Cherry Creek captures championship in first esports pilot season
Cherry Creek won the League of Legends championship during the initial pilot season for esports on Saturday night at LocalHost Arena in Lakewood.
It is the first-ever esports championship in Colorado during this pilot program which is being run by PlayVs. The fall sports season crowed a champion in League of Legends. The spring season, which begins next month, will compete in Rocket League.
The Bruins, who finished the season undefeated at 21-0, beat Gateway in the finals, 2-0. Cherry Creek won the first match with seven towers to Gateway’s none and a 27-9 advantage in eliminations.
The second game was much closer, with Gateway (20-1 overall) holding a narrow advantage right up until Cherry Creek broke through at the end. Cherry Creek held a narrow 329-315 gold per minute advantage, and took eight towers compared to Gateway’s three. Gateway led in eliminations, 26-20, and in dragons, 4-2.
Cherry Creek was led by Vlad Dolzhenko, who dealt 56,327 damage and had a 13-4 kill/death ratio, and 28 assists. Mergen Enhbold had 44,671 damage and a KDA line of 15/7/19. Matthew Collins had 38,320 damage and went 7/9/23.
Gateway was led by Kevin Tran in the finals, with 45,050 damage and a 9/11/18 KDA line. Sungwoon Kim (42,270, 11/8/13) and Leonid Chyzhykov (39,623, 8/10/14) also had great matches.
A total of 56 teams competed in League of Legends during the fall season, and 16 qualified for the playoffs. Four of those advanced to Saturday’s in person Final 4 at the largest esports arena in the state: Bear Creek, Cherry Creek, Gateway and Highlands Ranch.
The Bruins beat Highlands Ranch in the semifinals, 2-0. They captured 18 towers and nine dragons to Highlands Ranch’s one tower and no dragons. They also led in eliminations, 58-30.
Cherry Creek was again led by Dolzhenko, who dealt 37,554 damage and had a 19-4 kill/death ratio, along with 21 assists. Enhbold (36,528 damage, 16/7/17 KDA), Collins (32,617 damage, 11/5/24) and Avery Lovell (24,406, 10/4/8) also had a great match.
Robin Luo led Highlands Ranch with 43,344 damage and a 18-14 kill/death ratio.
Gateway swept Bear Creek in the semifinals with an impressive performance that saw them hold big advantages in eliminations (50-12), towers (17-0), dragons (7-0) and gold per minute (2,000-1,000).
Chyzhykov paced Gateway with a jaw-dropping 18/2/11 KDA line, and 32,110 damage. Kevin Tran (27,709 damage, 14/4/11 KDA) and Kim (21,197, 10/2/11) also stood out.
Bear Creek’s Austin Yee (13,238 damage) and Christopher Nguyen (12,780) led their team.
Schools looking to create an esports program should visit the esports page for more information, or PlayVs.com.
