Akron Rocket League Wins Second Consecutive National Championship
(Image via The University of Akron)
Akron Rocket League Gold team members, from left, are Tristan “.Tristn” Roberts (left), Buzz “Buzz” Krager, and Isaac “Reticence” Stecker.
November 18, 2019
With a dominant win record of 20-0, the Akron Zips Rocket League team brought home their second consecutive College Rocket League National Championship on Nov. 9.
Three players on the Akron Gold team, Isaac “Reticence” Stecker, Buzz “Buzz” Krager, and Tristan “.Tristn” Roberts, received a total of $15,000 in scholarship prize money along with first-place medals.
“We’re a solid, well-rounded team, and there’s no other Collegiate Rocket League team you can say that has all three players that you know that are solid and can compete at the top level,” Krager said.
According to a UA press release, over 79,000 people watched the action take place during the championship live on Twitch.tv, while around 2,000 attendees were present in the crowd.
Akron Rocket League competing against the University of North Texas at the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Akron’s Gold team started the quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory against the University of Arizona, the team who knocked the Zips into the losers’ brackets in the Fall 2018 season.
The action continued as the Zips went on to face the University of North Texas, who stopped Akron’s run in the semi-finals last year. Although the Zips won 4-2, this would not be the only time they faced UNT at the competition.
After UNT eliminated Arizona during the losers’ bracket match, the Zips went head-to-head against them. In the end, the Zips took the victory with a 5-0 score.
Michael Fay, director of esports and head coach at UA, said this skill is what can be showcased when student talents have university support, as they maintained an undefeated record against several great teams across the nation.
“These are results that could only happen when the tremendous hard work of these players is met with equally tremendous support from UA and its campus community,” Fay said. “The players and I are extremely grateful for that.”
Megan Parker is currently majoring in Media Studies with a minor in Public Relations at The University of Akron.
As an eleven-time Best of SNO award winner, her primary areas of coverage include campus news, accessibility/disability awareness and event previews. After graduating from UA, Megan plans to become a reporter for a small-town newspaper before eventually becoming the Editor-in-Chief of her own publication.
An Interesting Fact about Megan:
Once, many years ago, Megan made a tire fall...
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