By Ross Brown
CCC Journalism Program
CHERRY HILL – The Camden County College esports team lost to James Madison University in Rainbow Six Siege on Nov. 21 in the semifinals of the Playfly league. The loss ended the CCC team’s season.
Rainbow Six Siege is an online first-person tactical shooter video game that relies heavily on teamwork and communication with teammates. Each match has one team defending the objective and the other team playing offense, trying to diffuse it or eliminate all other opposing players within the time limit. The teams switch from attacking and defending every six matches. The first team to win seven matches wins the round. The first team to win two rounds wins the competition.
Despite the first round’s map lineup favoring CCC, the team lost to JMU, 3-7. Nonetheless, a notable play early came from EJ Dangler, 19, “Sinister E”. In the map Club House, JMU got CCC down to the last player, Dangler, and he managed to eliminate the last two players of JMU, giving the match win to CCC.
“I mean my map one was amazing, so I can’t complain about that,” Dangler said after the game.
CCC Coach Brandon Wade acknowledged Dangler’s extraordinary play on Club House, saying, “I think he definitely showed out, you know. He’s listed as a support flex for us. He dropped 15 kills, so it was really nice to see him pick it up today.”
EJ is a sophomore studying criminal justice.
In the second round, CCC lost to JMU in a blowout, 2-7. To everyone’s surprise, JMU started to make crude remarks toward CCC, which displeased teammates such as Evan Bartram, 20, “Shmevs”.
“They said ‘good scrim’ to us after the match, which, I mean it was an official playoff match, that’s extremely rude. They would just kind of have these little remarks that were super snarky, super out of line throughout the entire game, completely unprofessional,” Bartram commented. He said the remarks prevented him from having fun in the game.
Bartram is a freshman studying cybersecurity.
Wade said he was not amused by JMU’s remarks either but commented, “So no hard feelings to James Madison. You know, James Madison University in and of itself is a really good school but their players were a little bit rude, a little bit toxic, a little bit of disrespect came through, you know not nice things that are supposed to be said when you’re playing in a league competitively. I think we really did play our hearts out and they just didn’t respect us at all.
JMU could not be reached for comment.
Wade reflected on how well his team did this season and said the new members had a good first season. “Them being able to adapt and overcome their adversity was really nice and they will definitely fit well into the team,” Wade stated, noting he has high hopes for his team and for next season.