AKRON, Ohio – For the second year in a row, the University of Akron’s video gaming team won the Collegiate Rocket League 2019 National Championship.

Three esports team members – Isaac “Reticence” Stecker, Buzz “Buzz” Krager and Tristan “.Tristn” Roberts – each brought home $15,000 and first-place medals from the Nov. 9 competition at the University of North Texas’ Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Akron’s experience at the national tournament was documented by esports TV show, “ELEAGUE,” and will be shown on TBS at 11 p.m. on Dec. 6.

Rocket League is a vehicular soccer game in which three players control rocket-powered cars to hit a ball into an opponent’s goal to score points. Nearly 80,000 people watched the championships live on streaming site Twitch, in addition to the audience of about 2,000 in Arlington.

University of Akron esports team members Tristan ".Tristn" Roberts, left, Buzz "Buzz" Krager, center, and Isaac "Reticence" Stecker, right, pose with their 2019 Rocket League championship medals.

Stecker, Krager and Roberts started off the quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory over the University of Arizona. The Zips then faced off against the University of North Texas.

Akron won over UNT, 4-2, but that wasn’t the Zips’ last match against the Mean Green. UNT defeated Arizona in the losers’ bracket and returned to face Akron in the finals with a hometown advantage.

In the end, UA won the championship with a 5-0 victory against UNT.

Michael Fay, director and head coach of UA esports, said the team won in a best-of-nine match, the longest best-of series ever held in competitive Rocket League.

“These are results that could only happen when the tremendous hard work of these players is met with equally tremendous support from UA and its campus community,” Fay said. “The players and I are extremely grateful for that.”

Buzz Krager said he is proud to be part of the undefeated championship team.

“We’re a solid, well-rounded team, and there’s no other collegiate Rocket League team you can say that has all three players that you know that are solid and can compete at the top level,” Krager said.

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