Columbia, MD – In a stunning upset, the Howard Community College League of Legends Maroon Team swept the #1 seed Newberry College Wolves to claim the first ever New England Collegiate Conference Challengers Division championship in a 3-0 sweep.
 
Newberry College came into the match as heavy favorites with an undefeated 7-0 regular season record including a 2-0 sweep over the Howard CC Maroon Team back on October 1. In fact, the Wolves had not even lost a single round all season as they were seeking perfection after winning their semi-final match against the Howard CC Gold Team 2-0.
 
The Dragons got out to a fantastic start in game one as Minh Dang (Laurel, MD/Laurel) picked up three early knockouts in the bottom lane to put Howard in a great spot to begin the match. Newberry was able to even it things out as jungler AngryPickle turned the tide with a few big team battle victories. With the game in the balance, a great team battle initiated by support Daniel Finke (Laurel, MD/DeMatha) knocked out the star of the Wolves and won a decisive victory in the river. The Dragons hunted down AngryPickle again a minute later and turned it into a full team push in the middle that gave Dang a triple kill to get even more fed. One more big battle in the river saw Alex Petrusan (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) take out two then teleport into the Newberry base and take out the last three to close out the game to give Howard a 1-0 lead.
 
As game two started, the bottom lane once again favored Howard CC as a couple early knockouts by Dang and Finke got the Dragons ahead. As Newberry attempted to attack the bottom lane pair, Petrusan teleported into the action and picked up a triple kill to get a huge early lead for Howard. As the Dragons continued to push their lead, a battle in the Newberry jungle was dominated by the Dragons with Abiola Monk (Ellicott City, MD/Wilde Lake) picking up a massive quadra-kill which led to Howard CC clearing out the Newberry base and winning game two.
 
Game three was highlighted by an incredible start by Duy Phuong Nguyen (Kurland, Norway/Mailand videregående Skole) as the roaming jungler who was always in the right place at the right time helping to control all three lanes. An attack mid looked to go against Howard CC, but an incredible long range arrow by Dang knocked out the star player of Newberry. Back to back big battles in the river saw Monk get double kills in both fights to give Howard the clear advantage. With all the momentum going the way of the Dragons, a final attack demolished the Newberry College team and cleared the way for Howard CC to take the game, match, and championship.