Mustangs rally past Red Tails, advance to Overwatch playoff semifinals

A back and forth quarterfinal round GG Leagues Central Division Overwatch quarterfinal literally went down to the final map Wednesday, Nov. 4.

Morningside's team, trailing 2-1 at one point to Hawkeye Community College's Red Tails team, pulled off a comeback winning series four and five to advance to the semifinals with a 3-2 win. The fourth seed's victory sets up a clash against the regular-season champion and top seed Amarillo College of Texas' AC Badger team Wednesday, Nov. 11.

According to assistant coach Quentin Charbonneau, a Dorado and Nepal map sequence was where Mside staged its late match heroics.

"Dorado was rarely seen by us this season," he admitted. "We pulled out a Sombre Reaper strategy that proved very effective, taking all three points and meeting little resistance throughout the trip. Lane Poulson (NA) (LeMars, Iowa) aided this push in snagging a six-player kill combo with his reaper ultimate. Round 2 showed Red Tails on the offense where they meet a wall of our players defending the first point to near overtime before losing ground and giving up point one. In point two, HCC pushed about halfway before failing to touch cart in overtime, granting Morningside the win to forge a tie."

According to Charbonneau, map 5 was Nepal, a map similar to Illios, which opened the evening. "It's a combo of three different maps," he noted. "We took the first point of the first map bringing the percentage to nearly 50 before losing it to Red Tails. HCC held the point until nearly 80 percent before losing it to us. Our team started map two strong, securing a point first and holding it all the way to the series decision."

Charbonneau praised Ayden Taylor (NA) (Elkhorn, Neb.) with a massive reaper ultimate, which allowed the Mustangs to secure the victory.