📝 Winthrop and St. Clair book their spots in the OWCC Varsity Grand Final during OWC LAN Day 1

For the first time in seven years, some of the best teams in Collegiate Overwatch are on LAN to crown a national champion. On Day 1 of the Overwatch Collegiate Championship LAN at the NACE Grand Finals, eight teams in the OWCC Varsity tournament were cut down to two ahead of the OWCC Varsity and Open Grand Finals on Sunday.

Group A results:

• Round 1:
  • Winthrop University 3-0 Briar Cliff University
  • Cumberland University 3-1 Bellevue University
• Upper Finals:
  • Winthrop 3-0 Cumberland
• Lower Semifinal:
  • Bellevue 3-0 Briar Cliff
• Lower Final:
  • Cumberland 3-2 Bellevue

Recap:

The first team to escape the harsher of the two groups was the title-favorite in Winthrop. The Golden Eagles have only lost twice throughout the entire semester, and have yet to lose in OWCC Varsity. 

They took care of business in the group stage, but the battle for the second bid in the group stage brought the drama.

Due to some late roster changes for this event, Briar Cliff went from a dark horse team to make the Top 4, to not even winning a map during the weekend. Amity “Amity” Crow swapped from flex DPS to tank, while flex player Kolby “Khatch” Hatch subbed in on DPS. And while the Chargers still had some great moments, the lack of reps on this roster combination led to an early exit.

In the deciding match of Group B, Bellevue were in a great position after map 2 to get revenge for the opening round loss to Cumberland. But in normal Cumberland fashion, the Phoenix wanted to go the distance.

The Phoenix pulled off the reverse sweep against the Bruins to book their ticket into the Top 4, ending the collegiate careers of Avery “Av2ry” Hogue and Dhruv “Rajeem” Pandrangi.

Group B results:

• Round 1:
  • St. Clair College 3-0 Texas A&M University - San Antonio
  • North Carolina State University 3-1 University of Texas - Dallas
• Upper Finals:
  • St. Clair 3-1 NC State
• Lower Semifinal:
  • UT Dallas 3-0 TAMUSA
• Lower Final:
  • NC State 3-1 UT Dallas

Recap:

Compared to Group A, Group B stayed relatively on script.

St. Clair rolled through the group without many issues, thanks to consistent highlight plays from the Disguised duo of Jack “Reyzr” Francis and Alexander “Tred” Madgwick-Smith.

In their first LAN event as an official varsity program, NC State shone thanks to a career-best performance from hitscan Matthew “Lobby” Stevens. The wolfpack rebounded nicely after the Upper Finals to take down UT Dallas once again to clinch a Top 4 spot.

TAMUSA entered this event with little to no expectations after they upset Cleveland State 3-1 to make the event. And even though they didn’t take a map on the weekend, the Jaguars had some bright moments that they can take into the future of such a young program.

Semifinals:

• Winthrop 3-0 NC State
• St. Clair 3-2 Cumberland

Recap:

It is very rare to have a team that appears levels above the rest of the competition, especially in this age of esports. But Winthrop was just that good on Day 1 of the OWC LAN. The Golden Eagles continued their flawless run in Orlando with a sweep over NC State.

After being played a bit in OWCS China and Korea, Winthrop tested out the Bastion-Jetpack Cat comp to mixed results. But their form returned to a stellar level once they went back to some of the more traditional comps on their way to the Varsity Grand Final.

It is a fantastic result still for NC State, regardless of the final result. Don’t be surprised if you see one or two Wolfpack players on the All-NACE First and/or Second Teams, which will be revealed following the Varsity Grand Final on Sunday.

The day ended with hands-down the best series of the weekend so far with St. Clair versus Cumberland.

Through the first two maps, the Saints looked miles ahead of Cumberland, reaching an early 2-0 lead heading into Aatlis. But during Flashpoint, something changed for the Phoenix.

A quick 3-0 on the map led them into Rialto with some newly-found confidence, eventually taking the map to force a Map 5 on Blizzard World.

And throughout the entire series, the hitscans of Timothy “Noxious” Whitehead and Kabe “Kabe” Bogner went blow-for-blow. But in the final moment of the series, Noxious single-handedly took St. Clair over the finish line to avoid the reverse sweep. 

It’s a heartbreaking finish for Cumberland but is still by far the program’s best finish in Overwatch Collegiate so far.

Looking ahead:

Collegiate Championship Sunday will kick off with the OWCC Open Grand Final, which was determined during the online playoffs last month.

Winthrop will also be in this final, but are coming from the lower bracket to face off against Northwood University, who won 3-1 to earn the spot on LAN through the upper bracket.

Regardless of the winner, it will be a historic win for either program.

For Northwood, it would be their first Overwatch Collegiate title since OWC Homecoming in the Fall 2023 season, and their first OWCC title since the Spring 2023 season.

And for Winthrop, it would be their first OWC title in program history, after falling short to ISU since the current roster formed ahead of the Fall 2024 season.

Due to qualifying through the upper bracket, Northwood earns the first map pick and ban for the Best of 7 series.

And in the Varsity Grand Final, St. Clair will be looking for some revenge against Winthrop. The Golden Eagles knocked down St. Clair to the OWCC Open lower bracket in a 3-2 banger. St. Clair will be hoping to take advantage of a potentially tired Winthrop, seeing that the Varsity Grand Final will be played right after the Open Grand Final concludes.

It is the final series for this Saints team, as four members are graduating at the end of this semester. As a result, Tred is also slated to transfer to a new program over the summer break.

This series is also a Best of 7, with Winthrop having first-map pick and ban due to being the higher seed entering the weekend.

All of the action starts off at 10 AM EDT / 4 PM CEST on Sunday on the OW Esports Twitch and YouTube pages.