An Arduous Finale: Maryville Aces Division One - Valorant Finals Recap

Congratulations to Maryville University for being the first Division One Valorant winners! Maryville’s team of Geeza, RENZ, Chloric, ScrewFace, and Ange fought a difficult and close battle against St. Clair College to get a 3-2 victory in this best-of-5 match.

Finals Recap

Haven (Maryville pick) showed how closely matched Maryville and St. Clair has become since the regular season. They were even at 2-2 then 4-4. St. Clair, in fact, pulled ahead to be 5-9, 4 points ahead of the undefeated Maryville. Getting Flawlesses on rounds 13 and 14 helped. MU Geeza’s quad kill in round 15 proved that Maryville wasn’t out yet. At point 7, Maryville couldn’t catch up any longer. St. Clair rushed to 12 points with another Flawless in round 17. It was amazing. A strong defense gave St. Clair an 8-13 win on a map that they previously lost on when they faced Maryville in the regular season.

Game 2 on Split (St. Clair pick) was a bit rocky for St. Clair. Sure, they were able to tie the score up at 4-4 with a Thrifty in round 5, but Maryville ended up going on a 5-round win streak. It was 9-4. Maryville's mistake of not putting their spike down in time led the way for St. Clair to catch up. Soon, it was 10-10. SCC Instxnct secured a double in round 15, MU Geeza nearly got an Ace in round 17, and Maryville Thrifty’d round 19 up to this moment. St. Clair pulled ahead with 2 points, one being a Flawless round 21. Maryville got their own Flawless in round 23, but it was too late. It was an 11-13 St. Clair win for game 2.

There’s not much to say about Game 3 on Bind (Maryville pick) except emphasizing how Maryville secured a clean 13-0 victory to prevent St. Clair from ending finals. It was astonishing considering how much each team had to fight for the previous games. Maryville even Flawless’d rounds 4 and 6. Their renewed motivation for the rest of this matchup can be pointed at coming from this single game.

Corrode (St. Clair pick) flipped the outcome of this matchup. Maryville Flawless’d the first 3 rounds in a row, including a MU Chloric triple kill in round 3, and snagged a 6-1 lead against St. Clair. It wasn’t until round 8 that St. Clair got their second point. MU RENZ’s Ace in round 7 and MU Geeza’s quad kill in round 9 certainly indicated how much they fought for that second point. Things looked up for St. Clair as they went on a 4-round win streak to make it 7-6, a near tie. But they were only able to get their 7th point as Maryville rushed, with a Thrifty round 14 in their hand, to close the game. Maryville won, 13-7.

The first Game 5 in Division One played out on Sunset (Decider). MU RENZ started off the game with a clutch triple kill, but St. Clair prevented Maryville from a strong start by evening the score, 2-2. MU ScrewFace’s triple kill in round 4 couldn’t stop the score from tying up. Maryville did find an opening in round 5 that allowed them to go on a 6-round win streak to make it 8-2. MU RENZ got another triple kill in round 8. However, St. Clair stayed motivated. They fought and climbed their way to a 9-5 then got their own 3-round win streak after Maryville’s 10th point. It’s 10-8 then 11-9 then 11-10. St. Clair’s uphill battle was highlighted by SCC Jazzyk1ns’ triple kill in round 20. A Thrifty in round 22 for Maryville led the way to their win. Finals ended with a game score of 13-10 in favor of Maryville.

Maryville Highlight

St. Clair Highlight

Finals Match

This ends the Valorant portion of Division One and the Fall-Split season as a whole. Keep an eye out for even more Division One collegiate competitions in the future. A Spring season may be just around the corner!