Marvel Rivals end season with closest game yet in quarterfinals loss

By Balen Allain 

Cedarville’s Marvel Rivals team took on Ottawa University in the quarterfinals, the first round of playoffs for the season. The Yellow Jackets were the second seed in their region, and Ottawa was the third seed in theirs. 

“I’m feeling good, but we have to play well,” Logan “H3RSCH” Herschberger said. “If our brains suddenly stop working and we start ooga-boogaing, we’re still gonna lose.” 

Herschberger was happy with the team’s improvement over the semester. 

“For me, there’s a character called Loki,” Herschberger said, “and I had a lot of trouble trying to save my abilities for the perfect time to use them without realizing how much value they get for just being on the map. I started using them more, and I’ve gotten a lot better.” 

The team was expecting some challenges going against Ottawa’s team composition, which favors healers. Ottawa banned powerful characters that the Jackets typically use. 

The first Domination point went to Ottawa, which kept a strong defense. Cedarville pushed to contest the second point, but Ottawa pushed their zone control to 98%. Cedarville fought to claim the zone, but Ottawa recaptured it and won the Domination round. 

“They’re a good team, but we can definitely beat them,” team captain Ben “Fsyx” Jones said. “I think a good way of suppressing them would be banning around their healers.” 

There are two kinds of healers in the game – strong healers and healers that manage other aspects of gameplay. 

“We need to switch up our strategy,” Nathan “Booshenwaffen” Gavelin said. “All three of these supports are super super strong.” 

Banning Ottawa’s healers forces them to play weaker characters and potentially, characters they don’t know how to play as well. 

On implementing the strategy, Cedarville got the upper hand in Convergence early on. They captured the payload and got it to the second point with some resistance. After taking that, they moved the payload a total of 104 meters and nearly won the third capture, but Ottawa held them back. 

In the second point, Ottawa consistently broke past Cedarville and captured the third point, putting the game at 2-0. 

“I think I personally made a lot of mistakes,” Logan “log_hoffman” Hoffman said, “but you gotta keep your head up – you can’t let that dictate how you play this next round.” 

Their banning strategy didn’t seem to work. 

“We’re still struggling against triple support overall,” Chris “hotheadskull” Jones said. “I don’t feel like we’re playing proper counters and they’re banning really good bans.” 

In the Convoy round, Cedarville pushed against Ottawa’s heavy resistance and nearly pushed the payload to the very end, earning two points and 139 meters. 

Ottawa spent its time matching Cedarville’s pace. The room fell silent as Cedarville held them back through overtime. With a rock-solid defense, good communication, and fast execution, the Jackets held Ottawa at bay, putting the game at 2-1. 

The second Domination round continued Cedarville’s upward trend. With two close calls in a row, they captured two zones and put the score at 2-2. 

Cedarville’s turnaround came from Ben Jones’ call to change their strategy. 

“We decided to completely ignore [our strategy] and protect our own players,” Jones said, referring to how the team can protect a character from being banned by the other team. 

“This is not one of my better games,” Jared “Sphynx7572” Toyer said. “Though, they’re banning most of the things I play.” 

Despite his troubles, he was confident in the team. 

“We started playing to our strengths,” he said. “Now we’re focusing on their one DPS not being able to play the game.” 

Instead of trying to hamstring Ottawa, Cedarville focused on protecting their tank roles, which put too much pressure on Ottawa’s one DPS player. 

“We came into this game with a strategy thinking that their supports were their weak point,” Herschberger said. “It’s not.” 

The last Convoy match was tense. Ottawa went on a rampage, fending Cedarville off and getting their payload right next to the end. The Jackets locked in and performed excellently, but it wasn’t enough. In the last few seconds of overtime, Ottawa crossed the finish line, leaving an uphill battle for Cedarville to win the match point. 

Ottawa continued their march to victory, though, and Cedarville couldn’t get far in their time. 

“It’s unfortunate,” Hoffman said. “No one likes ending like that. We played well this season. The mentality of everyone around here has improved so much in a way that I can’t put into words.  

They also lost the quarterfinals last season. 

“The loss last season wasn’t shameful,” he said, “but we’re coming away from this one with a lot less shame.” 

Cedarville Esports normally streams every Tuesday at 8 p.m. and every Thursday at 7 p.m. on YouTube and Twitch, at Cedarville Esports Team. Old streams are viewable as VODs. 

Balen Allain is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major focusing on Audio and Journalism. He enjoys gaming, writing fiction, and making music, and is working on a book.