Seven squads from the University of Southern Maine’s Esports Club are competing in postseason playoff action this week, with championship honors in two separate conferences on the line.
For the first time, this season the USM club competed in two different conferences, including one that puts USM against programs across the country: the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) and the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC). In the NECC, USM teams moved on to postseason tournaments in both League of Legends and Rocket League play. In the ECAC, USM teams advanced in Counter-Strike 2, NBA2K, Street Fighter, Overwatch 2 and Rocket League.
The Overwatch team has emerged as a perennial contender, USM Club President Michael Brown said, making the ECAC playoffs for the third season in a row.
“Our club is continuing to grow,” Brown said, “and USM players are consistently showing that they’re not only committed but improving. We’re going to be contenders for a long time.”
Esports conference play begins a new season with the start of each semester. In the fall semester, eight USM teams made the playoffs. This season, 11 teams moved on to the postseason.
All the games are available to stream in real time on the USM club’s Twitch channel. A complete schedule of NECC playoff games is available here; a complete schedule of ECAC playoff games can be found here.
In addition to the postseason appearances, seven USM players were recognized for individual excellence for the month of February in ECAC play:
- Counter-Strike 2 Player of the Month: Cody “clrx” Plumley,
- VALORANT Rookie of the Month: Owen “BeanBaller” Bean
- NBA 2K24 Player of the Month: Cooper “Swayzy33” Swan
- NBA 2K24 Rookie of the Month: Khaireh “PassTheEbt” Dualeh
- Street Fighter 6 Player of the Month: Mike “SonicSp33d” Lawrence
- Street Fighter 6 Rookie of the Month: Demitri “DMaster24” Miner
- Apex Legends Player of the Month: Sam “Samgoomba” Roy
More information about the USM Esports program can be found here.