The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Esports team made program history on Wednesday, April 19 when it claimed a national championship in Rainbow Six Siege hosted by the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports (the governing body for two-year collegiate Esports). SFCC defeated Onondaga Community College from New York to secure the national championship.

The team members are Gage Behee, Josh Wyrick, Caden Thomas, Drake Miller, Trenton Toler, Levi Pitman, Sebastian Rhoades, and Skylar Perry.

"Rainbow Six Siege is the best of three maps," said Head Coach Jacob Coleman. "Each map that you play is going to be a first to seven rounds. Each team is either trying to attack the objective or defend that objective. Most of the maps are within a building. If you are attacking, the goal is to destroy the objective and you have all sorts of tools and resources that you can use to attack. If you're defending, you have all sorts of things that you use to defend the objective. Around round four, is where you to go from attacking to defending or defending to attacking."

The pursuit of this national championship began long before the spring of 2023.

"We originally set up our Rainbow Six Siege team in the spring of 2022," said Coleman. "Our team went 4-5 in our first season and didn't even make the playoffs. Each game was a knock-down-drag-out fight. We barely won the games that we won. My team remained dedicated. We had a lot of practice sessions and coaching. In the fall 2022, we went 7-0 in the regular-season, and we tied for the top seed, but ended up seeded second, because of a tiebreaker rule. We ended up going 8-1. The one game we lost in the fall of 2022, was the game that knocked us out of the playoffs. We ended up finishing in fifth place for that season. My team worked even harder going into the spring of 2023. We went undefeated for the entire season; we didn't lose a map and went 9-0 for the entire season to win a national championship. In the span of a year, it's unbelievable how much this team has progressed and improved."

Coleman believes winning a national championship does a lot for the entire program.

"I think it puts a stamp on our program that says State Fair Community College Esports is the real deal," said Coleman. "We have the ability and capacity to win at a high level. It sets the bar for my expectations and my students' future expectations. It puts us on the map as far as being a contender for one of the top Esports programs in the NJCAAE. I am very proud of our team, all the hard work they put in and how much they've grown. It is a cool moment to be a part of."

The achievement is very special for the sophomore class who have been a core part of the Esports program since the fall of 2021.

"It was a good way to go out, because this is the last season for most of my Rainbow Six Siege team," said Coleman. These individuals started with me from day one and now we are two years into it. It's time for them to continue with their lives and go out into the workforce or transfer to a four-year school. At the end of semester, I'm losing Gage Behee, Caden Thomas, Josh Wyrick, Levi Pitman, and Sebastian Rhoades."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics