DANVILLE, Ky. – The Centre Esports squads, competing in the National Esports Collegiate Conferences (NECC) and Peach Belt Conference (PBC), had an action-packed Feb. 23-March 13. 

The Rocket League team remains undefeated in 2025, while the League of Legends, Overwatch, and Valorant squads are staying competitive.  


ROCKET LEAGUE:   

Centre 3, Akron (Club Grey) 0 (4-1, 7-3, 5-3) 

- The first goal of game one went to Akron. Centre left their goal wide open for and the Zips scored a goal from across the field to go up 1-0.  After a brief struggle for the Colonels, Duroxy (Eddie Mora) took the ball off the wall, into the air, and spun into Akron's goal, breaking the standstill and tying the game. In efforts to defend the Centre goal, sush cant win (Grant Walker) started to demo Akron's players, preventing them from scoring some close goals. Taking it to Akron, Centre scurried to find another goal missing shot after shot. Closely following was sush cant win who read where the ball went after a tense back and forth between both teams and scored another goal. Just as the next kickoff began, sush cant win scored a goal instantly, establishing Centre's lead at the end of the game. From this point forward Centre was locked in for the win.  
- In hopes of taking a win in the second game, Akron began with another across-field goal. Centre, caught off guard, scrambled on the next kick off, allowing for Akron to find yet another opening in Centre's defense to score once again. Still in shock, Centre had trouble finding their footing in this second game. Taking advantage of this, Akron was able to demo one of Centre's players and drive the ball to the goal again, securing a hefty lead. Having had enough, Centre took the offensive with sush cant win scoring two quick goals. Looking for every opportunity, Centre kept the pressure up and kept their rotations clean. Taking their time, Centre slowly took the lead, breaking down Akron's defense and putting their team chemistry on display. Speeding up, Centre was able to score goal after goal while Akron was not able to keep up at all.  
- Akron scored first in the third game as well. sush cant win and Duroxy showed their ability to maintain composure and defensive ability. Akron repeatedly took the ball to Centre's goal, but just barely missed each time. After many failed attempts, Centre took the ball away from Akron, scoring an impressive three back-to-back-to-back goals and putting Akron back on the defensive. In what seemed to be a standstill, Akron kept fighting and tried to score to even out the game. But Centre swarmed Akron, making it impossible for them to secure the lead, allowing for Centre to take the win. 

Centre 3, Tennessee (Black) 0 (5-0, 3-0, 5-1) 

- Centre's winning streak was on the line versus Tennessee (Black). Centre took the first goal of game one just 30 seconds into the match. The Colonels maintained heavy offensive possession to apply pressure from all angles. UT was able to maintain a strong defense, denying several Centre attempts. In a swift act, Duroxy found an opening in UTK's defense and took the ball down the field. Seeing sush cant win in his peripheral vision, he hit it straight to Walker who scored a clean goal in what became a 5-0 rout.  
- Centre went into the second game with their heads held high. The Colonels used the second contest to attempt different techniques such as shots off the top of the ceiling. In the initial part of the game, Centre continued to show the mechanical skill gap between them and UT. Even so, Tennessee put up a fight, continuing to deny goals from Centre. Because of how aggressive Centre was playing, UT was unable to make any fruitful offensive plays and was forced to keep playing defensively. The Colonels took the win, denying any chance of UT scoring.  
- The aggressive play style continued for Centre in the final game. sush cant win was seen soaring and spinning with the ball on the front grill of his car less than 10 seconds into the match to take the first goal. The score for Centre kept going up as they were able to penetrate UT's defense repeatedly. In the final seconds of the game, UT was able to find a goal in the 5-1 win for the Colonels.

Centre 3, Detroit Mercy (A) 0 (Forfeit) 

- The Colonels won the contest via forfeit by the opposing team. 


LEAGUE OF LEGENDS:     

Centre 2, Columbus State 0   

- Centre started game one with a diverse comp with a tank top and jungle, long range mage mid, marksman bot, and enchanter support. Columbus State would counter with a very similar comp focused around the long range damage of Jhin and Akshan. Centre's early aggression would seem to haunt them, though, with Centre's bot lane falling fast after being really pushed up. Moss Hoss (Cole Whitt) and MetroMina (Mina Hartman) would soon turn it around though, using their excellent laning skills to slowly whittle down their opposing champions before going in for the kill, evening up the game. Both teams would pick up kills over the next 10 minutes, executing strong ganks or winning spectacular duels in turn. However, CSU slowly gained the lead, until Centre spectacularly stole the dragon from CSU and completely wiped their entire team in the ensuing fight. The Colonels played as a very disciplined and cohesive unit moving forward, roaming together and using their abilities to trap and isolate their opponents so that MetoMina or MandaloreTheWise (Winter Collins) could take them down with their high damage champions. CSU's base was relatively undefended, when the Baron spawned, so Centre pounced. They fought their way through the base turrets quickly and engaged in a prolonged team fight inside the base, before finally beating back CSU to their fountain and destroying their nexus, winning the game 
- Moss Hoss and MetroMina's champions from the last game were banned for the second game, but Centre would still run a fundamentally similar comp, just with Moss Hoss now joining MegaNoodles (Tenghoit Kouch) by playing an aggressive diving champion. CSU would also play a similar comp to their last one. MetroMina would get first blood against the CSU midlaner, but it would balanced out by well-executed ganks in the bot lane taking down Centre's duo. Indeed, both team's diver junglers would become core to the early game, with both initiating and dominating nearly every fight across the map. Centre would slowly pick up a kill lead but let CSU take quite a few major objectives uncontested. However, with so many kills funneled into MegaNoodles and MetroMina, they began to scale extremely quickly. CSU could not keep up, and Centre accelerated the amount of fights it engaged in and won as the midgame was entered. Centre's basic gameplan in team fights was for Moss Hoss and MegaNoodles to quickly dive on the squishiest or most out of position CSU player, with MetroMina quickly following while MandaloreTheWise and SolarPikachu held back, SolarPikachu and the divers keeping them trapped while the two damage carries did their work. Because of their coordination and discipline in playing together, this worked wonders. Around 26 minutes Baron spawned, and Centre decided it was time to end this. They dropped the Rift Herald in the midlane to destroy the turret up to their base and clear a path, and then went to grab Baron. After doing so, they rammed right up mid and broke in, quickly clearing the place out and destroying the Nexus. 

Centre 2, Lander 0 (Forfeit) 

- The Colonels won the contest via forfeit by the opposing team. 


OVERWATCH:   

Centre 0, Akron 3 

- On the Nepal map the Colonels looked to come back after last week's loss. Centre opened strong with an Orisa, Cassidy, Venture, Juno, Brigitte team composition and gained control of the first point. But this momentary victory did not last too long as Akron swiftly picked apart Centre and gained map control. Centre throughout the round made some poor ultimate calls and staggered eliminations multiple times, allowing Akron to hold the point and win the first round. In round two, Akron gained control of the fight right at the start after Centre's attention was split. Akron had complete control over the tempo of the round with a Lucio-Hazard strategy, making map one a decisive win for Akron.  
- Centre wanted to switch up their plan for the next map of Midtown, and so they opted for a Zarya rush composition. Unfortunately, Akron had the same idea and almost mirrored Centre. Clearly, Akron had practiced this composition much more extensively than Centre has and fully shut down Centre's offensive phase. Centre on defense tried to be as defensive as possible with an Ana-Kiriko support lineup, but Akron used a Symmetra teleporter to completely negate Centre's plan and quickly target the supports. Centre thankfully warded off this first attempt, but Akron's second attempt was just enough to take down the Colonels. 
- Centre completely switches their game plan on map three, which was Esperanca, and ran a Junker Queen-Lucio combination that served them well. The first fight went smoothly for Centre as they quickly took out Akron's tank and got the advantage. Centre almost made it to the first checkpoint but Akron fended them off and turned the fight around with some well-timed ultimates. After Akron almost got the robot to the second checkpoint, Chonkyghost (Jonathan Kromer) turned the fight with a JQ ultimate. After back-and-forth fights, both teams almost pushed the robot to the end of the map and it came time for overtime. Centre had a chance to overturn Akron at the end, but an unfortunate stagger lead to Centre's loss.  

Centre 0, Wright State (Green) 3 

- Busan was the first map of the contest and Centre came in with the idea to play in a speed-focused fashion with a Junker Queen-Lucio combo once again. However, Wright State threw Centre's plans for success out of the window with a Wrecking Ball skirmish composition. This completely threw Centre off, as Wrecking Ball is not seen very often during practice time and caused Centre to lose the first fight. Centre kept getting split up and was not able to secure many eliminations in round one, making it a win for Wright State. Round two did not prove to be much better for Centre. The Wrecking Ball completely disoriented Centre from locating each other and did not allow for Centre to heal each other effectively. Centre did show some fight near the middle of the match, gaining 75% on the control point, but it still was not enough to get the win.  
- Circuit Royale was Centre's choice of map for game two. Right away, WSG's team dove over a building and wiped Centre out, which gives them control over the game taking them all the way to the end on their attack phase. Centre, on defense, did manage to stall an impressive four extra minutes at the end of the map, but eventually WSG pushed the cart to the finish line. On the attack, Centre failed to make much progress after being split up multiple times, making map two a relatively easy win for Wright State. 
- Runasapi was the final map and Centre tried one more time to turn the game in their favor by swapping tank players, but it still wasn't enough to deter Wright State. After losing both supports in the first fight, Centre got overtaken and WSG mace steady progress towards their third map win, winning them the series.  

Centre 1, Michigan-Flint (Blue-A) 3 

- Centre started this match on Busan with a Rammatra brawl composition to take on University of Michigan-Flint in the most even match up they had all season. Centre's support lineup did not offer any speed but had lots of sustain. Unfortunately, UM Flint did have speed in theirs, meaning they gained control over the tempo swiftly and won the first fight. Centre turned things around after a great Coalescence from RatKing's (Drake Wright) Moira. This gave them enough momentum to hold off Flint's advances and win round one. In round two, Flint swapped their composition around to more closely resemble Centre's. Centre eventually brought the point to 99%, only for Flint to overturn it. Flint did not allow Centre to use their ultimates in an effective way, winning them round two. After a well-fought battle in round three, Centre ultimately was defeated due to Flint running stronger ultimates, namely Ana's Nano Boost, that Centre didn't have for themselves. 
- King's Row saw Centre swap their players around as Adamah (Adam Hutchinson) and Powers come in to play their Brigitte/Ana dynamic duo, and it paid off. Centre was attacking first, and their first two attempts were thwarted by a Mei wall and a flanking Torbjorn, but Centre eventually broke through on their third try when Carp (Jacob Carpenter_ used a massive Blizzard that froze Flint completely. After capturing the first point, Centre advanced with little trouble through the first part of street phase. Flint aimed to swap their game plan by swapping to Wrecking Ball, but Adamah put a hard check on them, not allowing them to get full value out of their toolkit. Centre advanced slowly but surely through the third section and eventually came out on top. On defense, Centre played the exact same composition, which was even stronger on defense. With Bastion to apply damage, Mei to cut off supports, and Rammatra to lead the helm with the dynamic duo in the back keeping everyone healthy, UM Flint did not even gain one tick mark.  
- Esperanca went differently for Centre, as their composition was unfavorable in the open style map. UMF chose a deadly damage lineup that applied too much pressure to Centre's supports, barely allowing Centre to move the objective in their favor. The sustained damage numbers and aggressive play from UMF was enough to win them the map handily, although Centre did bring the fight into overtime.  
- On Suravasa, Centre chose to bring in a Lucio to add some speed tactics, which brought them to the initial flashpoint before UMF arrived. Centre completely shut out UMF after gaining the better map positioning and took the first flashpoint. Before the second flashpoint could unlock, Chonkyghost (Jonathan Kromer) took out three of UMF's team members with their Sojourn ultimate, Overclock, giving them immediate control of flashpoint number two. This secured them the second point. UMF got some early eliminations and took point three. Centre did win a fight and regain control, but UMF retaliated and eventually secured the third point for themselves. On the fourth point, Centre locked UMF out and brought the point to 99%, but a Graviton Surge from the opposing Zarya allowed UMF to clean sweep the team and flip the point. UMF's ultimate usage was simply better timed and better coordinated, and a Juno ultimate forced Centre off the fourth objective, adding one to UMF's score. Now 2-2, the teams headed to the final flashpoint to brawl it out. The Zarya on UMF's side was unfortunately charged fast and took advantage of her raw damage to take out Centre's Orisa and win them the final battle. 

Centre 0, Blinn 2 

- Centre took part in the Kentucky Showdown LAN Tournament and drew Blinn, which was one of highest seeds in the tournament to start. Blinn started this first map, Oasis, with a high mobility team that specialized in omni-directional damage while Centre started with a slow burst damage team. Before Centre could make it onto the first objective they were hit in the back by Blinn's tank. The first to fall were Centre's supports and the rest of the team fell soon after. On the next engagement Centre became aware of how deadly Blinn's team could be. When half of Centre's players looked to eliminate Blinn's Winston who was vulnerable on the frontlines, the other half was being torn apart by Blinn's Pharah raining rockets from the sky. Blinn's Pharah eliminated two of Centre's players which saved Blinn's Winston and forces the rest of Centre to retreat. A similar strategy was used for the remainder of the submap's fights. On the second submap, Pharah remained a pertinent threat that prevented Centre from taking the site. Blinn left Pharah to provide artillery from a distance while the rest of the team fought Centre on the objective. This strategy shut down Centre for the first few fights. Blinn would push the fight closer to Centre's spawn which kept them from being able to target Blinn's Pharah. Centre could barely charge their ultimates by the time that Blinn already had enough to wipe Centre's team twice over and win the map. 
- Circuit Royale was the next map and Centre decided to give Chonkyghost an opportunity to switch to the tank role as the team revised their strategy. The first fight occurred as normal with a kill in either direction before Blinn's Ana hits all of Centre with an impressive anti-heal grenade leaving Centre vulnerable and the fight lost. A few character swaps later and Centre started to make some progress in pushing the point. Blinn recuperated and regained control by using their ultimate abilities before Centre could and powering up their Orisa's ultimate by using it in conjunction with Ana's ultimate which boosts damage greatly. They took over the point and when Centre wanted to re-engage and use ultimates of their own, Chonkyghost's Graviton Surge got eaten by Blinn's Orisa's Spear Spin. Knowing they had the advantage, Blinn pushed Centre off of the objective and won the fight. Blinn then wiped out all of Centre's players with the same Orisa and Ana ultimate combo. This fight loss was too late in the round for Centre to be able to reach the objective before time runs out and the teams switched sides. Centre decided to switch to a team that specializes in bunkering down and being an immovable object. However, Blinn flanked Centre with a vicious dive from behind which takes out most of their team. Centre made so little progress that Blinn was able to push the objective nearly to the end before even the quickest of Centre's players could reach the fight. Once they did reach that fight they were met with overwhelming force and taken out swiftly, giving the map and the series to Blinn. 

Centre 2, Kentucky (White) 0 

- After entering the losers bracket of the Kentucky Showdown LAN Tournament, Centre's second opponent was UK White. The Colonels started things off on Lijiang Tower with a Junker Queen Rush comp. Centre took early control of the point after both teams exchanged some trades. In the second fight, Carp's Mei disrupted UK's approach allowing Centre to focus and overwhelm individual targets. UK made some major hero swaps to a bastion and JQ of their own but could not overcome the ult deficit in the next fight. In their final push, UK forced overtime in a scrappy fight that left only StarGarden (Leif Becker) alive on the point. On the second submap, UK took the early lead and used it to snowball their way to 89% before Centre can swap it. An early pick onto Powers' Juno meant UK had little difficulty recapping, despite Centre many ultimates. With things tied up, UK took the early lead on the third submap. Centre did not let them run away with it this time as they. Centre used clever positioning around natural cover and aggresive macro-rotations to control the tempo and win the the next several fights and win map one.  
- Circuit Royale was the pick of UK White. Both teams began running Sigma comps. Carp scored an opening pick on widowmaker which allowed Centre to push in and begin a speedy push that would take them through the first two points. UK successfully held for an extra three minutes just on the last point, but Centre finished out the map with 55 seconds remaining. An uncommon choice, Adamah's use of Lifeweaver's tree was essential in giving Centre the extra sustain to win fights. UK Ran a Winston dive comp on their attack. Some early UK progress prompted Carp to swap to Reaper to better deal with the Winston. Centre successfully held around the corner by the bridge for three minutes meaning UK did not make it to even the first check point. Some incredibly proactive ult usage by Chonkyghost on Sigma was crucial to securing the last fight in overtime and earned him play of the game. 

Centre 0, Miami (OH) 2 

- The Kentucky Showdown LAN Tournament losers bracket next paired Centre with Miami University who had just lost a close match against Converse. Entering as the 7th seed and one of the titans of the region, Miami was by far the favorite to win. On the first map of Samoa, Centre looked to run a fast paced rush comp built around Mauga. Time after time as they pushed on to point, Centre's backline would get slowed down and split up by Miami's Genji. Without a unified push, Centre could not successfully close the gap to secure any picks. In the second sub-map, Miami continued to leverage off angles and long distances to force Centre's cooldowns and deny their entry. Chonkyghost swapped to Winston for a change of pace. While Centre found a few picks in this submap, they continued to be out positioned and out damaged by Miami and could not win a team fight. Miami won both fights 100% to 0%. Centre only got one ultimate off.           
- Centre selected Circuit Royal for map two and banned Genji from Miami. With a vastly different map, Centre hoped to utilize something similar to the match against UK White, but Miami's mechanical skill proved too much. A devastating combo of Mercy and Pharah and later Mercy and Bastion proved too much for Centre to handle. While Carp and StarGarden held their own against Miami's widowmaker, Centre could not win any team fights and continually had to give Miami space. Centre nearly stabilized in the final moments of their defense with some great ults, but it did not quite come together and Miami finished with 3:24 to spare. On attack Centre was held at the first corner and struggled to deal with Miami's Venture. With the loss to Miami, Centre's tournament run was ended. 


VALORANT:   

Centre 0, Lander (Academy) 2 (11-13, 9-13) 

- On Bind, Centre got off to a good start by winning the first round and its expected second round. Lander managed to come back from the economic defeat and even the match up 2 to 2 before winning a third for the lead. Klippy (Vedant Bhagat) got a quadra kill to put Centre in the lead economically and to tie the game 3 to 3. 19 Dollars (Tommy Yu)  wipes out all of Lander's players for a penta kill to win the round and secure the lead. Lander then tried to play slower to catch one of Centre's players, but 19 Dollars responded with even more aggression that took Lander by surprise. Lander then comes back to tie up the game by half time. Lander then took the lead by winning the initial round to which Centre responds with a force buy, which turns out negatively as Centre loses the force buy round as well as the round after. The losing streak was only stopped by a miraculous stroke of teamwork to take over a site and communicate where people should peek from. Centre continued the strategy until the match point where wh1sper (Dewey Du) got a quadra kill. Centre wins a hand full of impressive rounds, however the game finishes a heartbreaking 11-13 for LUA. 
- The Split map started incredibly close on a round-by-round basis. Centre lost quite a few rounds and could not seem to find a foothold in this match. Centre took a beating until Bill Clinton (Jade Otgon) put together enough kills to get their ult and a quadra kill. This win was very much needed as it put Centre only down by two rounds at half time. Centre put up good fights but could never seem to end the round on top, which led to Lander taking the series. 

Centre 0, Montevallo 2 (4-13, 11-13) 

- The Lotus map opened with a loss for Centre. The second round went to Montevallo. Centre, despite killing four of Montevallo's players, could not secure the third round. Round after round goes by without Centre being able to get a single round win and only one or two of the rounds would even be close. It isn't until round seven that Centre got a round, and it required 19 Dollars to get an Ace and kill all of Montevallo's players in a penta kill. A good usage of Montevallo's ultimate abilities prevented a streak from forming, but Centre was on stable ground as they managed another round win. The half ended 9-3. The second half put Centre on the defensive fighting an uphill battle. Centre won the initial pistol round, however they had to let Montevallo have site control. Every round after pistol went to Montevallo as they took the map. 
- On Haven, it was clear that Centre needed to revise their game plan. Centre started Haven by playing very aggressive, using disorienting abilities to catch Montevallo in a misstep which secured the first two rounds for Centre. Montevallo caught on to Centre's strategy fast and took advantage of our aggressive plays by holding uncommon angles. This allowed Montevallo to even the game before taking a three-round lead. Centre used some powerful ultimates to close the round gap and even up the game. Centre used the few remaining ultimate abilities that they had to stretch their streak to half time and actually get a two-round lead on Montevallo. Montevallo started the half with a few wins that allowed them to even the game 7-7. The two teams traded round after round keeping the score even and the fights close. Only a few microscopic choices made the difference of victor and yet Centre walked away with another loss under their belt.  

Centre 0, Lander (Varsity) 2 (3-13, 0-13) 

- Lander's came into the match undefeated. Big Soup (Blake Shrewsberry) came into the match as a replacement for the Colonels. Lander went rounds on Bind without taking a loss. Centre won round five as a team ace which meant everyone on the team got one kill. Lander only let three rounds slip by half time and Centre was hoping for a second half attack side miracle. Lander took a unique approach to defense as they retreated into the entrances that attackers would use instead of the points of safety meant for defenders. This led to a lot of misdirection as Lander could flank or pour back onto site. Centre did not get a single round in this half and went into the next map. 
- Centre went into the Lotus map knowing that they were going to have to fight tooth and nail to bring this series back. Centre, unfortunately, would not get a single round the entire map. Lander's oppressive use of abilities to clear out sites and then rush in to take advantage of anyone who was not able to leave led to countless rounds in their favor. Most rounds were not close and Centre struggled to get many kills. An expected outcome for Centre that they tried to take lightly. 

UP NEXT    
The Gold & White have a full slate of games coming up as the season progresses. Visit CentreColonels.com for the full Esports schedule and recaps of action.