Saints Fall to SUNY Canton and Louisville in ECAC League Playoffs  

In what was a fall season double-header playoff match on Saturday, the Saints lost to SUNY Canton 0-2 and Louisville 1-2 thus ending their fall season. The Saints chose many of their tried-and-true comfort picks for each of their positions. Despite taking an early lead in the first game versus SUNY Canton with the first dragon slain, the Kangaroos rallied into the mid game, achieving double the kills that the Saints had and racking up an elven thousand gold advantage. The Kangaroos also obtained the Infernal Dragon Soul over the Saints who had only slain one Earth Drake. With assistance from the Baron Buff, SUNY Canton put the game away in thirty-two minutes. 

Game Two did not go much better for the Saints. The Saints attempted a later game composition with Yixiao "CDC Gangster" Yie opting for Kindred in the jungle over the Jarvan IV he played the previous game. Unfortunately for Riqui "YTYTOTYT" Yang, most of his comfortable picks for the Mid Lane were banned out by SUNY Canton. He was forced to play the less familiar Viegar which gave him a harder game. The Kangaroos immediately took the lead with their Mid Laner, Akshan, taking First Blood with a double kill. They scored five picks to the Saints' two when the Kangaroos took the first dragon at 7 minutes in. By the thirteen-minute mark, the Kangaroos took the second dragon. At twenty-two minutes, SUNY Canton had over twice as many kills and their third dragon. Viegar was starting to get picks and scale for the Saints, but it was not enough.  At twenty-nine minutes, a team fight at the Baron Pit went in the Kangaroos favor. With all the Saints waiting to respawn, the Kangaroos secured the Baron Buff, and used that siege power to win the game.  

The Saints immediately tried to shake off that loss as they went into their game versus the Louisville Cardinals. During Game One, the Saints looked strong with a decisive win against the Cardinals. All five Saints chose comfort picks and were playing in their element. CDC Gangster played as aggressive as ever on Lee Sin securing the first dragon by seven minutes. Lee Sin then took down the Rift Herald and released in the Top Lane for added pressure. The Saints continued to ride that momentum to the late game as they took a second dragon and got an epic steal on Baron Nashor. From there, the Saints obtained the Cloud Soul and pushed the rest of the way to win the first game.  

The Cardinals then changed their strategy for Game Two, and it was more than the Saints bargained for. The Cardinals took Lee Sin from the Saints, so CDC Gangster opted to play Jarvan IV once again. The Saints hoped to keep the Cardinals at a distance with a combination of Corki and Jhin with a Morgana for support. However, it was the Cardinals' Support player, as Pantheon, that gave the Saints the most difficulty. He gained four unanswered picks before the first dragon was captured by the Cardinals. The Pantheon generated so much early advantage that the Saints could not scale enough in the late game to outdo him. By twenty-six minutes, the Cardinals had the Ocean Soul and had gotten their second Baron Buff of the game. They took Game Two shortly after.  

With the play offs on the line, the Saints opted for CDC Gangster to try the carry assassin jungle of Talon. He had pulled off an 11-0 victory the week before with Talon, but he could not make the magic happen again. The Cardinals were ready and made sure to single out CDC Gangster in every fight. The Cardinals claimed the first dragon, and the Saints could not stifle their momentum. By twenty-eight minutes, the Cardinal's Jhin was 9-0, they had three dragons and the Baron Buff. The Saints were able to catch out some Cardinals for late game picks, but the Jhin continued to destroy more of the Saints' base in the process. When the Saints returned to the base, Jhin was already too strong and picked up the Ace to finish the game. The Saints ended their regular season 4-2. Coach Eric Shinnick had this to say at the end of the game, "I think it was a good Fall for us. We had a lot of turnovers on the team...we were a team in flux at the beginning of the semester and we made quite a bit of improvement leading into the playoffs here. We got our butts kicked today, but like I told the team, this is the Fall season, and it has always been about preparing for the official Spring season. We got our eyes set on that, and I can tell you we will be practicing quite a bit for that season!"  

Saints Line Up     
Anthony Zevallos/Cuddles(Volibear/Tahm Kench/Shen)    
Yixiao Xie/CDC Gangster (Jarvan IV/Kindred/Lee Sin/Talon)     
Ruiqi Yang/YTYTOTYTY (Corki/Malzahar/Viegar/Anivia)     
Connor Lambert/Lamb0 (Jhinl/Draven/Lucian/Ezreal)     
Nini Nguyen/SillyPinkBunny (Nami/Morgana/Lulu) 

Saints Smash Bros. Beat SUNY Canton in Final Regular Season Game 

After a hard loss against Mars Hill University the week before, the Saints Smash team bounced back to defeat our rival, SUNY Canton, in the last regular season game of the ECAC Fall season 2-0. The battle was a hard earned 2-0 victory as the Kangaroos put up a fight at every stock. Andrew "andy" Cichetti came out for the Saints first with Pyra/Mythra, and he brought his A game. He took the first stock away from the Kangaroos, who sent out Zelda, at just 20% damage. A forward smash took Zelda's last stock with two stocks remaining for andy. SUNY Canton's second leg was a Sephiroth that gave andy a little more trouble with his ledge guarding counters. He was able to defeat andy, but not before losing two stocks of his own. Brian "Drizz" Uceta was sent out by the Saints using his favorite character, King K. Rool. SUNY Canton's Sephiroth fought hard on his last stock. He took two of Drizz's stocks before succumbing to King K. Rool's projectiles. The Kangaroos sent Captain Falcon out for their anchor. He took King K. Rool's, last stock, but lost his first in the process. Captain Falcon had to face Duncan "orchard" Stuard with only two stock left. Orchard chose to use Duck Hunt to close out the set and he did so in stylish fashion. Captain Falcon found himself on the receiving end of a lot of exploding cans and frisbees to the face. Orchard took away Captain Falcon's two remaining stocks without losing a single stock of his own.  

For the second set, Coach Lanza subbed orchard into the first position as Ness. He matched up with SUNY Canton's first leg who switched from Zelda to Link. Both players traded stocks one for one, but it was orchard who took the last stock from Link with just one of his own remaining. SUNY Canton's second leg switched from Sephiroth to Shulk, but orchard put up a fight. With one stock remaining, at 95%, orchard took a stock away from Shulk before losing his own to a well-timed down air by Shulk. Drizz then came in with King K. Rool, and Shulk took a stock away from him before Drizz back threw one of Shulk's stocks away. Blows were traded, but Drizz got the upper hand, and with a down throw into up tilt combo, he sealed the deal with two stocks left. Drizz then had to face Captain Falcon again, but this time with one additional stock. King K. Rool got Captain Falcon to 125% damage before taking his first stock with a cannonball. He used his Blunderbuss suction to take Captain Falcon's second stock shortly after. Captain Falcon retaliated with a Knee Smash leaving Drizz with one stock. Even though the Saints had andy waiting on the bench if needed, Drizz looked to end the game there. He delivered blow after blow to get Captain Falcon to 121% before ending it all with a Belly Flop Down Smash.  

The win brought the Saints regular season record to 5-3. Coach Lanza had this to say about the win, "I find myself to be truly blessed and fortunate to have such a hardworking and dedicated team. For months we trained for the day where we could play our rivals down the road, and all that hard work finally paid off. I believe that no matter what happens in the play offs, the St. Lawrence Varsity Smash Bros. Team has had a great inaugural regular season to hang our hats on. But make no mistake, we will be training just as hard to make a deep playoff run, and I believe this team has the chops to do it!"  

Saints Line Up    
Andrew Cichetti (andy) -Pyra/Mythra  
Brian Uceta (Drizz)-King K. Rool    
Duncan Stuard (orchard)- Duck Hunt/Ness 

Saints Overwatch Tops Missouri Western State University in Longest ECAC Match to Date  

Play of the Game 

For the second time this season, the Saints broke their own record for longest played Overwatch game versus the Missouri Western State University Griffons this past Wednesday night that ended with a 3-2-1 Saints Victory. A chance to secure a spot in the ECAC playoffs was on the line for the Saints Wednesday night and tensions were high as the Overwatch team logged into the Illios Well for their first round. The Saints began with a dive composition, but it was the Griffons that got to the point first. The Griffons used a Road Hog to excellent effect as he hooked Saint after Saint into the well. The Griffons got the point to 99% before the Saints captured it in Overtime. Unfortunately, the Griffons built up enough ultimates to take the point back 56-100. The second map was the Illios Ruins, and the Saints switched to an airforce composition. Once again, the Griffons took the point first and it took some strategic picks from the Saint to take the point for themselves. However, the hold was short lived. The Griffons reclaimed the point with Winston and Brigette ultimates and won Illios 27-100. 

Even though the Griffons got the first match point, the Saints remained undeterred. The next stage was the escort Map, Junkertown. The Saints began on defense taking their usual high ground positions. Sam "SputnikGT" Putney swapped in for Steven "Ness" Vega on tank. The Griffons went for the Pirate Ship offense, but their bastion was the first casualty of the match. However, they were able to shrug off the initial set back and they set up the pirate ship. The Griffons then began to move mostly unopposed by the Saints through the first two checkpoints. They had over five minutes to take the third checkpoint, and they took it with four minutes to spare. The Saints had a lot of ground to cover with their attack as they would have to force the Griffons into extra rounds. They chose their dive composition but struggled to make headway as fast as the Griffons had done. With a minute left to go, Gabriel "Six" Sickler, as Winston, used his Primal Rage ultimate to pounce on the Griffon's back line. Jason "neonJason" Angelos was able to pick of the remaining Griffons to secure the checkpoint. The Saints had to push the payload again in extra rounds. A large anti-healing grenade from Will "EddY" Andresen, as Anna, allowed the Saints to press forward with just ten seconds to go. The Saints kept with the payload in overtime and made it through the first two checkpoints with ease. The momentum was blunted on the third checkpoint only a few meters before the goal. The Griffons had four times the amount of time the Saints did to move the payload, but the Saints defense played right at the Griffon's spawn point. Doing so shaved a full minute off the clock and the Saints followed up with a flurry of ultimates to secure more picks. The Griffons got the first checkpoint before the Saints stifled their advance, giving the Saints their first match point.  

MWSU chose Volskya Industries, an assault map, for the third stage of the game. This was a map that the Saints had little experience with, but they did their best with it. The Griffons came out swinging and captured both Objective A and B with just under two minutes to spare. The Saints needed to capture both points to force extra rounds, and they did with over five minutes to spare. In extra rounds, the Saints began on defense and lost Objective A, but they held the Griffons off Objective B entirely. Despite having over twice as long as the Griffons did, the Saints struggled to make space when trying to get Objective A. In the final minute of the game, the Saints got a series of strategic picks to take Objective A, and then they made a bee line for Objective B but failed to capture any of it. The round ended in a draw.  

The next stage picked was the hybrid map, King's Row. The Saints began on defense but lost the Objective quickly. The Griffons made quick headway to capture both checkpoints with the payload. They ended their offense with over three minutes to spare. With the Saints on offense, they took the point quickly as well but lost most of their time trying to push the payload. After stalling out for some time, neonJason used a Rocket Barrage to get a triple kill and secured the second checkpoint. With a minute remaining the Saints cleared the rest of the Griffons to get the final checkpoint push the game into extra rounds for the third time. In extra rounds, the Saints began on offense and failed to capture any percentage of the Objective. The Griffons needed to only secure a third of the Objective. They were able to find the space they needed to do that and secure their second match point.  

The fifth map was the control point at Lijiang Tower in the Gardens. The Griffons took the point first and held it for the entire way 0-100. At the Lijiang Gardens, the opposite scenario happened in favor of the Saints, winning it 100-0. Finally, at the Control Center, Legmer used Symmetra to teleport to the point first. They held their advantage, and Six got an amazing Earth Shatter for the play of the game. The Griffons only briefly controlled the point before the Saints got it back to win the round 100-10.  

The final map for the night was the escort map, Route 66. By this point in the game, everyone was worried that the Saints would be losing steam. However, it was the MWSU Griffons that showed signs of fatigue first. Despite their three-checkpoint run in Junkertown, the Griffons were only able to make it a short way past the first checkpoint. The Saints' air force defense proved to be too much for the Griffons. NeonJason scored a triple kill with his Rocket Barrage, and Six used his Primal Rage to sweep the remaining Griffons off the payload. When the Saints switched to offense, they continued to use the air force composition to beat back the Griffons and win the game. This final ECAC regular season win brings the ECAC record of Saints Overwatch to 5-3. After the win, Coach Kyle Jicha had this to say, "It feels so awesome to end on a high note, but we want to give you guys [the streamers and casters, Suzanne Rickard and Emily Boswell] some credit and give you the MVP of the week because without you we'd be playing to an empty room...but we are obviously pretty exhausted after what has been the longest match that we have ever had. We are really looking forward to getting into play offs!" 

Saints Line Up    
Jason Angelos (neonJason)     
Alex Holland (Legmer)     
Gabriel Sickler (Six)     
Sam Putney (SputnikGT)     
William Andresen (EddY)     
Mason Beck (PapaHen)     
Steven Vega (NESS)-alternate 
Suzanne Rickard (Oizoole)  –streaming 
Emily Boswell (Cogitasne)-casting 
Gavin Prescott (Hardvark)-casting