They nearly pulled it off. Madison College Esports, which had claimed a national championship in each of its first three semester of competition, came up one win short of continuing that streak through a fourth semester. Sophomore Mario Rea-Garcia was the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate national runner-up, and was joined in the national final four by the WolfPack Valorant team, which made a run to third place in defense of its national championship from the Fall 2021 semester. In addition to the success in competition, the spring semester marked the first time the Esports team was able to fully utilize it's brand new, state-of-the-art Esports Lab.

Complete Spring 2022 Madison College Esports Schedule & Results | Spring 2022 Madison College Esports Roster

Madison College Esports has certainly made its presence felt nationally in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate during the first four semesters of the program's existence. After back-to-back grand champion runs by Kaden Crockett during the 2020-21 year and a national semifinalist in the fall semester, Mario Rea-Garcia nearly put the WolfPack back on top of the podium. He was one of three WolfPack players to reach the postseason in SSBU, and all three were ranked in the top ten nationally. 

Thomas Nicholas Llamas was the #1 overall seed, followed by Mario at #6, and Baxter Beckwith earned the #9 seed as he made his fourth postseason appearance. After all three won their opening round matches, Llamas was upset in the second round by the #33-ranked player, and was relegated to a spectator as his teammates continued to advance into the quarterfinal round. Beckwith, looking for his second appearance in the national semifinals dropped a 3-1 match, while Rea-Garcia swept his way into the final four. The Madison, Wisconsin, native earned another 3-0 sweep over #10 Vicente Z. of the Community College of Beaver County, and was now set to play for a national title. His opponent would be #4-seed Tony M. from Iowa Western Community College, who would go on to become Grand Champion with a 3-0 defeat of the WolfPack's last remaining player.

Watch the NJCAAE Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Grand Finals

"We had three players competing in the NJCAAE for Smash Ultimate, and combined they only dropped a single series during the entire nine week regular season," stated head coach Joe Hanson. "Upon entering the playoffs, the competition grew rapidly and by the quarterfinals only two WolfPack remained in the bracket.  Mario R was able to make it through the quarterfinals to have a chance at claiming a third Smash National Championship, but his opponent Tony M from Iowa Western proved to be a tough match-up."

The big story coming into the spring season was the title defense from the fall for the WolfPack's Valorant team. They went a perfect 8- 0 in regular season play, dropping just one game in the process. Awarded the #3 seed, the Pack went to work eliminating the competition in the postseason en route to the national semifinals. It was there that the title defense would end, with a 2-0 setback against the eventual national champions and #2-seed Northern Virginia Community College in a rematch of the fall title match. Madison College did cap the season on a high note, defeating Suffolk County Community College by a 2-0 score in the Third Place Match.

"Our defending national champion Valorant team made quick work of the regular season and was locked in on making another playoff push with all five players (Carson Ziegler, Cas Bird, Juan Holguin, Tristin Bird, & Mason Holin) back. The NOVA team was prepared to reclaim their title and their efforts proved to be too much, eliminating the WolfPack and handing this team its first loss of the whole year. With a third place run, we were able to salvage our incredible run during the first year of playing Valorant."

The WolfPack fielded two very competitive in two different titles this spring. In Rocket League, Team #1 posted as 8-1 record in regular season play to earn a spot in the national tournament. After surviving a five-game thriller 3-2 over #9 Heartland Community College to begin postseason play, Madison College was upended 3-0 by top-ranked Howard Community College in the quarterfinal round. In Call of Duty: WarZone, two teams competing in the duos format were able to produced several high-level results, with 

"The Rocket League season was an uphill battle for both teams, with the competition becoming more difficult each season. One of our teams was able to finish in the top 8 for both the Fall and Spring seasons.  We are looking to continue to build on this success and enter next season ready to break through this plateau. And in WarZone, we earned top 5 placements for both teams in the regular season, and also claimed a number of first and second place finishes in the battle royale mode for Call of Duty. The format may change for the coming season, but the WolfPack will be prepared and hungry to compete again. Both teams finished top 15 overall with the scoring format used by the NJCAAE during the Spring season."

The final title of the spring season was Overwatch, which competed in the NACE Starleauge against all different levels of collegiate Esports teams. With a 4-2 regular season mark, the WolfPack were in the double-elimination playoffs for a second straight season.

"The WolfPack cruised past the first three rounds of the post-season, but fell to collegiate Esports powerhouse University of North Texas in the third round of the playoffs. This team will bounce back and is looking forward to playing Overwatch or Overwatch 2 this coming Fall."

"This past Fall season was the first opportunity that the WolfPack had to compete in our esports lab here at the Truax campus. It wasn't easy navigating the pandemic and many times the players would be split at home and in the lab for team activities, but this spring season was a relief. The space was well received by not only the team, but the general student body at Madison College! Everyone who passes by stops to look through the window at the space, and we plan to have even more events as we approach the summer and fall. The WolfPack will be losing nearly 10 players this season to graduation and we wish them the best with whatever the next in life brings their way."

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