Samsons Esports became 5-time National Championship winners on Saturday 4/22/23 after the Samsons CoD: 4v4 team took down the MSU-WP Grizzlies in a 3-1 match. Prior to that, on Wednesday 4/19/23, Rainbow 6 Siege took their second National Championship for the year by beating rivals: USC Sumter Fire Ants.
Both of these Samson teams had an outstanding, and undefeated record, of 10-0 on the season.
Rainbow 6 Siege Match Recap
Samsons R6 got off to a shaky start giving up the first game to the Fire Ants. However, as the match continued we saw an impressive display of flexibility and activity really begin to wear down the Fire Ants strategies. Specifically, veteran player Aydan MacLeod (DampKetchup) stepped up for a few rounds of the match to completely shutdown USC's attempts at taking an advantage. Many rounds were decided in 2 v 3, and 1 v 3 matchups, often with the Samsons holding the disadvantage in numbers. Despite these challenges, the Samsons recovered the momentum and proved that tenacity is sometimes all it takes to go bold and take home the victory.
Shane O'Brien (Exer) who has consistently been a major threat with the Samsons also had some unique challenges to overcome as the Fire Ants rigorously scouted and surrounded him often flanking him with multiple players. This only met with marginal success as the teamwork of the Samsons was not to be outdone. As strategies shifted, the game became a dance between the teams resulting in many matches left to a clutch moment in the last 30s of the round.
Besides the oustanding performances above, Jakob W. (ImJaog, team captain), Staysha W. (Stinkaayy), and Gavyn R. (OkayGraape) neatly rounded out the matches with powerful playing. Gavyn typically plays more aggressively and works to earn important trades for the team; meanwhile, Staysha and Jakob utilitze the information gathered by the team to make tactical decisions and stop short the opposing strategies. This has been part of a key decision making process that underscores why these Samsons are such a difficult team to beat and earned them this National title.
Call of Duty: 4v4 Match Recap
A ride start to finish. From the opening round in game mode Hardpoint, the Grizzlies put our Samsons on the back foot, and didn't leave any room to breath as they racked up over 100 points (first to 250 wins the round). With an almost 80 point deficit to overcome, the Samsons regrouped and started making coordinated efforts to equalize. As the points ticked up with each passing second, the Samsons clutched the victory by only 25 points, 250 - 225.
Begin the second round, game mode Search and Destory, where teams fight to plant a bomb, or defend a bomb-site. The winning team is first to 6 points by: eliminating the opponents, successfully planting and detonating the bomb, or diffusing the planted bomb. This mode has proven difficult for the Samsons all year, and this match was no different. We saw a commanding lead by the Grizzlies with 2-0 in the first few matches get reduced to an even 3-3 by the Samsons. Griffen McLaughlin (griff) collected many kills to attempt to put the Samsons over the edge, but even with these chances, the Grizzlies managed to prevail with tactics that created a difficult field to crack by the Samsons. This set the match score to 1-1 heading into the third round, Control.
Control maps are a "King of the Hill" type game mode; however, the goal is to instead capture points A & B a single time instead of rotating around the map. After controlling a point, the team gets an additional minute to capture the second point, teams also have a limited 30 lives to achieve victory. During these rounds, two major wins came from death defying last minute plays by the Samsons. In round 1, Griff once again was able to make a final push to take the team to victory. Holding on with just 6.3s left on the clock, he managed to preserve control of the point long enough to seal the round. This exact scenario repeated itself as Team Captain Lane Kortemeier (DrYooper) held the point with only 8.8s remaining. On the defending side, Samsons clutched out the first to 3 victory by eliminating the Grizzlies on a hard fought defense with only 15s remaining.
Almost identical to the first round, the 4th round repeats the Hardpoint game mode. The match was scored 2-1, Samsons, and match point of this Best of 5 was on the line. Samsons once again took a beating in the first seconds of the round accumulating a 30 point defecit to overcome. The Samsons could not be swayed, with a score of 240-140, Tyler Baross (Aqypt) made a final game ending play by pushing off the Grizzlies defending the point and captured the remaining 10 points to claim victory and the title of National Champions.
Quote from Coach Little:
"The Samsons Teams that achieved National recognition this Spring worked extremely hard all season. The athletes pride themselves on being the very best, and it really shows. We had some outstanding competitors this year from some new faces in the playoffs, and some consistent challenge from folks like USC Sumter who GCC has a long standing back and forth with across all Esports. With these victories, now claiming National Championships 5 times, the Samsons Esports program proudly claims its spot as one of the top veteran programs with the NJCAAE. However, none of this would be possible without the contributions from the players and member colleges. A warm thanks to all who competed this season."
"Looking into next season, we have some challenges as our graduating players: Lane K., Seth O., Aydan M., and Griff M. move on to their next stages. These four have made a huge impact on the Samsons Esports program, and were the initial team to bring home the CoD: 4v4 National Championship last spring. We'll be sorely missing them and their top-level skills. Looking on the brightside, we have Tyler Baross still with us, who was a 1st year competitor and held his own entirely with the team. We'll be looking to fill in the Call of Duty players and moving Tyler into the position of Team Captain to steer new players to victory."
"Finally, a huge thanks goes out to all of our fans and supporters online, and in person, who have shared thanks and their own gaming stories with Samsons Esports. Now is the best possible time to get involved and support this magnamimous team and program."
