It has been an amazing few weeks for the Davenport Esports program. Starting on May 7th the Counter Strike Division 2 team took down one of the biggest thorns in their side since the beginning of the semester. Kansas State has been a formidable foe all year long, defeating Davenport in the regular season (1-2) and in the upper bracket of the playoffs (1-2). Doing so knocked the Panthers down into lower bracket where they had a rematch against University of Toronto and then had to go head-to-head against Stony Brook University and Rochester Institute of Technology's White team. All three matches ended up with a 2-0 victory for the Panthers and moved them to a Grand Finals rematch against the Wildcats.

On May 7th, Davenport had their chance for redemption and came out the victors, downing Kansas State 2-0 in the Grand FInals of the NACE CSGO Challenger League and claiming their second national championship of this academic year. A huge congratulations to all the players and coaches involved on this amazing feat that helps cement Davenport as a premier location for FPS titles moving forward. The following students will be receiving their first national championship: John Rogel and Grant Kino. The following students will be receiving their second national championship: Benjamin Pringle, Owen Clearwater, Shane Weaver, and Luke Doorn. This is head coach Colin Graham's second of the year and new assistant coach Colin Thor's first.

On top of the amazing accolades of our Counter Strike team, the Call of Duty team had an equally arduous playoffs schedule. Starting on the evening of May 14th they took on St Clair College in the first round of Winners Bracket for the College Call of Duty League (CCL) playoffs. Due to some technical difficulties, the team ended up losing to St Clair 1-3 and were knocked into the losers bracket where the deck was stacked against them. They went on to take a forfeit win over the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, a 3-1 victory over Florida State University, a 3-1 victory over Penn State, and a 3-0 victory over Concord University. The forfeit win and three dominating victories in a row punched their ticket to the CCL LAN taking place on June 10th and 11th in Columbus, Ohio.

This lower bracket run solidified the Call of Duty team as a top eight team in the country with a chance to be placed even higher in their pursuit of their first national championship. More details will be shared as they become available, including stream locations for viewing, itineraries, etc. Make sure you follow and turn on notifications for the Davenport Esports twitter account @DU_Esport to stay up to date on all things DU Esports.

submitted by Colin Graham