The Call of Duty esports team wrapped up their regular season in second place of the western-central division of NACE Starleague; now, the hunt for a national championship begins. St. Edward’s faced off in the quarter-finals against Purdue University Northwest this past Wednesday.

St. Edward’s won the match 3-0 and advanced to the semifinals of the playoffs. They will face off against the only team they lost a game to in their regular season: Oklahoma Christian University. Their semifinals match is set for this upcoming Saturday at 4 p.m.

The first match, playstyle Hardpoint on map Breenbergh Hotel, began with a shaky start. Purdue took a quick lead, going up 20-0 against the Hilltoppers. The two teams then went back and forth stealing the designated area, with both teams only gaining up to 20 points before the lead changed again. Purdue had their final lead against St. Edward’s at 80-64. Team captain Johnny “Vanity” Albano then held ground to extend St. Edward’s lead to 99-91. The Hilltoppers continued to hold the designated area to stretch their points up to 145-100. After some back and forth between teams, SEU players Mauricio “Thresh” Pallares and Lucas “Ballah” Muccio were able to use killstreaks, which resulted in one kill for Ballah. The final score had the Hilltoppers up one: 250-199.

The next playstyle, Search and Destroy, has teams switch sides against defending or attacking two bombs on the map while having zero respawns. The first team to win six rounds wins the overall match. Played on map Embassy, St. Edward’s won the first four rounds without a hitch. They then lost the next two rounds after running out of lives. For the seventh round, Thresh was the last player on the map for St. Edward’s and pulled off the win. In the next round, however, Purdue defused the bombs, getting an automatic win. In the final round, Ballah finished off all enemy lives, having St. Edward’s win the match 6-3.  

Control, the final playstyle, gives each team 30 team respawns, with two zones to either capture or defend. For the first round, St. Edward’s captured both zones on map Breenbergh Hotel, winning the round. David “Eons” Sauseda had a five killstreak in the second round, assisting the team to another round win. Vanity’s killstreak came in the final round which the Hilltoppers won after depleting all enemy lives.

Stay up to date with the Call of Duty team on their social media, catch the streams for their games on their twitch and check out Hilltop Views’ Instagram reel for an insight on the players of the team.