Hornets Esports Win First Match of Season in 5 Game Battle

By Dominick Matarese |

The SUNY Broome Hornets Esports team defeated the Bryant and Stratton College Bobcats in a close Overwatch match on Monday. The match was 2-2 going into game 5, and the hornets came out ahead. This was the first time the Hornets had gone to a game 5, and were hungry for the win. They said they were actually very confident going into the final game that they would win. Patric Harter said “we were coming off the map 4 win, so I was hyped out for it.”

The team cited adaptability as something that most enabled them to win. Michael Willard said “This whole game we were all just trying to figure out what would work against their comp, so the entire time when something would go wrong and we weren’t getting as much ground, we’d always just look at what we were doing and try to change it to help us out.” Team captain Linares Lynette said versatility in the heroes they played also helped them win.

The team unanimously chose Nicholas Gilbert as the MVP in the match, referencing moments where his deadeye ability helped save the team.

The match was streamed on Twitch, where up to 20 viewers showed their support for the Hornets, and the chat was the liveliest yet of the Hornets streamed matches. The players had friends and family come out to send supportive messages in the Twitch stream. Nicholas Gilbert said “It feels good to see a whole chat full of my loved ones trying to embarrass the absolute hell out of me.” When asked how it felt to have an active chat behind the team, Captain Linares Lynette said “It feels pretty KomodoHype”

This was the Hornets first match of the season. Every player from the 2020 Fall semester returned, and two players, Nicholas Gilbert and Patric Harter, returned from the Spring 2020 semester. Linares Lynette stayed on as the team captain. She said that the increased roster size enables the team to “be even more adaptable than before, which says a lot because we were already a very adaptable team.”

Going forward the team said they are going to be practicing more rotations with the team, as well as dive comp, and tank combinations.