day was Bind, and CSI found themselves on the attack first.  That proved well for the Penmen, as they thrived as defenders, consistently eliminating the CSI team and interrupting the spike plant as they got off to a 10-2 lead in their half of defending.  That's where CSI was at their best too, however, and slowly the Dolphins started to claw their way back.  They would win four games in a row, but the Penmen responded and played even from there, enough to take the first point, 13-8.

Christian Dumadag led all Dolphins in the game with 14 kills, while Hadi Daoud was next in line with 13.

Forced to win the next two points, CSI would have to start as attackers again this time in the map of Haven.  This time, CSI was outstanding and worked incredibly fast, racing out to an overwhelming 11-1 lead before switching over the defense.  SNHU was hoping to turn it around as attackers but they simply could not, as CSI won both defense points and cruised to a 13-1 win, setting up a winner take all third game.

On Haven, Ryan Lu led the way with 17 kills, while Dumadag posted 13, and Daoud 12.  Dumadag led all with four first blood kills.

In the winner-take-all final, the map choice was Ascent, and CSI was again going to attack first.  This time the Penmen were first to score the first two rounds to take a 2-0 lead.  Unfazed, CSI started to regroup, tying the score at 3-3 and then taking the lead.  SNHU cut the lead to 5-4, but three-straight wins for CSI gave them an 8-4 lead at the break.  On defense, CSI was exceptionally strong, outscoring SNHU, 5-1, to take a 13-5 win, ending the match on a 12-2 run.

Dumadag was the hero again with 22 kills and five first bloods, while Lu also posted 22 kills next to just nine deaths, a game low.

The win for CSI lifted them to 6-0 on the season and officially clinched the Dolphins of a playoff berth.  SNHU fell to 4-2.  With a win over St. Joseph's College (LI) next week, CSI could win the ECC Regular Season title and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs which start in two weeks.

OVERWATCH
CSI tried to pull off the come-from-behind victory in dramatic fashion again in their evening contest in Overwatch but fell just short.  Although the match didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things for CSI, as they had already secured a playoff berth, the loss was their first of the season, dipping them to 6-1, while the Penmen improved to 4-2.  CSI will still have a chance to win the ECC Regular Season Championship in their season finale next week against first-place NYIT.

Play started in the round of Control on the Lijiang Tower map.  Here both teams came out sharp and CSI had a 20-plus percentage lead at one point before SNHU stormed back and rattled off about 40 percentage points and tied at 99-99, it was SNHU that scored the final percentage point to win the first round.  In the second round, CSI stormed back and took a 100-41 win to make it 1-1 and setting up a winner-take-all round for the game's first point.  This time, SNHU was overpowering, and despite a decent comeback, SNHU took at 100-69 win to make it 1-0 overall.

For CSI, Andrew Shnoda posted 13,953 healing points, while Kevin Alushllari posted 26,748 damage blocked.

The second point was in Assault and on the Hanamura map.  SNHU was on attack first and were able to score two points on the Dolphins defense.  On CSI's turn to attack, they were able to successfully able to take point A but could not take point B, as they fell again to fall behind 2-0 overall in the game and on the brink of defeat.  Despite the loss, Schnoda was able to post a game-best 11,831 healing and Alushllari posted 21,681 damage blocked.

CSI needed to win the rest of the way and it had to start on Hybrid on the Kings Row map.  CSI only allowed one point as defenders, and so only needed to score two to take the win.  With over four minutes to go, CSI scored the first point and had plenty of time to get the payload to its destination, and they were able to do it with over two minutes to spare to grab the overall point to make it 2-1.   Elizabeth Garrison led the way with 38 defensive assists while Alushllari posted 36 eliminations.  The game featured a quadruple kill from Daoud as well.

And so, still in it, CSI needed another win and got one in the round of Escort on the map of Junkertown.  Escort was a strength for CSI in the third point and it was again in this round.  On defense first, SNHU was able to capture two points on the map, so CSI on their turn needed to push the payload to a third and final point to take the win in the full time.  CSI was excellent on the attack, cruising to the first point and using overtime to get to the final destination to take the game and knot the score at 2-2.  Alushllari posted 18,223 head damage and Garrison has 37 assists.

That set up a fifth and final game, going back to the game of Control on the map of Ilios.  To start, SNHU grabbed a huge lead, but CSI stormed back to cut a 60-point lead to eventually close to a tie and then a lead,  Despite a feverish attack in overtime, CSI was able to hold off SNHU to take a 100-71 win, grabbing the first round.  But SNHU had time for a comeback of their own.  They stormed back and made short work of CSI in the next round 100-0, setting up a third and final round to determine the whole game.  There, SNHU again put out all of the stops, and were relentless in another 100-0 win, taking the point and the game in what was the most heavily-contested Overwatch match of the season.

Garrison posted 14,394 healing in the final round, while Shane Drucker put up a team-best 19 kill streak.

Now 6-1, CSI will face undefeated NYIT in their final regular season match next week.  Whoever wins the match will win the ECC Regular Season title and top seed in the playoffs which start the following week.