Illinois Tech Esports Leap Day Recap

Best way to spend an extra 24 hours? Illinois Tech Esports Rainbow Six Siege division had the A-team travel off-campus to compete against other colleges.

Illinois Tech Esports took part in the Midwest Collegiate Rainbow Six Invitational on 2/29/2020. Rainbow Six is a tactical team-based shooter with 5 players on each side. With 8 teams competing, each team was randomly placed in groups of 4 to start the tournament, then 2 teams would play a best-of-1 series where the winner would continue & the loser is kicked to the losers bracket. The winners of the 1st 2 matches play each other in the same style, & the loser gets kicked to the losers bracket to play the winner of the 1st losers bracket match. The end-winner of each group challenges each other in the finals bracket in a best-of-3 series, while the end-winner of the losers bracket from each group faces each other in the same best-of-3 series.

IIT lost their 1st group match against Purdue Gold (7-1) , putting themselves in the losers bracket. In that bracket they won against UIUC (7-0), moving themselves ahead in the losers bracket. They again, played against Purdue Gold losing 7-0, thus getting eliminated out of the Invitational.

Statement from Lucas Brancato, coach of the Rainbow Six Siege Division of Illinois Tech Esports: “Since it was our first time playing at a LAN environment, we were not as prepared as some of the teams there, that had previous practice on this type of scene. Therefore, it was a rough ride for IIT. Facing first the main Purdue team - Purdue Gold - at a seemingly devastating loss. Looking at the score, seems like a big crush and heartbreaking defeat, but after further analysis, there has not been one round that we did not put up a good fight. In our next match it’s clear that we played a much more clear, concise, and vibrant match; we shook the last loss out, stepped up our game overall, and most importantly, we played for fun. Overall it was an amazing experience. Attending a LAN and playing at a higher level was definitely enriching for each player, and as a team. We would like to thank Illinois Institute of Technology and the Office of Campus Life for giving us the opportunity to compete in the tournament and let them know we will use this adventure to analyze our flow and gameplay to continue improving, so we can elevate IIT to the top tier rankings.”