The College of Staten Island recently concluded the ECC Esports Regular Season with an 8-0 mark in the game of Valorant, earning them the top seed in the ECC Playoffs that begin today. It took awhile, but their opponents, Southern New Hampshire University, clinched their spot on Monday as the final seed, and now the two teams square off tonight at 8:30 PM for a Semifinal matchup that holds a championship berth in its wake.
CSI VS. SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE AT-A-GLANCE
Matchup: College of Staten Island (8-0) vs. Southern New Hampshire (6-3)
Where: Online, PC Gaming
Time: 8:30 PM
Ticket/Broadcast Info: Free
Live Video: CSI Twitch
All-Time Series: CSI leads 1-0
Last Meeting: October 23, 2020 - CSI won 2-1
About Valorant: Valorant is a relatively new first-person shooter where teams work in groups of five as either attackers or defenders in a series of rounds. Rounds are two minutes long and each round has a winner that scores a point. Points are scored by attacking teams if they eliminate the five defenders or they successfully plant a spike (bomb) in a specific location and it explodes by the time the round is over. Defending teams win the round's point if they eliminate all five attackers before the spike is planted or if they successfully diffuse or prevent the spike from exploding by the time the timer ends. The team that successfully scores 13 points wins 1 overall game, and in order to win an entire match, a team must win two out of three games. Players choose one of 12 agents to play with before a round begins each with their own specialties, and after each point in a round, players get to spend economy credits boosting their character in categories like weaponry and armor. Teams take turns being attackers and defenders 12 rounds at a time.
News & Notes: The Dolphins had a perfect run through the ECC, standing at 8-0 this season after the regular season. They clinched their berth into the playoffs a couple of weeks ago and have simply been waiting on seeding to determine their opening round opponent. A total of four teams all tied for the 2-4 seeds in the Tournament, and after multiple tiebreakers, Farmingdale State earned the No. 2 seed, St. Joseph's College (LI) earned the No. 3 seed, and then Southern New Hampshire and New York Tech were to play a Play-In game to determine the No. 4 seed. That match was won by SNHU on Monday, 2-0, putting them into the tournament tonight to face CSI. It promises to be a strong test for CSI, as SNHU was the only ECC team to win a round against CSI. The match took place on October 23, and SNHU won the opening round, 13-8, but CSI came roaring back to win the next two rounds and the match overall, 2-1. CSI won those rounds, 13-1, and 13-5.
What's Next?: Also on display tonight is the other Semifinal matchup between Farmingdale State and St. Joseph's College, which will be played at 9:00 PM. During the Regular Season, Farmingdale defeated SJC-LI, 2-1, back on October 23. The two winners tonight will face off next week for the ECC Championship. Tentative date and time are November 18 at 7pm, but will be finalized once the pairing is determined.
