The State Fair Community College esports team is in the middle of their playoffs for the NJCAAE fall season. The playoffs began with Daniel Ortiz playing FIFA 23. Ortiz had a 5-2 record in the regular season with a 73.3% game win percentage. Ortiz advanced to the National Playoffs and finished in the top 16 in the nation.
Webster Brown and Stetson Mahin competed in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Mahin advanced to the National Playoffs and made it past the first round, defeating his opponent 4-0 in a best-of-seven, which was good enough to place him in the top 32 in the nation. Brown also advanced to the National Playoffs, but lost in the first round to finish in the top 64 in the nation.
SFCC will also compete in an Overwatch 2 five-versus-five game mode. The Overwatch 2 team consists of Trenton Hardy, Doug Tallon, Tyrus Ready, Jemyle Thomas, Ashton Gerhart, and Austin Hays, who will begin play Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. The 29th seeded SFCC Overwatch 2 team is currently in the top 32 in the nation.
Isabelle Ballard and Webster Brown will compete in Mario Kart. The matches for Mario Kart start Nov. 30.
SFCC will also compete in Rocket League with Wesley Albin, Jemyle Thomas, and Diego Flores-Elizalde. Rocket Leage is a three-versus-three game. The team is seeded fourth in the nation and the playoffs will start on Friday, Dec. 1. SFCC earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
The final game title SFCC will compete in is Rainbow Six Siege. This is the same game that they won the National Championship in last spring. This semester the team went 10-0 during the regular season with a 95 percent game win percentage. SFCC has only lost one map during the entire season, earning them the top seed in the nation. The team consists of Drake Miller, Trenton Toler, Skylar Perry, Jacob Tylar, Matthew Kreisler, and Dakota Taylor. The team will begin play on Friday, Dec. 1.
SFCC esports Coach Jake Coleman likes the direction in which his program is headed.
"I think we are starting to see all of our hard work pay off," said Coleman. "We only had one individual player not qualify for the playoffs this season. There are hundreds of players and many teams playing from across the nation, so it is difficult to make the playoffs. I have been blessed with very skilled and talented players at SFCC. We have really good equipment and a nice facility that our institution has provided us with. Our players have put a lot of time and effort into practice and being coachable, when you put those things together, you get pretty good results."
David Rohrbach
SFCC Athletics