The Valleyfield College Rocket League team came 8th place in CRL Eastern League Play, taking home $2.5k and an in-game title. The chance of making top 4 in the 56 team Worlds Last Chance Qualifier was unlikely. Against all odds, Valleyfield proved everyone wrong and had one of the best lower bracket runs in CRL History, earning them a spot at the inaugural Collegiate Rocket League World Championship.
The lower bracket run of the century
After a rocky start to the Spring 2022 CRL League Play season where they finished 8th, Valleyfield had one more shot to qualify for the CRL World Championship through the Last Chance Qualifier. Valleyfield started the LCQ with 2 sweeps until they lost to Missouri S&T in upper round 3, dropping them down to the low road.
No one believed that this team who was bested by Missouri would make it past 1 round in the losers. Ultimately, Valleyfield proved everyone wrong. They beat Ottawa in a 3 to 1 series and showed no signs of stopping. They then beat Florida, San Diego State, and even nearly swept North Texas! After Valleyfield beat North Texas 4 to 1 in a best of 7 series, one match stood between them and qualification. Valleyfield swept Missouri in the lower bracket quarter final and punched their ticket to Worlds.
They continued on, beating Penn State, Oakland, and finally UCF to win the entire Last Chance Qualifier. There was something special about this team and their final results showed it.
A year together
The Valleyfield Rocket League team wasn’t always at the top of the CRL leaderboard. There are little to no existing esports programs at Valleyfield College. Broken attended Valleyfield first and invited his friends tokyo. and Vegas who already had on field chemistry together. Vegas and tokyo. decided to give CRL at Valleyfield a shot with Broken.
This move paid off. After the team finally got together at Valleyfield, they signed up for their first CRL season in Fall 2021. The chance of qualifying for League Play was slim, and Valleyfield certainly struggled. They whiffed Qualifier 1, and narrowly made it in through Qualifier 2.
The Fall season was tough, and Valleyfield finished in last place with a 2-9 record. This did not deter them, as Valleyfield made League Play again in Spring 2022.
Once again qualifying through the second qualifier rather than the first in CRL Fall 2022, Valleyfield had its start. Valleyfield wasn’t shy when it came to putting it all on the table and when they did for the first esport club at their school, they couldn’t have done better. They can now be considered one of the best Collegiate Rocket League teams in the nation.
Broken recently graduated from Valleyfield and will continue playing Rocket League at his new University. Vegas and tokyo. will continue studying at Valleyfield and hopefully continue their appearances in CRL.
Outlook
With teams coming from Europe and North America, Valleyfield is possibly going to struggle against these new teams throughout the world. We’ve heard numerous times about how Valleyfield should be written off as a college because of the sole aspect that they are new.
Against every negative outlook given, this team prevailed and did one of the nastiest runs in the Last Chance Qualifier to come first in a bracket with veteran teams.
“Just being at worlds is already an accomplishment,” said Vegas. “I’m just so hype to go.”
Follow the Action
Valleyfield College begins Worlds with a Group Stage Best-of-5 against Keele University. Watch it on the Rocket League Twitch on June 3 at 12 p.m. CT (5 p.m. UTC).
Match results and brackets will be posted on both the College Carball Twitter and the Rocket League Esports Twitter.
Check out the schedule so you don’t miss a beat!
