Columbia, MD - A trio of conference championships and a national runner-up highlighted an incredible season for the Howard Community College esports program and head coach Mark Winkel. The three National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) championships makes it a record five conference championships for the Dragons; two more than any other school in a conference that has 151 schools as members. 

The Rocket League team continued their trend of domination, winning back-to-back NECC championships after claiming the title in the spring season. The addition of new team captain Ryan McCardle (/) boosted veterans Logan Ghandi (/) and Akaash Patel (/) to new heights in an amazing season. After finishing the regular season as the #1 seed in the Challengers Division, the Dragons won a tough five game series over King's College (3-2, 2-1, 1-3, 2-3, 3-2) in the quarterfinals before taking down Lebanon Valley in three games (3-1, 3-0, 4-2) in the semifinals. The championship match was a fantastic battle against Durham College, but Howard CC emerged victorious 4-2 in the best of seven series (3-1, 2-3, 4-2, 0-1. 5-4, 4-0.) The conference championship guarantees Howard a spot in the NECC national tournament that is set to take place in the spring season.

In the NJCAAe, Howard CC was able to advance out of the group stage with a 7-2 record and was given the #15 seed in the November madness national tournament. The 32 team tournament saw the Dragons defeat #18 seed Jackson College 3-2 in the first round before a huge 3-0 upset over #2 seed Johnston CC in the second round. The upsets continued in the Cinderella story run as a 3-1 victory over #7 seed Nassau in the quarterfinals was followed by a dramatic 3-2 win over #6 Wake Tech in the semifinals. In the national championship match, the Dragons lost the first two games of the best of seven series to #5 Northern Virginia CC, but clawed back to win games three and four to tie the series. Sadly for Howard, games five and six were both overtime thrillers that went in favor of the Nighthawks as the Dragons were forced to settle for the silver medal.

The Dragons Rocket League Team 2 also made the playoffs in the Navigators Division of the NECC, qualifying as the #4 seed and defeated Clark University in the quarterfinals (2-1, 3-2, 1-2, 2-1.) However, the #1 seed New England College proved too much in the semifinals as the Dragons fell to the eventual champions 3-2 (0-1, 4-0, 2-4, 3-1, 4-1). The squad led by captain Jeremy Hotchkiss (Columbia, MD/Long Reach) included Josh Leiva (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial), Kyle Sellman (/), Aaron Saudagar and Zaria Morrow.

The Howard CC Overwatch team completed their improbable season comeback to win their first NECC championship. After losing their first four matches of the season, the Dragons went on to win their next four in a row to get the #5 seed in the Emergents Division. They easily swept #4 Stephens College 3-0 in the quarterfinals then capped a huge upset over #1 seed Clark University in the semifinals. The amazing turnaround was completed with a dominating 4-0 sweep over #2 Marywood University in the championship match. The star team that included freshman captain Devin Dvorak (/) also included major contributions from Antonio Rossetti (/), Christopher Ikpefua, Jack Lincoln (/), Tinnoy Nguyen (), Paul Gaylon (Halethorpe, MD/Lansdowne), Abudllah Matar and fantastic guidance from assistant coach Jordan Matar (/). 

For the NJCAAe season, the Dragons finished the group stage 8-1 and went into the 16 team national tournament as the #6 seed. The Dragons defeated #11 Hudson Valley in the opening round, but ran into the buzzsaw known as Bryant & Stratton in the quarterfinals who swept Howard on their way to winning the national championship.

Howard CC entered two teams in the NECC League of Legends competition as the strong tradition in the program continued with Team 2 winning a conference championship in the Navigators Division. Going into the tournament as the #2 seed, the Dragons swept #7 Holy Cross 2-0 in the quarterfinals then fought past #6 Eastern Kentucky University 2-1 in the semifinals. The dramatic best of five championship series saw the undefeated #1 seed East Stroudsberg University win games one and two as the Dragons had their backs against the wall. However, the reverse sweep was exactly what the Dragons were able to achieve as comeback victories in games three, four and five secured the record fifth NECC championship for Howard Community College. Assistant coach Tinnoy Nguyen () finished his career with the Dragons helping to win two championships as a player (Fall 2020 League of Legends, Fall 2021 Overwatch) along with this one award as a coach. Madison Russell (/), Nicholas Roschli (/), and Sebastian Tseng (/) led the squad to victory with contributions also coming from a number of players on the roster.

The League of Legends team 1 went up against top competition in the Challengers division and was unable to qualify for the playoffs despite some great play from team captain Andrew Wells (Ellicott City, MD/Marriotts Ridge).

The esports program expanded this year to include Super Smash Bros Ultimate and had three very competitive players. Wyatt Cioffi displayed dominance for many of his matches, but at 5-4 was not able to qualify out of the group stage. Much of the same applies to Tyrone Boyd Jr., who finished third in his group at 7-2 but sadly did not make the cut for the national tournament. However the star of the show turned out to be Richard Machado, who came out of his group with a 9-0 record and was given the #11 seed in the big dance. He was in full control against the #54 seed from Eastern Arizona College and the #43 seed from Navarro College, sweeping both matches 3-0. In round three, he swept the #6 seed out of Harrisburg Area CC, but lost in the quarterfinals to the #14 seed in Centralia College 3-0 to end his fantastic first season.