The Long County Blue Tide esports teams are having a very successful second season. On Wednesday, November 30, the Wave Racers Rocket League team and Splash Smash Super Smash team played in the first round of the state playoffs with the former falling and the latter advancing.

The Wave Racers, ranked No. 16, matched up with the No. 17 Monroe Area High School. It was a close match that went back and forth until the final game of the set.

Monroe Area, aka Finessables, took an early 1-0 lead in the match with a 3-2 win in the first game. After going down 2-0 in the first 1:17, Kaleb Driver and John Duritan pulled the Racers back into the game before falling on a late goal.

The Racers took an early lead in the second game with Driver and Duritan scoring in the first 2:00 as they won the game 2-1 and evened the set.

Finessables took back the set lead with a 4-1 win in the third game before the Racers won Game 4 with two goals by Driver and a goal by Brendan Mosley.

Driver’s second goal of Game 4 was the Racers’ last as they were shut out in Games 5 and 6, 4-0 and 3-0 as they lost the set 4-2 to end their season at 6-3.

It was a much more successful day for the third-ranked Splash Smash as they took on Stilwell in their first-round matchup. Jimmy Barreto was up first and he had his best game of the season.

He started off with his first three-stock of the season, using his Isabelle main and taking only 97 damage on his first stock against his opponent’s Pyra/Mythra.

Barreto lost a stock in the second game of the set, but only took 17 damage on his second stock before taking all three of his opponent’s lives to win the game 2-0 and the set two games to none.

Patrick McClennon was up second and took on a Kazuya main with his Mario main. He took 142 damage on his first stock but took two of his opponent’s before losing one of his.

He won the game 2-0, but his opponent changed to Terry for the next game. It was a much closer fight as McClennon fell 1-0 to move to a decisive third game.

Stilwell took an early lead in the third game as he was up 2-1 with just 18 damage on his second stock. McClennon was able to use some off stage spikes and even the match at 1-1 with no damage as he eventually took the set win 1-0.

Splash Smash moves to 8-1 on the year and more importantly picks up their first playoff win. They will face off against Putnam County on Friday, December 2, in the Sweet Sixteen.