STORM LAKE, Iowa - The Buena Vista University Valorant squad fell in NECC Navigators Nationals 2-1 (13-10, 5-13, 13-9) against Indiana Wesleyan on Sunday evening. The Beavers went 1-1 in National play finishing in the top four for the first time in school history. 

The two teams opened up on the map Lotus. The Beavers played defense first and opened up a 8-4 lead. From there it was all IWU ending winning nine of the last 11 round claiming the opening map 13-10. Kryptic led the way for IWU with a dominating 32 kill map. Harlie Ferguson led the way for the Beavers with 22. 

The second map of the evening was Split. After getting down 3-1 the Beavers dominated the rest of the way winning 12 of the final 14 rounds winning 13-5 pushing the contest to a third and deciding map. Ferguson and Jackson Trotman led the way with 24 and 19 total kills.  

The final map was Icebox and the two teams played extremely close until middle of the round when IWU opened pu a 8-5 advantage. IWU continued to push their lead and ended up winning 13-9 to move into the finals. 

That wraps up our 2023-2024 Esports competition. Lots of growth throughout the year and can't wait for September.