Danville, KY - Centre Esports kicked off its 2026 spring season in late January in the NECC Placement Tourney and have since begun play in both the NECC and Peach Belt Conference. Here's how the Colonels have fared in the early going:

Marvel Rivals in NECC Placement Tourney (1/27/26): Record 1-2
Centre opened match 1 of game 1 against the University at Albany with their standard 2-2-2 lineup. Some roster changes have occurred from previous seasons as we see new players taking on the Duelist and Vanguard roles. UAlbany would run a very storng 2-1-3 composition outputting more healing that the Colonels could deal damage. Unfortunately, UAlbany's combination of high damage Duelists and well placed Strategists would see Centre lose its BO3 match after two rounds. Game 2 would see a forfeit from Marywood University allowing Centre to play a game 3. Game 3 saw similar struggles for the Colonels as the last played match. Centre attempted to play with 3 Strategists, mirroring their opponent, but would come home with the loss against Montclair State University. Centre ended the NECC Placement Tournament 0-2, 2-FF, and 0-2.

Rocket League in NECC Placement Tourney (1/28/26): Record 2-1
Centre Opened game 1 of Match 1 of the GSL-format bracket with 6 total shot attempts against only 1 from Waynesburg. Half of these came from newcomer K2Winterpath (Charles McGuin). Despite some difficulties in round 2 to tie the record, the Colonels pulled ahead in the final two with K2Winterpath scoring twice in each. Advancing in the winners bracket, the Colonels faced Edinboro. A five-goal deficit in round 1 made things look impossible, but the Colonels answered back with an overtime win in round 2 off of an amazing aerial play from Sush (Grant Walker). The Colonels eked out a second win in round 4 with great passes and shots from ACKESS2005 (Adam Kessinger) before falling by 1 point in game 5.

In the third and final Match, the Colonels matched up again with their first opponent in the losers bracket. Sush opened up game 1 with 2 goals and 4 shot attempts and in game 2 scored within the first 2 seconds of the round off an insane kickoff. Waynesburg found some late-round success in the next two, but fell to the colonels in an aggressive game 5 where ACKESS and Sush each scored 3 times. With this tourney's results and existing rank information, the Colonels were placed into NECC's Division V and will compete in the Southeast Conference.

Marvel Rivals vs Messiah University (2/3/26): Loss 3-0
Match 1, against Messiah University, of Centre's first official NECC season game saw Centre running a 2-1-3 composition to start against Messiah's standard 2-2-2. After seeing Messiah's high damage composition, The Colonels swapped to a height damage composition of their own. The high damage of Centre's Duelists allowed them to take control of the point for a brief moment after StarGarden (Leif Becker) secured a massive quadruple kill. Unfortunately, Messiah took advantage of the point's differing angles and recaptured and ultimately won round 1. Round 2 saw the two teams bring remarkably similar compositions of characters to the battlefield. Both teams aimed to hold down the objective from all angles while still having a strong frontline. Centre would start off strong, capturing the first point while canceling one of Messiah's Strategist ultimates. Unfortunately, Messiah would stop their push and put up a fight too hard for Centre to handle, taking the win in round 2. Round 3 saw Centre make some role changes, swapping their Vanguard onto the Strategist role and vice versa. Keeping the high damage lineup, The Colonels tried to put up a valiant fight, but Messiah University was able to break through the defense and ultimately secure round 3 and the match, the final result being 0-3.

League of Legends vs Huntingdon College (2/7/26): Loss 2-1
This spring season, Centre's LoL team is playing in the Peach Belt Conference and making their debut in the Masters division. Facing off against Huntingdon, we saw a well played game and educational match for the Colonels. In the first match, both teams ran poke-mage based team compositions along with late game building; the game was neck and neck until Huntingdon pulled ahead with the capture of the fire dragon. Last season, Centre focused more on early game building so this shift was unexpected but not without cause. Centre's early game focus created issues against mid-game focused teams as they had the ability to withstand the early push and win mid to late game. During the second match, Centre shifted to focus on a mid-game scaled tank team composition, while Huntingdon focused on mitigation style composition. Similarly to the first match, this game was tight between the two teams up until the 33 minute mark with Centre dominating in a team fight to secure the win. The third match Centre utilized a mitigation composition and Huntingdon used an engagement composition, both scaling for late game. Huntingdon out played Centre during team battles, allowing Huntingdon to secure the win in the third match. Centre tried a number of more diverse team compositions than last season in this match. With more practice and synergy, these new team compositions are poised for a strong future.

Valorant vs North Georgia (2/8/26): Win 2-0 (13-5, 13-11)
Centre's Valorant Team started its PBC spring season with a bang against UNG in their first match. This also marked the return of Klippy (Vedant Bhagat) this season as he stepped back into the role of IGL and team captain. Right at his return, Klippy clutched the very first round in a 1v3 situation, scoring a 3k and setting up the Colonels for success. In the same first map, Drag (Briggs Cook) had an amazing performance, scoring a 4k in the 11th round, carrying the momentum from earlier, and helping Centre finish the first map strong with a score of 13 – 5 in Centre's favor.
The second map started off with the same momentum from the first map, ending the half with 9 – 3, but that was not all. UNG came back and tied the score at 11 – 11, but Centre locked in for the last two rounds to end the match in their favor. The second map was very competitive, with the Colonels giving an extraordinary performance, especially Drag again performing well by getting four 3ks throughout the map, and meowmeowmeowmeow (Aaron Klein) also giving us an amazing performance, scoring a 4k in the 7th round. Overall, it was a great start for the Centre Valorant Team--opening this PBC season with great momentum and confidence.

Marvel Rivals vs Cleveland State (2/10/26): Loss 3-0
Match 1, against Cleveland State University opened with a strong start for The Colonels with their 2-2-2 lineup with some new and improved characters hitting the battlefield. The first third of Match 1 would go to Centre after focusing down Cleveland State's frontline, then leaving their back line defenseless. The following portion of Match 1 would see the tides turn towards Cleveland State as they adapted to Centre's well timed plays to ultimately win round 1. Round 2 saw some very impressive numbers on each team's scoreboard. HighKingofRats (Drake Wright) would accumulate the most damage in the match with an impressive 52,000 damage. Unfortunately, Cleveland State was healing more than The Colonels could damage and ultimately won round 2 in a nail-biting overtime. Round 3 would begin with Centre attempting to run a new composition of heroes, including two flying characters never before seen on the side of The Colonels. Inevitably, Cleveland State would swap to counteract Centre's momentum. Despite the swaps, the momentum would return with JayFreak (Justin Lewis) utilizing his Strategist ultimate to put out some impressive damage and eliminate four of the opposing players. In overtime, after some impressive fights, The Colonels would unfortunately drop the third and final round of the series.

Rocket League vs John Brown University (2/11/26): Win 4-2 (2-1, 3-2, 2-3, 2-1, 2-3, 5-4)
The Colonels found an early goal to start the series. K2Winterpath99 (Charles McGuin) led in shot attempts with 4 while Sush (Grant Walker) had 3 and helped center the ball for shots several times.
Game 2 saw another early lead for Centre of 2 goals both by ACKess (Adam Kessinger), but right at the 2 minute mark, JBU scored twice in quick succession both just moments after kickoff. In the final goal, both JBU and Sush got a touch sending the ball into the top corner of the net. Sush finished with 6 shot attempts. John Brown swapped their lineup in game 3 and sent in Luigo, who was a thorn in Centre's side—scoring 2 of JBU's 3 goals. ACKess found both of Centre's goals. The Colonels started game 4 down, but K2Winterpath found the equalizer with a minute remaining and Sush denied overtime with an extremely precise angle with only 14 seconds. Similar to round 3, teams traded goals back and forth in round 5 with ACKess scoring both of Centre's. The sixth and final round was action backed with both teams scoring constantly. ACKess earned himself a hat trick scoring 3 in a row and an additional one at the beginning.

The action continues for the Colonels on Sunday, February 15th. Stay tuned to centrecolonels.com for the complete schedule and results.