Marywood Overwatch Gold Wins First-Ever Esports Title

Marywood University's Overwatch Gold team earned the esports program's first championship in December. The Pacers blanked St. Lawrence University 4-2 to capture the NECC Bo5 Championship. 

Since the program's inaugural season in Fall 2021, Marywood has claimed multiple second place finishes, including a NECC Nationals runner-up finish in 2023. However, Fall 2025 would mark the first time a Marywood esports team would claim a first place title for the program.

"I'm so proud of my team and so proud of myself," Jeongmin Lee said. "We were really happy to win."

Having already faced the third and second playoff seeds UAlbany Purple and Arcadia University Grey respectively, the Marywood Gold roster (6th seed) would find themselves up against the #1 seed in the Division 8 Northeast bracket- St. Lawrence University. St. Lawrence, notably, had not lost a single game in the entire regular season, their impenetrable streak continuing through the first round of playoffs. 

The teams initially started on the control map Lijiang Tower, a frequent presence in the matches both teams have played thus far. Marywood put up a strong front, but would fall 1-2 on Lijiang. Marywood recovered from the slow start, using their map pick on King's Row to initiate a long payload push. St. Lawrence kept the game close, nearly reaching the winning threshold. In a late heads-up play, Jeongmin Lee would utilize her D.Va mechsuit to earn two surprise kills, holding the line and preventing St. Lawrence from surpassing Marywood Gold in distance. 

With the score tied 1-1 in the first-to-four match, Marywood and St. Lawrence continued to trade maps back and forth. Riding the wave of its prior win, Marywood had a strong showing on Esperança- the push bot nearly tipping in favor of St. Lawrence, the Marywood Gold roster utilized multiple fast hero swaps to continue contesting the payload. In a high-octane, two-minute-long overtime fight, Marywood managed to hold on and secure the win in a down-to-the-wire finish. On St. Lawrence's map pick, though, the Gold roster was bested on Rialto, unable to push the payload past the strong defense of St. Lawrence.

Now sitting at 2-2, the next map set the winning team up for match point. In an unprecedented move from Marywood, the Gold roster selected Samoa as their map. A control map similar to Lijiang Tower, Marywood had not played the map frequently in prior matches. In spite of this, the Gold roster would win back-to-back rounds on the map, with well placed ultimates used by Daymon McGuire and Joc1015 to put them on match point.

Marywood, now one map away from victory, found itself on Suravas -- as this is a very comfortable map for the Gold roster. Marywood took point after point, earning a 3-0 victory over the St. Lawrence Roster.

"I have to thank my team," Bobby Milner said. "We wouldn't be here without them, and I really appreciate it."

Director Harley Adler also thanked the entire team on stream: Bobby Mildner, Daymon McGuire, Luis Morales, Jeongmin Lee, Dillon Hereth, Jocelyn Behan, Noah Vail, and Seongchan Yuk.

In addition to the roster of players that make up Marywood Gold, Marywood Esports also wishes to recognize and thank Jisoo Kim, Jaeri Lee, and Minji Lee for their design, animation, and motion graphics work, all of which appeared on stream during the grand finals match. The video recording of the match can be found on the Marywood Esports Youtube channel. Thank you to all who supported the Marywood Gold team, the esports program, and all our students and athletes throughout this exceptional season!