Centre Esports picked up the action this past week with a series of matches in all 4 games with strong progress in some games and big wins in others. Here's how it all went down:

League of Legends vs Georgia College and State University (2/15/26): Loss 2-1
In the first match, Centre chose a very balanced composition focused on mid-game, while GCSU utilized a more tank-style composition, also scaling for mid game. In a well-played game, Centre pulled ahead by utilizing the dragons for a level gap leading to their win in the first match. Metro Mina had an incredible match on ADC going 12-2 as Smolder. This season, we've seen a more diverse skill set from Mina outside of midlane. In the second match, GCSU used a ranged mage composition while Centre chose a more ADC and support focused team composition. Centre struggled as the characters Miss Fortune and Seraphin. The Colonels could not withstand the damage of the enemy team. The third match was surprisingly short compared to the prior to matches, with both teams scaling for early game. While each individual player was skilled, the composition Centre utilized was weak against the sheer damage output of GCSU. This week, look forward to the potential new team compositions and characters from Centre's League of Legends team.

Rocket League vs University of Louisville (2/15/26): Won 4-0 (1-0, 4-1, 6-1, 4-3)
Off the heals of a 4-2 win earlier in the week, the Colonels continued their streak with a clean sweep over Louisville's B team. A slow game one with a lone goal from ACKess2005 (Adam Kessinger) led into two high scoring rounds. All 4 of Centre's goals in game two occurred in the final two minutes despite many promising looking defensive bumps from UofL. Louisville found their lone goal with 10 seconds remaining. Game 3 was even more dominant. Sush (Grant Walker) stood out as a clear MVP of the round with a whopping 4 goals, 2 assists, 2 saves, and 6 shot attempts—netting him a score of 869. Up by so much, with the final 2 minutes, the Colonels looked to recreate infamous Brazil scoreline, but fell just short. In game 4, the UofL team facing match point finally found opportunities to tie the score. With just over 30 seconds remaining and a tied 3-3 score line, ACKess and UofL's Brokeboy found themselves in a rule 1 in the middle of the field. With UofL down a man on defense, Sush and K2Winterpath (Charles McGuin) teamed up to find the series winning goal and prevent overtime.

Marvel Rivals vs Loyola University Maryland (2/17/26): Loss 3-2
The first objective of Round 1 against Loyola Maryland was an extremely even fight, going to 99% for each team. Loyola was the first to reach 99%, but some powerful ultimate combinations from the Colonels, particularly n0g (Nate Hall) and StarGarden (Leif Becker), allowed the tides to be turned and for Centre to capture the first objective of Round 1. The second objective saw Loyola swap their composition to a more CC oriented lineup, particularly with the Angela and Spider-Man picks–allowing them to secure the second objective.The deciding objective of match 1 saw Loyola swap their composition yet again to a dive oriented matchup where the constant pressure from Black Panther allowed Loyola to win Round 1.

Round 2 saw two very similar compositions from both teams: high damage and strong defense. The first ultimate of the game came from SkelloJello (Lucas Poynter) on Moon Knight which allowed the Colonels to make some good headway, but Loyola was able to respond with ultimates of their own, sustaining their defense. With Centre swapping to the side of defense, they needed to be able to withstand enemy fire for four minutes in order to win Round 2. Unfortunately, Loyola got the first elimination allowing them to secure the objective and Round 2.

Round 3 saw BigSoup (Blake Shrewsberry) swap off of his signature Vanguard role and onto the Duelist role. After securing the first phase of round 3, a small stalemate occured with well timed Strategist ultimates, but with the use of Jayfreaky's (Justin Lewis) Gambit ultimate, The Colonels were able to push phase two to completion. Now in the final phase of offense, Loyola was able to hold a very strong defense, negating the power of Centre's ultimates. In overtime, Centre was able to charge ultimates quickly, yet Loyola was able to force them off of the objective, stopping The Colonels just shy of the end. With Centre now defending, BigSoup and Powers (Caleb Pelanne) swapped characters. Phase 1 and 2 started overwhelmingly in favor of Loyola, but the now classic n0g + StarGarden combo picked off three of the enemy players not once, but twice. Sadly, The Colonels bit off more than they could chew and lost the last fight of phase 2. The final phase saw a nailbiting overtime lasting over a minute. Fortunately, Centre charged a large number of ultimates and was able to prevent Loyola from pushing all the way, securing the win in Round 3.

Round 4, back on the same game mode from Round 1, the Colonels used their gained knowledge from the previous hour of play to secure the first objective after an overtime battle. The second objective started with an ultimate from SkelloJello securing four eliminations and an objective capture for Centre. Loyola was able to secure the second objective of Round 4. The third and final objective saw StarGarden swap to their coveted Magik and secured two opening picks to give the Colonels early control. Both teams traded fight wins with Centre coming out on top.

Now at match point for both teams, defense saw the Colonels struggle to get their footing with Loyola immediately capturing the objective and pushing the payload over half of the way. A brief stall before the end gave Centre hope, but Loyola ran through Centre in record time with their composition of flyers. On the offense, after two minutes of struggle, Powers swapped to the Vanguard role and Centre found their footing. After pushing in a very similar style that was done to them, Centre, unfortunately, used too many ultimates that got shut down before the checkpoint. Choosing to flank behind Loyola, Centre secured the first half of the payload progression while shutting down Loyola's Strategists. Sadly, Centre's Strategists took a heavy blow from Loyola's Iron Man in the final moments of the push to end this final round and give the win to Loyola.

Rocket League vs Middle Tennessee State (2/18/26): Win 4-1 (6-2, 3-1, 3-4, 1-0, 4-1)
Off the heels of a 4-0 sweep just 3 days prior Centre continued their success, only dropping one round. Looking at total goals from the series Centre more than doubled MTSU with 17-8. Round one started relatively even with teams trading, but Sush (Grant Walker) let the Colonels pull ahead with a long distance bang despite the lack of boost. Centre's offense really took off in the latter half with Sush and K2Winterpath (Charles McGuin) both finding 6 shot attempts a piece. MTSU led for the majority of round 2, but 3 late game goals from Sush and ACKess (Adam Kessinger) turned things around. MSTU led again in round 3 with both teams trading goals. ACKess tied things up with 38 seconds remaining to force overtime where MTSU's N.E.F.F. just barely snuck one in past ACKess and K2winterpath.
Game 4 was slow and even with strong defense from both teams. The lone goal was scored by ACKess at 1:34 into overtime off a pass from Sush.Game  5 saw a return to form from the colonels. K2Winterpath was a standout with 3 goals to his name while Sush lead in assists and saves. With this week concluded, Centre is now the only undefeated team in the conference.

Valorant vs Georgia Tech (2/18/26): Loss 1-0 (6-13)
In the first match of the UKY Bluegrass Skirmish Qualifier against Georgia Tech--a program with incredibly high-ranked players who often compete in the highest collegiate divisions. Despite the rank disparities, Centre managed to take 6 rounds off of GT--particularly excelling on offense.

Valorant vs Cincinnati (2/18/26): Loss 2-0 (1-13, 2-13)
Round two of the double elimination tournament saw the Colonels face Cincinnati--another high-ranked team. Unlike round 1, this was a best of 3. While the match was proved one-sided, the Colonels did not get shut out on either map, winning one round on Breeze and 2 on Haven. With only the top 4 qualifying, Centre will not be advancing to the in-person LAN in Lexington but had a great experience practicing against these high-level opponents.

The Colonels march on to a busy Sunday, February 22nd with scheduled matches against Converse University (League of Legends) and Florida State University Panama City (Valorant).