To wrap up their immaculate season, Maryville, going by Dragonsteel during this split, defeated Fear X Starforge 3-0 in Grand Finals to win North American Challengers League Summer 2024.
On the other side of the league table, Winthrop University played well enough this summer to sneak out of the relegation zone and remain in NACL for another season as the underdogs.
Finishing first granted Maryville a spot in Americas Challengers 2024. This six team competition saw Tier 2 teams competing from North America, South America, and Brazil.
Maryville’s Path to Glory
Maryville University started their season in NACL off with a bang. They announced a collaboration with Brandon Sanderson, renaming Maryville to Dragonsteel for the NACL Summer Split.
Once the season got going, winning the split was hardly ever in doubt for the collegiate team. Dragonsteel placed 1st in the regular season, going undefeated with a record of 9-0. In their nine wins, they only dropped a total of two games through the entire season.
Playoffs also went smoothly for Dragonsteel. They received a bye in the first round and defeated Supernova 2-0 in the Upper Bracket Semifinals.
Dragonsteel faced a slight hiccup in the Upper Bracket Finals, dropping a game in their 3-1 win over Fear X Starforge. The side from Maryville removed any doubt, though, when they swept Fear X Starforge 3-0 in Grand Finals.
On top of their amazing team performance, they featured some top-tier player performances as well. “ScarryJerry”, the team’s Bot Laner, had the second-most kills and the lowest deaths per game among all players.
This lead to ScarryJerry having the best KDA ratio in the league with a whopping 7.48, while two of the other top six spots also went to Dragonsteel players.
Their dominating season gives Dragonsteel the distinction of being the first undefeated team in the history of NACL.
Winthrop Avoids Relegation in Their First Season
At the other end of the table, Winthrop University managed to avoid dropping out of NACL with their 8th place finish.
Winthrop University entered the NACL 2024 Summer Split as underdogs. They had previously failed to make it through the promotion tournament and only qualified after Wildcard Gaming bowed out of the competition.
The start of the season went surprisingly well for Winthrop. They went 3-3 out of their first six matches, with impressive wins over AOE Esports, Disguised, and Blue Otter.
Unfortunately, Winthrop failed to win any of their last three matches, ending the season on a disappointing 3-6 record.
That left them tied for 8th with CCG Esports, however Winthrop squeaked their way out of relegation through the tiebreaker. Winthrop University had one more game win than CCG, giving them the right to return to NACL for Spring 2025.
Winthrop also earned a playoff berth, though they were shortly eliminated in the Lower Bracket Round 1 by Blue Otter 3-1.
Despite not doing as well as Dragonsteel in NACL, they still had their own standout performers. “Skytec”, Winthrop’s support, ended up second in the entire league in assists, averaging over 12 per game.
The big question for this Winthrop University team going into Fall actually has nothing to do with the team itself. It has to do with four of the players on Winthrop competing for Saint Louis University Esports, who recently had their program dissolved.
Winthrop reached out to many of the SLU players in the lead-up to the Summer Split of NACL. Since they wanted to continue playing together as well as compete in NACL, they temporarily traded in the blue and white for the garnet and gold.
Luckily the players are able to retain their sponsorships, but it’s likely that many will be looking elsewhere for their new collegiate home to continue competing at the highest level. A level they’ve now shown multiple times they’re more than capable of.
Dragonsteel Fought Hard in Brazil
While Winthrop went up to Pennsylvania for the HUE Invitational, Maryville traveled all the way down to São Paolo, Brazil from September 14th through the 21st.
The group stage of Americas Challengers consisted of six teams, with four advancing to the playoffs. Dragonsteel won their first match of the competition against Latin American team WAP Esports.
They also picked up another win against the other team from Liga Regional: Fuego. Unfortunately, they were unable to repeat their efforts from NACL as they lost to Fear X Starforge.
Losses to both the Brazilian teams had Dragonsteel coming up just short of playoffs. Americas Challengers was ultimately won by paiN Gaming Academy after their Grand Finals win against Fear X Starforge.
There were certainly moments of pride for the collegiate side. “Yuuji”, the team’s Jungler, and ScaryJerry, each took home an MVP award for the WAP Esports and Fuego matches respectively.
While their first big inter-continental trip didn’t end up how they wanted, it is unlikely to be their last. After their dominating display in this Summer’s NACL, they’re certainly the favorite to run it back and once again and duke it out with some of the best teams from around the world.
