NECC Valorant Navigators Nationals Grand Championship
Congratulations to our CSUDH Crimson Valorant team for winning the 2023 NECC National Championship in the Navigators Division!
Let’s explore how we got here:
The NECC is broken down into 2 regional seasons, one in Fall and another in Spring. These regional championships earn Nationals points. Points are used to determine who will qualify to compete in a National Championship. We are extremely proud of our CSUDH Crimson Valorant team. The team has a 50/50 male-to-female ratio and went through some roster adjustments between Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. As a result, they also lost some National points, but persevered in an uphill battle.
The Crimson team went through what can only be described as a redemption arc. In Fall 2022, the team managed to make the regional playoffs, but fell short in the 1st round. All their acquired points were also reduced with the roster changes for the Spring 2023 season. They didn’t let that slow them down though. They went 8W – 1L in the regular season, placing 2nd in their group. In the Spring Regional Championship, Crimson easily secured victories in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals, going 2-0 against UBC and UNK. In the Finals, Crimson faced off against Concordia Nebraska in what became an absolute nailbiter best-of-5 series. Gut wrenchingly, our Toros fell short 2-3, with the final map going into double overtime. There was a silver lining…… Crimson now had enough points to qualify for Nationals as the 3rd overall seed.
The NECC National Championship playoffs began on Sunday, June 11th, where CSUDH Crimson faced a 3-day gauntlet. First, they went against COE in the Quarterfinals and won the best-of-3 series with a convincing 2-0. Next was the Semifinals, where we played UMT. This series was not an easy landslide, but CSUDH Crimson took the win, going 2-1 in the series. In the Finals, Crimson faced ERAU in a best-of-5 match. In what felt like an instant, Crimson won the first map on Split with a score of 13-6. However, as both teams settled into the series, the second map on Ascent was much harder fought. CSUDH narrowly pulled ahead with a score of 13-11. ERAU was now on the verge of elimination. The final round was played on Pearl, one of Crimson’s strongest maps. The score reflected such, with a 13-4 win, cementing CSUDH Crimson as the 2023 NECC National Champion! Throughout the entire season, Crimson won 24 out of 30 games played.
Crimson worked incredibly hard this season and earned a well-deserved victory. We would like to give a shout-out to the players of Crimson: DH dan, DH ash, DH Sora, DH dwnty, and DH Clam. Also, a shout-out to the subs of the season, DH clos and DH Ender. Finally, a shoutout to their coach, DH Kuma. Kuma is a fellow student with a regional championship win of his own from year’s past. This victory is a capstone to the end of an amazing season for all our teams!
These matches and VOD replays have all been broadcasted and uploaded on our Twitch channel and are 100% produced by students at CSUDH.