The Central Community College Call of Duty: Cold War Gunfight team lost 3-0 at Iowa Western Community College in the NJCAAE national championship match on Sunday.
In the opening map, the Raiders built an early 2-1 lead before the Reivers took off and posted a 6-4 win.
IWCC scored first in the second map and CCC answered right back to make it 1-1. The Reivers rattle off three in a row to take a 4-1 advantage before posting a 6-2 victory.
In the third map, IWCC again took a commanding 4-1 lead when the Raiders responded with two points to cut the Reivers' lead to 4-3. However, that's as close as the Raiders would get as Iowa Western claimed the national title with a 6-3 win to close out the best-of-five match.
"Obviously, we were hoping for a different result, but Iowa Western came out strong and they knew the maps and the matchups," said CCC head coach Lucas Lumbra (seated center). "We were making some mistakes and they were forcing our hand a little bit. I'm super proud of our team. They did everything they could, played well and did their best."
CCC team member Zack Hollingsworth (seated left) echoed Lumbra's assessment. "I felt like we made a lot of mistakes and could have played better," said Hollingsworth, who teamed with Justice Silver (seated right) in the national title match. "Their team definitely had a lot better angles than we did. We could have done better, but there is always next year."
Regarding next season, Lumbra said he is looking forward to seeing how the national championship experience could boost recruiting and momentum for the program. "We're switching from Cold War to Modern Warfare 2 and it's all about preparation. We will be spending the summer getting used to that switch and bringing in new talent. It's been an incredible season, so nothing to be sad about, even if today didn't go the way we wanted."
Two other CCC Call of Duty team members played prominent roles during the match. Jackson Peabody (standing right) served as an advisor throughout each map and Ayden Veik (standing second from left) served as one of the commentators for the online telecast.
Other CCC Esports members who attended the national championship match include Chase Gragg (standing left), Barrett Shea (standing center) and Daurys Neris (standing second from right).