St. Ambrose FPS Smash Bros Year-in-Review 2021-22

By Press release submission

Aug 8, 2022

The St. Ambrose FPS Team was busy sharpening their skills this season. Coming in for his first season as a coach, Fernando Preciado, lead the three FPS teams to unparalleled growth.

Apex

Representing St. Ambrose Esports will be Mckenna Palmer "KennaBean" (Senior), Maxx Nunez "Maxx" (Sophomore), Aidan Kenney "Cherry" (Freshman), and Fernando Preciado "KingNando" (Coach)

In spring the Apex Legends competed in a couple tournaments. This first was the ALAC Spring Series. In ALAC the team finished all of their nine matches in the top 10 outside of one match. Their highest placement of the tournament was in week one when they placed 4th overall. The second tournament the Apex team played in came in the middle of their ALAC season. They competed in the second split of the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS). While they did end up falling in 16th place out of 20 teams it was an amazing learning experience for the team to play against some top competitors.

As well in spring the team hosted the Apex Legends St. Ambrose Invitational in partnership with Drop-In Gaming. The Invitational was hosted online on April 27th, 2022 and had 20 teams competing for a $400 prize pool. The Ambrose team participated in the tournament and ended up with a placement of 6th place with a total team score of 40.

Rainbow Six Siege

Representing St. Ambrose Esports will be Nick Fliger "Dafliegs" (Junior), Spencer Haxmeier "Ajax" (Sophomore), Gabriel Schroll "B00T " (Sophomore), Carter VanHecke "VanHeckle" (Freshman), Joshua Fenske "Fenskinator" (Senior), Isaiah P. Walseman "Heinz" (Freshman), and Fernando Preciado "KingNando" (Coach)

In the winter break of 2021 SAU Esports announced that its Warzone team would become a Rainbow Six team. The Warzone team throughout fall 2021 had competed in 11 tournaments and placed 1st in all 11. Following the announcement of the roster being formed over Warzone in spring the Rainbow Six team chose to compete in the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC). The team was placed in the Emergents Division and swiftly took to trampling their competition. The team only dropped two series to Rio Grande and Carthage Firebirds. The rest of their series were all sweeps outside of a single 2-1 victory over MSU. The Rainbow Six team secured themselves a spot in the spring playoffs with a 6-2 series record. Unfortunately the team would once again run into Rio Grande in the quarter finals, while they did fall the Bees took a map off of Rio Grande. The team would end their NECC season with a 6-3 series record overall and a 14-8. With a stellar performance in their first season as a roster the squad aims to take NECC by storm again in fall 2022.

On April 23rd, a month after the IESC, the Overwatch Team traveled with the Rainbow Six Siege team to Open LAN 2022 hosted by Iowa State Club Esports. The Bees put up their best fight, but ended up falling to both Iowa State JV and Cornell in an 0-2 fashion. Even though they lost, the team kept their heads high and enjoyed every round of each series at the LAN, and gained valuable experience from the competition.

Call of Duty

Representing St. Ambrose Esports Harry B. Johnston "HBCJ5" (Freshman), Carter Van Hecke "VanHeckle" (Freshman), and Miguel Ceja "Kairos" (Sophomore), Michael Mennenga "AgentMM7" (Sophomore), and Fernando Preciado "KingNando" (Coach)

In fall the Call of Duty roster competed in the NACE Star League (NSL). The team was placed in the central conference of NACE and were placed amongst some powerhouses of the midwest such as Northwestern State University and St. Mary's University. The team put up a respectable 4-5 overall record and a 12-16 map record in their NACE season getting two sweeps against the likes of Coffeyville Community College and Oklahoma City University. While the season was cut short, falling just before playoffs the Bees have plans to compete in NACE once again in fall 2022.

In spring the team competed in the Collegiate Call of Duty League (CCL). The CCL was split into two stages for the spring season. During the first stage the Bees had a rocky start, having a bye round two only to turn around and take on the titans of Iowa State Gaming in the third round of competition. While the team did put up a good fight, but ended stage one with a record of 5-8 overall and a map record of 12-24. Stage two of the CCL fared a little better for the Bees, while they did drop heartbreaking series to teams such as DePaul Esports and Rio Grande Red, they pulled together for the last part of the season getting three sweeps in a row. The end of stage two came and the team ended it with a 3-6 overall record and an 11-18 map record. Even though the team didn't get as many wins on the board during the second stage they let less maps slip from their grasp.

FPS 2021-2022 Accomplishments: