League of Legends news » Maryville University is your 2017 College Champion

Maryville called themselves the dynasty killers and now it will get a chance to build a college dynasty of its own.

Maryville became the 2017 League of Legends College Champions, beating University of Toronto, 3-1 at NA LCS Arena. It was the finishing touches on an impressive season.

After winning the Campus Series North Region, Maryville became the first team not from the west to win a League college title. Maryville which is located in St. Louis suburb Town and Country, Mo., knocked off two-time defending college champions, University of British Columbia in the quarterfinals and its regional rival, repeat finalists Robert Morris in the semifinals.

“Back at Maryville, I hope that everyone’s very proud of us and very happy,” Maryville top laner Tony “Saskio” Chau said. “Me, I’m feeling very tired but very ecstatic.”

It was an epic conclusion for the first 8-team college championship in the event’s 4-year history. Maryville accepted the college championship trophy while members of the USC Trojans Marching Band played Silver Scrapes as part of the award ceremony. Maryville’s roster included four sophomores and junior support John “Papa Chau” Le, so the varsity program - in their second year offering scholarships to play college League of Legends - could be in position to build its own dynasty.

“The coach on stage with us (Mathew “xSojin” Perez) just received his full ride for next year,” Maryville sophomore ADC Marko “Prototype” Sosnicki said. “The school has talked about making a larger practice facility with more computers, and potentially b-teams for us to have in-house scrims, so the school is fully supporting us, so don’t expect us to get any weaker next year.”

Maryville 3, Toronto 1

After dominating the early portion of the first three games and jumping to a 2-1 series lead, Maryville had no reason to slow down in game four.

Maryville sophomore jungler Cody “Walrus” Altman was active all over the map early and often. Four successful ganks in the first eight minutes set in motion an early Maryville lead, but Walrus saved his best moment for last. Three of his teammates had fallen as Toronto mounted a final defense, but Walrus shut down any thoughts of a comeback with a pentakill in the closing moments to earn the win and championship. Walrus finished with a 10/2/4 KDA in the fourth and final game.

“As we progressed, we started to learn their picks and bans,” Walrus said. “They liked Ivern because he’s super strong. After the first round, I was like, ‘No more.’ I’m going to be the king of the jungle today.”

Game one kicked off with Maryville pushing the pace, taking two towers in the first 10 minutes. Maryville held the gold lead for the first 30 minutes of the game and twice gave up Baron Nashor in exchange for a Toronto inhibitor. However, Toronto was able to get the better end of the team fights and finished with a 17 to 7 kills edge and the win.

“In Game 1, we didn’t follow the game plan that we had,” Saskio said. “They wanted me to focus on staying in the Shen lane, but we sent Twisted Fate there for some reason and we weren’t able to do anything. They sooner or later found team fights, and we just lost them because we were not supposed to team fight.”

Maryville took the early lead again in game two, but this time were able to close it out. Saskio scored a quadra kill 14 minutes in as Maryville took an 8k gold lead. Maryville took over 37 minutes before they could finish off the Nexus, but Toronto never threatened and ended the game without taking a turret.

Maryville continued their aggressive play in game three. Back-to-back double kills by sophomore mid laner Andrew “ckg” Smith and Walrus across the map built another strong lead pre-12 minutes. Maryville was then able to draw Toronto away from their base to Baron Nashor and give enough time for Saskio’s Kled to dance around Toronto freshman top laner Alvin “Gaow Gaiy” Ngo’s Shen and destroy the Nexus.

Maryville ended the series with a 36-12 edge in turrets destroyed.

We talked to them today before the games, just chilling with them,” Toronto support Juan “JayJ” Guibert said. Today they just played better than we played.”

Prototype finished with a combined 14/10/20 KDA.