Marietta's League of Legends team qualifies for GLEC playoffs

by Tom Perry

Marietta, Ohio (10/20/2020) — After making a late-season run, Marietta College's League of Legends team is excited to be participating in the Great Lakes Esports Conference playoffs, which begin Saturday, October 31st.

Dr. Matt Williamson, Associate Professor and Head Coach of esports, said the team has been practicing hard to make a run for the GLEC playoffs.

"They faced adversity early in the season with tough losses against some of the top schools in the conference," Williamson said. "However, they learned from those matches, they made improvements, and we saw those improvements in our last matches. I'm very proud of the work that they've put in."

The Pioneers earned a spot in the playoffs with a 2-0 victory over Tiffin on October 17th, and they will face a tough challenger in Trine University - a squad that Marietta lost to earlier this fall. The match is set for 1:00 p.m., Saturday, October 31st.

Competing for Marietta will be Ian Darling '21 (Colorado Springs, Colorado), Bethany Holstein '24 (Coolville, Ohio), Kenny Nguyen '24 (Arlington, Texas), Yinzheng Wang '20 (Beijing, China), Kylar Wheeler '24 (Roanoke, Texas) and Leah Wietrzykowski '23 (Marietta, Ohio). The team is coached by Drake Newsome.

The match will be streamed live over the Marietta esports Twitch channel at www.twitch.tv/mariettaesports.

Located in Marietta, Ohio, at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, Marietta College is a four-year liberal arts college. Tracing its roots to the Muskingum Academy back in 1797, the College was officially chartered in 1835. Today Marietta College serves a body of 1,200 full-time students. The College offers more than 50 majors and is consistently ranked as one of the top regional comprehensive colleges by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review, as well as one of the nation's best by Forbes.com. Marietta was selected seventh in the nation according to the Brookings Institution's rankings of colleges by their highest value added, regardless of major. Marietta College has also been named a Great College to Work For three consecutive years (2018-2020).

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