MAAC 2023 Playoff Preview: Five titles and five champions to be crowned

It is time for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Esports Championships! From March 8-11, ten MAAC schools will travel to the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City to compete in five different titles. The MAAC 2023 Playoffs are just hours away.

At the MAAC 2023, five championship teams will be crowned. Four of them will punch their ticket for the Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup in Arlington, Texas in early May. With all five games going at once during the LAN it is going to be an action packed and thrilling weekend of esports in Atlantic City.

The five titles to feature at the MAAC Esports Championships Playoff:

After the Fall and Spring seasons have ended, many schools will be looking to add their first MAAC Esports Championship to their resume, while others look to add another to their trophy case. For the Rocket League and VALORANT players this has been a long time coming, having a whole semester to prepare for the finale to their season.

Keep your eye out for some of the matches, including the Grand Finals for all titles, on the official stream throughout the weekend. Let's take a look at the playoff brackets for the 2023 MAAC Esports Championships:

With VALORANT being the newest game addition this year, the MAAC is looking to crown the first VALORANT Champion this week. #1 Marist College looks to continue their dominance in the MAAC and add their 8th MAAC Esports Championship across multiple titles.

The team is coming off an undefeated season in the Fall only dropping one map to Quinnipiac. Also, #2 Quinnipiac should not be counted out with their only loss in maps were to Marist during the regular season.

These teams have taken the Spring semester to get better and prepare for this LAN. Who will walk out of Atlantic City with the first MAAC VALORANT Championship trophy?

#1 Fairfield and #2 Iona are looking for a runback of last year's championship. Fairfield has secured runner-up two years in a row and are looking for redemption coming in as the first seed this year after an undefeated regular season. Iona looks to repeat championships with only having one loss in the regular season to Fairfield. Don’t count the other schools out.

Many of them put up a good fight against these two top seeds taking some series to game five in the regular season. It has been a whole semester since these teams have competed against one another in an official MAAC match.

Will Fairfield pick up their first MAAC Rocket League Championship? Will Iona secure their second championship in a row? Or will an underdog take flight and surpass everyone and be crowned the 2023 MAAC Rocket League Champions?

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the only game that competed in both semesters. With 18 overall played games it has all come down to this weekend. #2 Siena look to seek revenge after a defeat in last year's championship match against #1 Quinnipiac and secure their 3rd MAAC Super Smash bros. Ultimate Championship.

Siena is the only team to take a series off of Quinnipiac this year in the Spring season. Quinnipiac (17-1) are looking to go back to back championships with wins this weekend. 

However, keep an eye out for other teams like #3 Manhattan and #4 Marist to make some noise throughout bracket play after having a positive regular season. Manhattan had an amazing second semester going (7-2) and are going into Atlantic City prepared and ready to cause some upsets.

With the change from online to in person play for the tournament anything is possible. Who do you see taking the title home?

With Overwatch 2 moving to a 5v5 format this year and graduations of some of last years MAAC athletes, we were bound to see some roster changes. After being in the grand finals last year, Marist and Iona started where they left off placing 2nd and 3rd in the regular season respectively.

Marist is looking for their fourth MAAC Overwatch title in a row with a championship run this weekend.

However, the team to watch out for the most is the undefeated Mount St. Mary’s squad who were able to beat Marist 3-1 in the last regular season match of the season on the official MAAC stream. The team is feeling confident as the player’s regular season MVP, Brady "Zerial" Klodaski, leads the charge for The Mount in the tank role.

Will Marist continue their dominance and get that fourth title? Will Mount St. Mary’s pick up their first ever title and finish off a perfect season? Or is an underdog ready to make a statement?

After falling in the championship last year, #1 Manhattan College came back this season with a path of vengeance. Currently undefeated, the Manhattan team is looking to secure their first MAAC Esports Championship title in school history.

On the other side of the bracket you have #2 Iona awaiting the winner of #3 Marist and #6 Rider. Last year's champions, Marist College, requires three series wins through the top teams to be crowned champions once again. Iona is feeling comfortable at the two seed after they had a strong 2-0 sweep against Marist in the regular season.

With a new patch released this week teams will need to adapt to the meta heading into LAN. This patch might cater to a team more than past patches and allow for some surprising upsets. Keep your eye out for some interesting drafts, some high kill games, and amazing gameplay this weekend in Atlantic City.

Stay tuned on Esports.gg for more MAAC Esports news and updates.