DANVILLE, Ky. – The National Esports Collegiate Conferences (NECC) and Peach Belt Conference (PBC) playoffs have come to an end and the Centre Esports team had two championship game appearances with one win. 

The Rocket League team finished the season undefeated and NECC Champions while the League of Legends and Valorant teams made impressive appearances in the PBC Playoffs. 

ROCKET LEAGUE:    

Centre 4, Southern Virginia University 0 (4-0, 3-2, 4-0, 5-3) - NECC Playoff Semifinals 

- Things opened up slowly in the first game. Duroxy (Eddie Mora) broke the seal open when he easily passed the ball to Allstar_531 (Porter Kelley) for a quick first goal. After that score, Centre became more comfortable as Duroxy made yet another pass to Allstar_531 for a second close goal. SVU by no means let up as they made several solid shot attempts, forcing Centre to play defense. Even so, Allstar_531 found an opening and made his third and fourth goals of the match. It was an incredibly impressive start for team captain Allstar_531 and for Centre RL.  
- Centre stole game two in the final moments. The teams traded defensive plays with no goals for the first four minutes. Ending the standstill with a minute left, SVU just barely scored on the edge of the goal and very soon after, earned themselves a second goal post-kickoff. With very little time to mount a comeback, Centre got a demo onto SVU, forcing an opening for Allstar_531 to score. With 30 seconds on the clock, Centre was still down but SVU malpositioned and left the ball open for grabs. Duroxy saw it and drove the ball to SVU's goal, tying the match. But it didn't stop there, right after kicking off, Duroxy essentially passed to himself by making the ball curve around the left wall to the center of the net to prevent overtime and secure the win.  
- Game three was another dominant showing for the Colonels. Duroxy immediately scored after the first kick off. In quick succession, Centre scored another two goals. Even with that dominance, SVU was still maintaining a well forged defense, blocking many of Centre's attempted shots. With 45 seconds left, Duroxy solidified Centre's lead with a fourth goal. 
- In the final game, SVU was immediately swarmed by Centre's offense which eventually led to a goal by Sush. SVU responded by sending the ball right over Centre's heads to tie things up. Not even 20 seconds later, Duroxy made the goal of a lifetime. He took up the wall, falling in tandem with it and performed a flip reset on the side of the ball and used his last bit of boost to scoop the ball and score it right over the entire SVU team. Soaring into the air next was Allstar_531 to pass to sush cant win right behind him to score a goal. SVU responded by upping their offense, forcing Centre into a bad position and scoring. Soon after, SVU found another opening in Centre's defense and scored, tying the match, showing they still had the capacity to win this match. Going off the wall again, Duroxy passed the ball to himself in the air, scoring over SVU. Getting desperate, SVU tried to up their offense to tie up the match, but Allstar_531 found a final goal, winning Centre the match and the series as a whole.  

  
Centre 4, Alabama-Huntsville (Yellow) 0 (2-1, 2-1, 2-0, 2-1) - NECC Championship 

- Performance looked very even between both teams in the first game of the NECC Championship match. UAH scored first and early in the opening contest. Sush tied things up with a score that bounced off the ceiling straight into the top of the opposing team's net. Neither of UAH's defenders could read the tricky angle in time to get enough vertical room. Sush found Centre's second goal too thanks to a pivotal bump from Allstar on UAH's defender in the net. The Colonels finished the first game winners of a 2-1 tilt. 
-Once again, it was UAH who scored first to take an early lead in the second game. Allstar tied things up with just over a minute on the clock with a pass from Sush. Allstar then found a clear net to score again as the clock struck zero, but it was too late so overtime was triggered. Allstar found his redemption in the extra period. Just 1:22 into overtime he followed up on a miss by Duroxy with a goal that won game two.  
- Centre denied UAH their typical early lead in the third game and ended up blocking every shot UAH threw at them. As the timer progressed, Centre entered a flow state making impressive goal saves and securing crucial demos that set them up for success. Once all the pieces were in position, it was easy for Duroxy to pass Sush the ball for a first goal and have Sush follow up with a second goal at the end in the 2-0 blanking.  
- Centre, with the chance to sweep the series, was ready to start the fourth game. Both teams barely missed goals to start, with UAH showing some admirable aggression. Duroxy took advantage of one of UAH's misses and stole the ball for the first point. AllStar came in clutch with a second goal just moments after, putting Centre in a great spot. UAH wasn't finished and slipped one goal through with less than a minute to spare but could not find the second contest they needed. Despite some close scorelines and overtime being played, Centre cleanly finished the match and were crowned as this year's NECC Division VI East Champions! 


LEAGUE OF LEGENDS:      

Centre 2, Montevallo 1 - PBC Playoff Semifinals 

- In the first game, Centre was able to draft many of their preferred picks putting them in a strong position from the start. Montevallo picked a quite similar composition. Centre's early focus on gathering gold began to pay off early, as MetroMina (Mina Hartman), with MegaNoodles (Tenghoit Kouch) assistance, was able to buy more powerful items early and was able to pick up four kills in quick succession against the opposing midlaner and jungler, making the game 4-1. Centre then began contesting major objectives at this stage of the game. Centre won the ensuing team fights, but some poor positioning caused them to cede to Montevallo their third drake, putting them one away from the very powerful dragon soul buff. Despite that, Centre began to feel confident enough to begin a slow siege of Montevallo's base, bottling Montevallo up and to let Centre prepare for Baron. A brief fight sent Montevallo reeling and let Centre take the buff and begin the true siege of the former's base. Centre took game one at 33:04, 20-5. 
- The second game began with a big switch up by Montevallo, as they swapped the roles of their support and midlaner. Montevallo also played their draft well, able to ban out Moss Hoss and MetroMina from their best picks and able to pick up great champions for their jungler, support, and midlaner. The game began auspiciously for Centre, with an early first blood and a strong bot lane performance from MandaloreTheWise (Winter Collins) and SolarPikachu1 (Tim Trieu), thanks to the support-mid swap. Unfortunately, Montevallo's jungler (playing Amumu) and midlaner (the Veigar) were ganking quite well, and were able to score a shutdown on MetroMina, earning Veigar extra gold to scale up even faster with. Centre later earned a little bit of breathing room and was able to respawn and kill Baron while Montevallo was out of position, regaining the gold lead. The opposing team held on to win finishing the game there at 41:58, 19-28 despite Centre still having the gold lead. 
- In the third game, Centre had the first pick of champions, and took the opportunity to grab the Veigar for MetroMina, denying Montevallo that extremely powerful choice and giving it to Centre's resident artillery mage expert. Almost all of Centre's players were able to get their preferred champions. Both teams played cautiously with the first kill not coming until 10 minutes  in. It went to MetroMina's Veigar, though, which was very encouraging for her ability to snowball. Centre later earned temporary control of the entire jungle and took down turrets and picked up gold, picking up plenty of items that helped them crush the next team fight at the drake pit, which Centre handily won especially thanks to a good stun by SolarPikachu and a massive ultimate by MandaloreTheWise. The Colonels took their time and collected every advantage they could from the jungle before making their final assault and handily finishing the game at 34:19, 34-8. 


Centre 0, Florida State-Panama City 3 – PBC Championship 

- The first game of the PBC Championship saw Centre run an Amumu, Caitlyn, Malphite, Hwei, and Janna lineup to face off against FSUPC. Unfortunately, things quickly did not go well for the Colonels. A good hook from FSU's Nautilus support caught Centre's ADC, which earned FSU an early pick. Furthermore, MetroMina, normally a linchpin in Centre's strategy, had trouble, on her picked artillery mage, when fending off the skirmisher champion FSU's midlane chose. Centre's top lane struggled which limited the ability to roam effectively. That ultimately lead to a large gold and major objective difference heading into the midgame. Tose advantages for FSU yielded too much momentum for Centre to stop, leading to an early game 1 loss, with the late game not even being entered. 
- Centre determined that changing their lineup to better match against FSUPC was necessary for the second game, and decided to swap every champion except for Amumu in the jungle. This time, they ran Garen, Miss Fortune, Nami, and Mel.  FSU scored the first blood after almost ten minutes of laning. However, Centre was able to snag the lead when FSU went for the first drake. Centre, well positioned, pounced on them, with MegaNoodles (Tenghoit Kouch) landing a good hook to slow down FSU's retreat. This was followed by a very well timed and placed ultimate fromMandaloreTheWise" (Winter Collins), which found all three of FSU's players. From there Centre started to scale hard, particularly MetroMina (Mina Hartman) and MandaloreTheWise. Surprisingly much of the action happened around big, 5v5 team fights, rather than Centre's normal MO of looking for smart and one-sided ganks. FSU was dominant and took the team fight and grabbed Baron. Centre then fought another uncoordinated fight around Elder Dragon, losing badly, and left FSU a great opening to head to their completely exposed base and win the game. 
- The third game Centre switched their gameplan up even more, so they opted to keep the Amumu but change everything else once again, adding a Weigar, Smolder, Dr. Mundo, and Lulu. FSU took advantage of the fact that Centre only had one tanky character and no burst damage, and quickly controlled the bottom lane. After a pick on Centre's support, FSU collapsed on the jungler and found another kill. Centre's midlaner also got caught out of position and provided FSU with even more momentum in the early game. Compounding their composition disadvantage, Centre also played somewhat sloppily in their macro, being lackluster on vision and positioning. This led them to keep getting caught out. Therefore, the middle game went completely in FSUs favor, as they scaled fast off of their early game dominance. Soon, they won a crucial team fight, wiped turrets, and won the game. Centre's attempt to change up their plan was valiant, but unfortunately not enough to beat FSU. 


VALORANT:    

Centre 0, Montevallo 2 (4-13, 2-13) - PBC Playoff Quarterfinals 

- Pearl was the site of the first half of Centre's quarterfinals match and they faced an uphill battle due to low seeding. The map opened up with an explosive pistol round thanks to Clairo (Huston Mountjoy) getting a triple kill and the rest of the team finishing off the remaining two players. Unfortunately, Centre would lose the following round which would put them down economically for the next few rounds. When reaching round five Centre still had not gotten another round win, but Montevallo had enough money to buy an Operator. Guns like this kept Centre in poverty as they had to neglect guns that would give them a higher chance of winning and opt for cheaper guns. On rounds where Centre could buy suitable guns, they would be met with overwhelmingly aggressive defenders and flanks. Centre was trying to pivot between fast paced rounds with cheap guns and premeditated rounds with fully stocked equipment and guns. On round 11, Centre would manage to misdirect Montevallo so that Centre may plant the spike. Once the spike was down Centre managed to get two lucky double kills for Clairo and Bill Clinton (Jade Otgon). Centre swiftly lost the final round in the half for a 2-10 half time. This half's pistol round was also remarkable as Klippy (Vedant Bhagat) got a quadra kill to win the round. Centre stayed consistent by losing the round following the pistol round which drastically slowed their progress. In round 16, wh1sper (Dewey Du) played incredibly aggressive and dashed at Montevallo which took them by surprise and led to a quadra kill that won the round. Despite the inspiring wins, Centre could not maintain that progress and lost the map. 
- Centre moved on to Ascent and would lose the initial pistol round of the map. Montevallo won several round and got some ultimate abilities online. Those kept Centre from winning and building an economy of their own. Every round wnt to Montevallo until round 10 when Klippy (Vedant Bhagat) got an aggressive triple kill which gave the rest of the team the space to win the round. Centre did not get the opportunity to capitalize off the victory since Montevallo had enough money to  immediately retaliate by buying expensive weapons and winning the remaining rounds in the half. Centre got aggressive on the pistol round and sped onto the site before all of Montevallo could get into defensive positions giving a glimmer of hope to Centre as they won the round. With inexpensive weapons, Montevallo erased that hope by winning the second round of the half and leaving Centre with no economy before winning the final round of the map, series, and season for Centre. 

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The NECC and PBC seasons have concluded for Gold & White for the 2024-25 academic year. Visit CentreColonels.com for the full Esports schedule and recaps of action.