Winthrop Has the Edge: A Case for a Maryville Upset

Playoffs for Division One’s League of Legends and Valorant competitions starts November 9th, and Maryville and Winthrop have a solid shot of facing off in finals. If that happens, I believe that Winthrop could snag first place in one of the matchups. They’re the only team that has been equal to them in League of Legends. Don’t be fooled by Winthrop’s 4-3 score in Valorant. Winthrop’s main Valorant team is coming back to Division One with a recently secured playoffs placement in Riot’s VCT Ascension Americas 2025. All the teams have to do is learn from their regular season matchup.

Previous Matchups

When Maryville and Winthrop battled in their first matchup of Division One’s regular season, both series went the distance. Here’s a reminder of what happened in both games.

League of Legends Game 1 was a really close game that looked like Winthrop's. They were strong enough to Ace Maryville twice, so why didn’t they win? Their backline wasn’t protected. Maryville switched up their strategy from trying to face them head on to split-pushing with one or two players in the top lane. Winthrop’s 2nd Ace resulted in only one of their players alive as recently-revived Maryville players teleported to their minions that arrived in base. There was no way to get back in time. Game 2 went more successful for Winthrop. They kept their mid-game advantage while protecting their backline. With key objectives under their wing, it was a victory. Maryville, in game 3, got the early game advantage this time. Winthrop found themselves unable to face them in team fights. It was unfortunate. Maryville ended up just going around them to rush nexus and secure their match victory.

Valorant (Winthrop-Maryville) Starting off on Corrode (Maryville pick) went great for Winthrop. A 3-0 start was only interrupted once before they proceeded to go on a 7-round win streak! Maryville’s next point was obtained in round 12, leaving the score at 10-2. Their resilience led to them getting an additional 4 points for 6 overall, but they were too far behind. Winthrop played the next two rounds slowly and won, 13-6. Game 2 on Abyss (Winthrop’s pick) seemed like Maryville’s vengeance. This time the lead went in their favor, 1-5. Unfortunately, getting stuck at 5 points, Winthrop kept being led to B site when on offense and would quickly get mowed down. Maryville knew how to deal with them. They won, 5-13. Bind (Decider) also went to Maryville in a similar fashion. This had more to do with Winthrop seemingly struggling to predict where Maryville would be at. Maryville did best together and were able to position effectively. It was a 6-13 victory for Maryville.

How Can The League Of Legends Team Win?

Winthrop does great at pressuring Maryville in the early game. They keep up in kills, gold, and scaling to have a chance to succeed as the game goes on. Paying attention to their towers in mid to late game can help prevent backcaps. This can be done with vision near pushed-in lanes to see if a Maryville player shows up on their map and keeping a count of how many Maryville players show up to team fights. If someone is missing and not waiting to revive, check towers/lanes. A team member could be sent when a team fight is about to be won by Winthrop. Teleports could be used defensively against Maryville’s aggressive usage. Otherwise, keep up the strong early game lead.

WU Denathor VS MU Crimson: A strong top lane matchup that WU Denathor is skilled enough to win. He has shown in the regular season to put good pressure on MU Crimson and scale really well against Maryville in general. MU Denathor just needs these things:

• Watch out for Maryville ganks! - 1v1s against the rival top laner is where he shines. Be sure to have vision up in jungle.
• Winthrop’s jungler to be around when needed - There’s no need to camp in top lane, but helping WU Denathor get scaling from a kill or just helping out with ganks is great.
• LET WU DENATHOR SCALE!!!

WU Only35 VS MU Cryogen: It’s always tense in the bot lane and most of the early game kills happen here. It’ll be a fight for these two to help their ADCs scale as fast as possible. WU Only35 just needs these things:

• Continue His Great Stuns
• Increase Survivability - There were times when Only35 played too far forward or aggressively.

How Can The Valorant Team Win?

Winthrop could mesh together their quick and slow approach from Corrode. It would add a little bit of unpredictability as Maryville would have to guess how they’re going to play. A 50-50 chance is much better than losing multiple rounds in a row. Maryville is 7-0 coming off of the regular season. They can predict plays just as well as Winthrop. Catching off stragglers as best you can is also something to be prepared for. Maryville does well together. Break that.

WU Glyph (Controller)

• Still 3rd in Division One’s Average Combat Score (250), Kill/Death Ratio(1.61), and Damage Delta (42.9) rankings
• 3.5 KDA in Regular Season Vs Maryville Game 1
• Still kept above a 1.4 KDA in the two lost games against Maryville (Abyss & Bind)
• Recently made it to Riot’s VCT Ascension Americas 2025 Playoffs

WU Infiltrator (Duelist)

• Still Top 5 in Average Combat Score (247) and Damage Delta (33.7) rankings
• 42.8 Precision rate
• High opening picks rate
• Recently made it to Riot’s VCT Ascension Americas 2025 Playoffs

MU Geeza (Sentinal)

• Helped get the solid Abyss B site hold in regular season
• 92 Kills with Vandal
• Tied in 3rd with MU RENZ For Kills (243) Ranking
• Can force Winthrop to walking predictable paths

MU RENZ (Duelist)

• Strong in getting multi-kills
• 2.5 KDA in regular season game 2 against Winthrop
• 99 Kills with Vandal
• Tied in 3rd with MU Geeza For Kills (243) Ranking
• Needs to be defeated ASAP

Stay tuned for the start of Division One Fall Playoffs today, November 9th. Both Maryville and Winthrop will have to wait until November 10th to face whoever wins the previous matchups. Though, it is confirmed that Stony Brook will face Winthrop in Val today at 3:30 PM MT due to previous rescheduling. It’ll be exciting to see if both teams will face off in the Fall Split Finals to grab the victory!