With the end of the NECC regular season this past week, we have reached the final eight teams for the playoffs. The regular season followed a round-robin format with the top two teams from each of the four groups advancing to the playoffs. They were then reseeded to form the bracket using College Counter’s rankings.
Teams on the outside looking in:
#10 Northwood lost the map differential tiebreaker to defending champions #5 Ashland to claim the second playoff spot out of Group C despite winning the head-to-head matchup against Ashland. While their NECC run is over, Northwood is still in line to make the playoffs in the PCL.
With a loss to #4 Texas in the last match of the season, #34 Illinois fall out of playoff contention as Group B will be all Texas with #18 Texas A&M taking the second slot and Texas going undefeated in the round robin. For Illinois, this caps off a tumultuous season which saw them fail to play to their potential and be upset multiple times including #46 Oklahoma and #61 Houston.
#1 Fisher College vs. #18 Texas A&M
#1 Fisher comes into this tournament the heavy favorite. Coming off a PCL victory this past semester, they have been the undisputed top team in collegiate this entire year.
“I highly doubt that there is any team with a genuine chance to beat us right now,” says Fisher captain Alex “AlekS” Andersson.
He explains that there is “too big of a gap” in the amount of experience and talent on their roster compared to other collegiate teams. However, with players on the team prioritizing academics and other aspects of their life, they aren’t able to scrim on a regular basis.
On the other side, #18 Texas A&M has been the perennial underdogs able to upset teams ahead of them, notably #4 Texas and #6 Carnegie Mellon. However, they’ve failed to build consistency in form.
Captain Alex “sefirah” Greene explains this inconsistency through the “puggy habits” the team sometimes brings to games as he hopes to instill discipline, especially against an opponent like Fisher.
Even if Texas A&M lose here, this season has been an absolute success as the team began the academic year outside the top 40 and have now solidified themselves as a major team in the scene.
The winner of this series will move on to play the winner of #2 RIT / #4 Texas.
#2 RIT vs. #4 Texas
In what might be the game of the quarter finals, #2 RIT will take on #4 Texas. RIT has a lot to prove after missing out on the NECC playoffs in the fall by one game. But now coming in with only one NECC loss to #3 FC Detonate, RIT is hoping to make a deep run.
RIT’s system can best be described as a machine as they rely on a heavy default style of play as they are balanced skill wise across the roster.
“As long as people are talking and taking smart fights we should be fine,” says RIT captain Chris “xCaptain” Ferguson.
On the other side, Texas have proven to be able to handle top teams equally as they placed fourth in the NECC playoffs in the Fall. They continued their dominance with an undefeated NECC regular season.
“We’ve come to realize through the regular season that our best results happen when we are calm and fluid in our game plan,” says Texas player Ross “milkman” Wilkins.
Like RIT, Texas is another institution in the collegiate CS2 space with a strong JV squad ranked #28 and a history of success in the scene. Going into their game against RIT, milkman says he wants to keep the team fluid, communicating and keeping a “calm mental.”
“People may call us puggers, but pugging it out allowed us to go undefeated,” milkman says.
The winner of this series will move on to play the winner of #1 Fisher / #18 Texas A&M.
#5 Ashland vs. #11 UBC
The defending champions #5 Ashland are set to rematch #11 UBC again in the quarter finals. Last semester, two of the three maps went to overtime with Ashland prevailing on map three 13-9. However, UBC hopes to flip the script this time around.
“We should’ve won that Ashland series 2-0 last semester,” UBC captain Filip “Feedalee” Mitevski explains.“That 3v1loss map two on matchpoint still haunts us.”
With Feedalee graduating this semester, he has high expectations for his team in his last ride as he feels that at their best they can beat this seasoned Ashland squad.
For Ashland, their road to a repeat win is much harder with both Fisher College squads in the fold. However Ashland player Seth “HoHo” Ho is cautiously optimistic as each time Ashland has played Fisher, they’ve improved and they are one of the few collegiate teams to take a map off the undisputed number one team in North American collegiate CS2.
But first, they must go through UBC as both teams are some of the most consistent teams in collegiate.
“UBC is a strong team and has been for a long time,” HoHo says. “it will be a clash of cultures and long standing stability [and] it will be another fun rematch.”
The winner of this series will move on to play the winner of #3 FC Detonate / #7 Cumberland.
#3 FC Detonate vs. #7 Cumberland
Finally, the unproven yet undefeated #3 FC Detonate are set to take on Fall 2025 PCL runner-up #7 Cumberland.
For Cumberland, this is their last hurrah as every player will either be graduating or leaving the team after this year. As a result, the team hopes to make the most of the time they have left and leave everything on the server.
“Main thing for [FC Detonate] is just making sure we all are individually ready for a tough matchup and play it one round at a time,” says Cumberland player Jason “JKronic” Joyce.
Despite a slow start to the season, Cumberland finished the NECC season 6-1 with their one loss coming against #11 UBC.
On the other side, the Mathew “tatm” Munro led North American Fisher College roster assembled this past semester ran through their division with only RIT putting up a fight winning 10 rounds on each of the two maps against them. However, their win against RIT remains their only top-10 win as their win against #16 Boston University being their next best win.
“As long as we prep as we usually do and stick to our guns then I see no issue,” tatm said about playing Cumberland.
For them, they want to prove that they can succeed with a homegrown North American roster and that they don’t need to “outsource” players.
The winner of this series will move on to play the winner of #5 Ashland / #11 UBC.
