The Spring semester hasn't quite started yet, but many of our esports teams have begun practicing or even competing in leagues remotely. 

The Call of Duty team's upcoming competition in the College Call of Duty League (CCL) has been cemented with placement in Division A of the Mid America Region along with opponents from Eastern Illinois University, Grand Valley State, University of Illinois, Northwood, Roosevelt, Purdue, Southern Illinois - Edwardsville, St. Clair, and University of Windsor. The team has been preparing by competing in scrimmages against schools from all over the country, but official league matches begin on February 1st. 

The Smash Ultimate team kicked off its season in Tech Chase, a crew battle-formatted league for collegiate Smash teams in Michigan, on January 16th with matches against Oakland University and Michigan State University. The team lost to Oakland by a final score of 3-0 (down from a starting tally of 12-12), but not before Zach "Yoderlaheehoo" Yoder drew plenty of viewer attention in what became a fairly heated match between two teams that were constantly trying to hold a mental edge over each other. 

Solid Week 1 for tech chase collegiate crew battles @techchasegg ! Watch for us @CUAA_Esports ! Got lots to build on!@Elegant_Matt trying to make you proud check it out pic.twitter.com/qPWZ6S3PET

— Yoderlaheehoo (@bc18yoder) January 16, 2021

In the match against MSU, the Cardinals were forced to play shorthanded due to extenuating circumstances unrelated to esports. As a result, the team started with only 9 stocks available out of a possible 12. Despite a late push, the team fell by a final score of 6-0. 

The league then continued with its normal weekly play on the following Tuesday, January 19th. The Cardinals again played short handed in matches against Central Michigan University and Ferris State University. While they played tough, they couldn't overcome the starting score deficit against CMU and lost by a final score of 4-0. Despite the difficulty of their stock disadvantage, the team rallied and defeated Ferris State 2-0. Freshman Justin "J-Goody" Goodrich single handedly took 8 stocks from Ferris. Paul "Gaussman" Gauss and Yoder each took the remaining two. 

The team continues its league play each Tuesday with their next opponents being Kettering University and Aquinas College.