“13-0, 13-0.”

An ever-confident Dakota "Stunner" MacLeod of ENVY ENVY North America Rank #4 canezerra Alex Banyasz Eggsterr Inspire Hunter Schline P0PPIN Matteo Weber ion2x Ayan Rastogi seemed unfazed by Maryville University Maryville University North America Rank #17 chloric renz Austin Dickman Wildfire Tykhon Benderskyi Ange Adam Milian geeza Tanner McGhee ahead of the Red Bull Home Ground NA Qualifiers in Dallas, Texas. Both teams stand one match away from qualifying for Red Bull's Home Ground series, one of the OFF//SEASON's most prestigious events.

“We're pretty confident going into this event.” stated Stunner. “We [had] a lot of scrims going in for Challengers and then threw the match in for this tournament… We've been keeping our schedule pretty consistent for this stage, and it just ran over into this event and works out perfectly.”

Envy are currently guaranteed a top-three finish in North America's Stage 2 Challengers with a favorable matchup against Burger Boyz Burger Boyz North America Rank #10 practo Christopher Ryu Nanners Anderson Lutkehus RetrQ Alex Kadan alvinboy Alvin Hong Boni in their sights. In preparation, the team has opted for a run through the RBHG NA Qualifiers to stay in form and potentially earn themselves a ticket to an international stage.

“I think we'd be pretty confident attending the international event, playing some of the VCT teams. We have pretty good results against a lot of these teams year round. They're the only teams we do scrim for the most part, and we have pretty dominant results… It would just be a different environment, so we'd have to see how we handle it and work from there.”

After three years on the T1 T1 Korea Rank #4 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) DH Kang Dong-ho (강동호) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) coaching staff, Stunner's tier 2 debut has been successful for the most part. Despite a top-six finish in Stage 1 Challengers playoffs, Envy has bounced back and remained in form this Stage, solidifying themselves as a true contender for the crown.

“I moved around my roles a lot when I was on T1 depending on who the coach was. Autumn really had the leadership down when I was in Korea… I learned a lot from him. Now I'm taking that position he would take, adding on top of what I worked on previously, which was strategic background. I think I have a pretty good mesh now, a pretty good understanding of the game, and a pretty good understanding of how to lead the team in the right direction.”

Envy, however, was not the only team to enter this event with former tier 1 staff. Maryville's Matthew "mCe" Elmore is also no stranger to the top of the competition, and has had a profound impact on the students at Maryville.

“He brings a lot of experience, obviously.” spoke Austin "renz" Dickman. “He's a good leadership figure, he keeps us on track a lot of times when we're goofing off or whatever, but I'd say the biggest thing is that he has a lot of experience. He's [coached] like three tier 1 teams, used to be a player, so I think he can give us a lot of insight. We haven't necessarily had that experience that he's had, so he has that insight that we don't really have ourselves.”

Before the partnership between Riot and the teams that form the four leagues, mCe was most known for his time with The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch – now the core of G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf – and their run through Challengers. Following his departure from the team, he found a new home at Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #9 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago neT Michael Bernet OXY Francis Hoang and briefly led the team before picking up the reins at Maryville. Recently, he signed with Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #25 UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov Papi Federico Evangelista ban Joseph Seungmin Oh yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Deryeon Derrick Yee as an assistant coach, breaking back into the tier 1 scene.

His impact on Maryville has shown over the years. Throughout this year's academic calendar, he has won three of the collegiate scene's biggest events, with one more seemingly on the horizon in the form of the CVAL Championship. The hard work he and the players at Maryville have put in has paid off not just in the collegiate scene, but on their road to Challengers.

“When our team first formed, we played the qualifier for Challengers in Premier and made it, but it was a Stage 3 split thing… We did bad in that, so we had to re-qualify. Basically for the last six months, we've been trying to qualify. We've been so close so many times, but right at the finish line we get so close and choke. The hardest thing we've been going through is just trying to qualify for Challengers.”

Despite being competitors, renz and the rest of Maryville are also students. On top of scrims, leagues, tournaments, and more, the collegiate superstars also must balance exams, projects, and papers. However, the troupe have seemingly made it work, with lots of deep runs in tier 3 events, and even earning a spot on Dallas' stage for a chance at being the first collegiate team to make an international event.

“I've been playing FPS games for so long… that would be insane.” renz excitedly said. “For me to play on a big stage… wherever it's at… everyone on my team would be so hyped for that. That's obviously the goal here: destroy Envy and then go there.”

With the odds seemingly in Envy's favor and with Maryville entering the event with a sub, the outcome seems all but decided. However, the college's flex Duelist still had faith in his team ahead of the game, confident that their performance today had potential.

“13-0, 13-0.”

The winner of today's match will claim the NA Qualifier's ticket to Red Bull Home Ground's main event and will join a multitude of other top-tier teams to form one of the biggest OFF//SEASON events of the year.