North Central Missouri College eSports kicked off the 2019-20 season with a scrimmage win over the University of Central Missouri on Monday.  The team won the Overwatch matchup 2-1.

The Pirates played two objective games back to back and then we ended on playing a game of payload. "UCM beat us the first game of objective and we came back to win the next two games back to back. They were all very close games and came down to the final seconds in each match. Our team pushed through and kept their composure to overcome UCM.  We had a lot of hype moments throughout and made big plays at clutch times," commented Head Coach Chris Flowers.

Overwatch Team Captain Cole Rorebeck and Aaron Babcock had these comments about the performance.  "UCM was our first real fight against another school; it was a great learning experience and showed us what we need to work on. I'm excited to see where this team will go in a year's time," stated Rorebeck.  "UCM was a great team to play. They had us the first match, but we came back to win two straight games.  It was a good learning experience for all of us as a team," added Babcock.

Flowers was impressed by his team's success.  "I am super proud of my team and how far they have come with their accomplishments.  We went from a team who couldn't hardly win a couple games of casual play to beating another very well put together and talented college varsity team.  These guys have worked and put in the time/effort trying to be the best and they are showing progression towards that.  It's amazing how much better we've gotten individually and as a team in such a short amount of time.  I truly believe we will have an incredible season come tournament time."

Tuesday, the Pirates began their Rocket League season as well.  They dropped all three games against West Virginia University Potomac State College.  Scores for the games were 3-0, 4-0, and 6-2 in defeat.

Damian Cortez and Mario Castaneda both scored goals in the last game of the matchup.  "Although my players were filled with anxiousness/nerves and it showed on the virtual field, we still played really good defense.  Our goalie defense was a bit on the weak side and needs improvement for sure.  We were missing shots/hits we normally hit, etc.  WVUPSC has two players ranked D1 which is the top 1% of all players.  They were a very well put together program with really good recruits," detailed Flowers.

Next action for NCMC will be more Rocket League on Thursday evening and Overwatch on Sunday.