The teams faced each other three times throughout October, with the Tigers winning two of the matchups.
Long missed on the football field and rekindled on the basketball court in 2022, the Missouri-Kansas rivalry is stronger than ever in esports, with recent matchups spicing up the “Border Showdown.”
The Tigers faced the Jayhawks in three different games throughout October: Valorant, Overwatch 2 and League of Legends. The latter was Missouri’s only loss, with the former two being dominant sweeps. All matches were played in the NACE Starleague, a collegiate esports competition organized by the National Association of Collegiate Esports.
Missouri’s Premier Valorant team is currently among the top 20 teams in the country. The Tigers won the series 2-0 with scores of 13-6 and 13-8 respectively. The game took place one month after Kansas eliminated Missouri from Red Bull Campus Clutch, a worldwide collegiate Valorant tournament sponsored by Red Bull.
“The boys wanted some revenge, and they knew we were playing [Kansas] in NACE on Oct. 4,” said Blake Kronsbein, General Manager for Mizzou Esports. “And we beat them very easily. We know that we’re a better team, and we kind of wanted to show that dominance.”
Both teams advanced to the league’s second phase, which includes teams from across the nation, but were knocked out before reaching the playoffs. Missouri put up a close fight against No. 7 Fisher College, but ended up losing 2-0.
In Overwatch, Missouri and Kansas faced each other on Oct. 10, and the Tigers walked out with a 3-1 victory. Missouri advanced to the next phase, but was eliminated in the playoffs by No. 14 University of Texas at Dallas. Akin to Valorant, it was a close matchup against a fairly superior team, but the Tigers ended up losing the series 3-2. Meanwhile, Kansas was eliminated in the group stage with a final record of 1-5.
“For our Overwatch team, we got three new players this semester,” Kronsbein said. “[Missouri’s Overwatch team] is not as nationally recognized as our Valorant team, but we’re still very strong, and we were able to put up a very strong performance against KU.”
Missouri and Kansas’s final matchup of the month came on Oct. 29 in League of Legends. Despite being a better team on paper, the Tigers were defeated 2-0. However, Missouri had a better season overall, finishing in the top half of the conference while Kansas finished seventh with a final record of 2-5. Neither team made it to the playoffs, however. NACE’s League of Legends championship is smaller in comparison to the others, as only the top two teams in each conference advance. In Missouri’s group, those two were Harrisburg University and Converse University.
With the collegiate esports ecosystem attracting more attention from big colleges, NACE has made efforts to place more D1 schools against each other, rather than holding regional matchups. That’s why Missouri is now facing the likes of Kansas, Ole Miss and Old Dominion.
“Previously in esports competitions, you played against any college that was in your region,” Kronsbein said. “It didn’t matter if you were a small private [institution], if you were D1, D2, D3. Typically, the small private institutions are the ones that do really well. But NACE started the first D1 conference. So now, we play all the D1s that are NACE schools, and KU happens to be one of those schools.”
Missouri and Kansas also host the “Border Clash,” an annual event that puts the two face to face in five different games: Valorant, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, Rocket League and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The event debuted last semester, and the Tigers won all the matches except for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, finishing 4-1.
A second edition of the event is expected to take place next spring. According to Kronsbein, Kansas’s players will come to Columbia to compete in person. Kronsbein said there will be a live audience present at the Mizzou Gaming Lounge to watch the games and meet other people interested in esports.
Edited by Quentin Corpuel | qcorpuel@themaneater.com
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