Central Penn esports team: first-year dominance
E-athletes win championship in season one!
By Dalton Koller
Knightly News Reporter
dalton.koller@mymail.centralpenn.edu
The Central Penn College Rocket League esports team just wrapped up one of the best first athletic seasons in the school’s history, going undefeated throughout the regular season and playoffs.
They competed in the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) Starleague playoffs and won the championship against more than 170 collegiate esports teams.
The team that won the championship consists of Jeffrey Elicker, Cameron Odom and Dominick Bruce. They’re led by head coach Mikeal Pecot and assistant coach Don Lewis.
I asked Pecot what inspired him to create the team.
“Mostly Steve Shoemaker, and him starting the gaming lab,” Pecot said. “He always had this vision of competing with an esports team. So after he retired, I made it happen.”
Pecot later said, “My expectations were for them to compete with our league based off skills I’ve seen. They exceeded my expectations by far by destroying most of the competition in consistent sweeps and making/winning playoffs.”
He went on to say team communication “clicked exceptionally well during competition” and was a huge factor in the team’s success.
He was “pretty ecstatic” when he heard the team made the playoffs, mentioning that “I knew how hard the guys had been training and this was what they were preparing for.”
Photo courtesy Central Penn College
When asked about how he and the team felt after winning the championship, he said, “We felt like it was only the beginning of many more, but super proud of the best first season an esports team could ask for.”
And I would have to agree with him. Winning the championship in your team’s first year in any competition is quite a feat.
There’s no question that this Central Penn College esports team will be a force to reckon with for quite some time. And I know for sure that Pecot believes that.
“We’re a young squad and really looking forward to the future of esports at Central Penn!” he said.
Comment or story idea? Contact KnightlyEditors@CentralPenn.Edu.
Edited by media-club co-adviser and blog editor Professor Michael Lear-Olimpi.
