Esports' Overwatch 2 Earns Second Place at Corn Belt Clash in Illinois

(Bloomington, IL)-- The Cleary Cougar esports Overwatch 2 team has brought back some hardware from this past weekend's Corn Belt Clash, hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University.

The Cougars struggled in the early morning group stage, finishing 1-2, and earned the 6 seed out of 8 teams heading into the double-elimination bracket play.  

In the first round, Cleary would take down #3 seed Ball State, beating the Cardinals 2-1.  In round two, the Cougars took down the Illinois State Academy team in a rematch from the morning's group stage.  This time the Cougars would get the better of ISU's Academy team, and won 2-1 to advance to the winner's bracket finals against the #1 seed and #1 ranked nationally Illinois State Varsity team.  ISU would hand Cleary a 2-0 series defeat, and Cleary would return to the consoloation bracket to look to extend their tournament.  In the consolation bracket, the Cougars faced off against the ISU Academy team for the third time in the tournament, and Cleary would once again earn the victory, beating the ISU Academy 3-1 to qualify for the Grand Finals against Illinois State's Varsity.  The Redbirds would prove to be too much for the Cougars, and won the Grand Finals 3-0, and Cleary would finish in second place for the tournament.

Cleary head coach Nathan Benton was very positive after the tournament, saying, "Our goal for this event was to finish second place behind ISU Redbirds, and see how we match up against the best of the best, and ultimately we were able to accomplish that...Illinois Wesleyan (5th/6th place), Ball State University (4th place), and ISU Academy (3rd place) are all teams that will likely be competing for a top 32 collegiate finish this semester, so to match up with, and beat them head to head at our first in-person tournament is very exciting."