Collegiate esports recruiting hit an all-time high this past weekend, as the Stay Plugged In team kicked off with the first of two segments of our Carry2College esports recruiting event. The annual event welcomes hundreds of high school students online to show off their skills in a two-day esports competition, as well as connect with collegiate esports scouts during the event's college fair.
One game title included in the initial kick-off weekend included Rocket League, a popular esports title owned by Epic Games. Thirty teams of potential future collegiate Rocket League student athletes gave attending colleges quite a show, leaving recruiters a long list of players to choose from for their programs.
Let's reflect on the Rocket League competition, and highlight some standout players and results in this special C2C edition of the BearLight breakdown.
STORYLINES
Eight teams go undefeated through the 3-match group stage.
With such a deep talent pool existing in the Stay Plugged In network of Rocket League student athletes, going undefeated in the Group Stage during the biggest online esports recruiting event of the year is incredibly difficult to do. It requires all players of your team to be prepared for the event in advance, and to be focused once into the action.
For this reason, we would like to highlight the players on all eight teams who were able to kick off the event with this impressive feat:
Skrrrt - Opp_Bomb / gababy / renxys
Royalty - Akko / obvimas / Yimbo_Yambo
What is a KM - Larsen / Dylan / Viza
Washington Connections Academy (WACA) - Collat / vic / oscr
Dreamland - Packers / sheep / joe9378
Woxowkkoapapslmd (Wox) - xoyls / christianb / naycen
Alabama Victors - vblakeee / reach / itzbxma / Cjayy
randos - Avoid / razzy / kazuyuki
Affinity Academy shakes off Group Stage loss and makes late bracket push.
Two-time Stay Plugged In live event champion and junior, Haz, entered this C2C with a different team than we are used to seeing him play with. New teammates shea and yulety (both seniors) made up the "Affinity Academy" club, and although their 2-1 record out of the group stage was not bad by any means, Haz and the squad wanted more out of their C2C run than an average finish.
Their loss may have pushed them from their pre-event seeding of #7, down to #15 (out of 16) for the Final Bracket stage, but their drive to press forward through adversity is truly what scouts should see. They beat back-to-back undefeated opponents, and did so with a purpose. A 3-0 sweep against #2 Royalty and another 3-0 against #7 Alabama Victors, a revenge story against the team that handed them the loss on Day 1.
Affinity Academy would also put up a fight against event runner-ups Wox, but would ultimately fall short 3-1 to place in the 3rd/4th range this Carry2College.
#1 seed Skrrrt are the first Rocket League team to go perfect in their C2C run.
We've seen greats like Ahduhm, Paarth, astro, Fefe, oath, Angel, Wahvey, daunt, kofyr, and more compete in Carry2College over the years. Many of them may have won C2C in their days competing in Stay Plugged in events, but none of them were able to accomplish what team "Skrrrt" did this time around.
Skrrrt marched into the finals, having not dropped a single match. To further illustrate their dominance, we should mention that they also hadn't dropped a single game to this point. This stretch included sweeps over two teams that were also lossless in matches played - Team "randos" who had swept a series the round before, and Washington Connections Academy, who featured senior and Stay Plugged In Coca-Cola All-Star, collat. They would meet yet another undefeated team, "Wox", in the Finals, and Skrrrt was ready from the first kickoff.
Featured as the #1 play of the Rocket League C2C Top 5 Plays, Opp_Bomb set the tone of the Finals, fielding a kick off from fellow SPIN Coca-Cola All-Star, Gababy, and hitting the most dynamic solo-play of the event just 6-seconds into the Finals match.
Skrrrt would ride that momentum and complete a final sweep against Wox, finishing a perfect 22-0 in games played and becoming the first Rocket League team to ever win every single game played in Carry2College history. Congratulations to Skrrrt on their Stay Plugged In 2024 Carry2College Championship!
WINNERS & AWARDS
Rocket League Open Play Champions
SKRRT - Opp_Bomb / Gababy / renxys
Rocket League Divisional Play Champions
ABANDONED - Kay! / Umarohh / Sniz
Top Striker
Name: Opp_Bomb | Team: Skrrrt | Grad Class: 2024
This doesn't even include when Opp_Bomb "strikes" another opponent with his own car for demos to open up the field for his team, which happens A LOT. Opp_Bomb put up hat tricks in every series played, was positionally sound and ready for quick-paced passes from teammates, and put up two of the top three plays in the RL C2C Top 5. Opp_Bomb never takes a play off, and his offense was unstoppable.
Top Playmaker
Name: idekRL | Team: Wox | Grad Class: 2024
Anyone with a list of teams in their hands coming into the weekend would be dishonest if they said they didn't overlook #6 seed Wox as a team that would make it to the finals. However, this team was incredible, and although we will always rightfully credit the full team for it's successes, we're honestly not sure where Wox would have placed without idekRL. The offense worked through idekRL, the opponents were disrupted by idekRL, and any time during a match where Wox needed a turnaround through a big play, idekRL was the one to make it.
Top Savior
Name: collat | Team: WACA | Grad Class: 2024
Senior collat also has high-end capabilities as a goal scorer, as we saw from his #4 appearance on the Top 5 plays of C2C. The beauty of that goal was in his creativity and adjustment after being bumped out of position and finding a way to make the difference anyways. It was collat who sparked the WACA Rocket Monkeys in moments with big, timely saves and a relentless mid-field presence that pushed WACA to a Top 4 placement this C2C.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A big thank you goes out to all of the college representatives, players, parents, and staff for attending and making this event truly outstanding.
2024 Carry2College continues with VALORANT, League of Legends and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate™, taking place Saturday, February 10th through Sunday February 11th. Registration is still open. Get registered today!
Registration Links:
VALORANT/League of Legends Open Play
VALORANT/League of Legends Divisional Play
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate™ ALL
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Find out what our esports recruiting specialists say are the 5 things to prepare before C2C, and make your esports recruiting event experience the best it can be.
Improve your approach with college esports recruiters during esports recruiting events, and learn how to construct and execute your elevator pitch.
To learn more about our upcoming esports recruiting events, check out our article with all the information you need to compete in front of college esports teams.