Week 1 Esports Recap: Spring Season Underway
CRETE, Neb. - The Doane Esports program found a lot of success during the Fall 2025 season. The Super Smash Bros. team missed the playoffs by 1 win, Rocket League placed 3rd in their conference, and the Overwatch squad emerged as the Division 4 West conference champions.
Two months have passed, and now teams in four titles have begun the Spring 2026 season of the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC). That's a lot of esports action to cover, so we'll be providing weekly recaps here on the Doane Athletics website to keep everyone up to date on how the Tigers are doing.
Valorant is Rescheduled
Valorant's first match against California State University San Bernardino has been rescheduled to a later date. More information on the new date will be announced on social media.
Super Smash Bros. falls to St. Edward's 1-2
Although the Tigers put up a valiant effort in their Week 1 match against the St. Edward's Hilltoppers, they struggled early on in each game against a tough Ganondorf. That stock deficit was too much to overcome in games 1 and 3, leading to Doane's 8-12 losses in both games.
Caleb "Frosty" Panning led the team with 16 knock outs during the match, 8 of which came from a massive rally in the second game to lead the Tigers to a 12-10 win. Ryan "awsmsun" Burton picked up 6 knock outs, followed by John "wert" Donlan and Gaby "Stuxs" Medina with 3 each.
A replay of the match can be found on the Doane Esports YouTube channel here. The Smash Bros. team faces Arkansas State Black in Week 2 on Tuesday February 10th at 7pm.
Marvel Rivals debuts with a 3-0 win over Colorado State Green
The newest game to the Doane Esports program is Marvel Rivals, a six versus six third person shooter featuring a wealth of Marvel comic book characters to play as. The newest team of Tigers found early success in Week 1 with a sweep of Colorado State Green, with scores of 2-1, 3-2, and 3-2.
The win was a unified team effort, but here are some stats that stood out:
- Playing as the Vanguard (or Tank) role, both Todd "ThePerfectTot" Martin and Winston "Winney15" Sears averaged only 4 deaths per map.
- Nathan "sophron" Shupe was a finishing machine in the final map, tallying up 30 Final Hits, three times as many as the next player for Doane.
A replay of most of the match can be found on the Doane Esports YouTube channel here. The Marvel Rivals squad faces Southeastern Oklahoma (SE) during Week 2 on Tuesday February 10th at 8pm.
Overwatch survives, wins 3-2 over Kansas University Club Crimson
After winning their conference in Division 4 during the fall season, the Overwatch team was moved up to Division 3 this semester. Their Week 1 match was against Kansas University Club Crimson, and the Tigers had their work cut out for them.
Kansas took an early lead, winning maps 1 and 3 in the best-of-five series. Doane was able to establish a commanding defense on Watchpoint Gibraltor to stay in the series, and held strong on defense again for the final map: Blizzard World. After winning the match 3-2, Doane has proved they belong in Division 3.
A replay of the match can be found on the Doane Esports YouTube channel here. The Overwatch team will play St. Ambrose in Week 2 on Friday February 13th at 7pm.