The College of Staten Island Esports team punched their ticket to the first-ever ECC Championship in the game of Valorant, as they were able to get by Southern New Hampshire University, 3-0, in Semifinal play on Wednesday evening.  CSI won the matches 13-8, 13-6, and 13-2, and will meet St. Joseph's College (LI) in the Championship on November 18.

Unlike the Regular Season, where teams need to win a best of three round match, the Playoffs feature a best of five scenario, and in this one, CSI stayed the course and got better and better as the match went on.  The match opened on Valorant's newest-released map of Icebox.  There, CSI started as the attacking side.  The two teams parried back and forth, and even though CSI took a 4-2 lead at one point, SNHU roared back to take three rounds in a row to make it 5-4 in their favor.  A big kill by Kyle Tordecilla, however, got CSI even a little later, 6-6, after the attacking round.

CSI then felt right at home defending on the map. The Dolphins won the first three defense rounds to go up 9-6, taking strong control of the game.  SNHU was able to pull to within 10-8, but CSI was razor-sharp from there and up 12-8, put the Penmen away in the first point when Ryan Lu and Tordecilla polished off kills in the final round, giving CSI a 13-8 win and a 7-2 advantage while on defense.  Lu and Hadi Daoud led all Dolphins with 20 kills, while Christian Dumadag finalized with 15 kills and five first bloods.  SNHU's Snare led all scorers with 22 kills overall.

Up next for both teams was a more familiar map of Ascent.  Again, CSI would be attacking first, and they fell behind early again, falling in a 2-0 hole.  The Dolphins, however turned the tide thanks to three-straight kills by Tordecilla that started a whopping 10-round win streak for CSI, getting them up 10-2 after the attacking round.  SNHU had similar success attacking as CSI did, winning four rounds this way, but they just couldn't string them up as CSI did and CSI broke through with three wins on defense to take the point overall, 13-6.  Tordecilla posted 24 kills in this round next to just 10 deaths, while Lu was next with 22 kills and an overwhelming eight first blood kills.  SNHU's Snare had 26 kills to lead the round, but also had the second-highest deaths with 16.

As the teams headed into the final map of Haven, a three-point planting map, CSI was hoping to win the night, while the Penmen were looking to force a fourth point.  CSI left little to doubt in this one, however.  CSI started on the attack, and like they did before, they dropped the opening round, but quickly responded by taking the next three to take a 3-1 lead.  SNHU stayed within distance with a big win in the next round to make it 3-2, but from there, it was all CSI.  Along with a successful plant spike, Dumadag's Vici was able to snipe Ari to give CSI a 4-2 lead and the team started rolling from there.  To end the attacking round, Tordecilla's Kiko was able to gun down Snare to make it 10-2 in CSI's favor.  Switching over to defense, CSI swept the wave, winning 13-2.
 
Dumadag ended round three with a round-high 20 kills next to just nine deaths.  Tordecilla was next in line with 15 kills, while Lu finished with 12 kills, tied for the lead with three first blood kills.

CSI's overall record improved to 9-0 this season, while the Penmen finished the season with a 6-4 record.  CSI will now face off against 6-3 St. Joseph's College (LI) in the ECC Final.  The Golden Eagles defeated Farmingdale State on Wednesday night in a thriller, 3-2.  CSI defeated SJC-LI during the Regular Season, on October 26, 2-0.  This is the first year the ECC is sponsoring the video game of Valorant, and so both teams will be looking to be the first-ever ECC Champion in the game come next week.