NEW HAVEN, Conn (April 10, 2026) -- Goldey-Beacom College repeated as the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference champion in Marvel Rivals during the Spring 2026 Esports season. The Lightning had also won the Fall 2025 crown in Marvel Rivals, but to claim its second consecutive championship, GBC needed the full seven maps to get past Holy Family University on Apr. 3.

Goldey-Beacom vs Holy Family is always a nailbiter when one is watching live. A lot of this match up is very strategic in terms of team compositions, the newly updated pick & ban system and map selections. Goldey-Beacom has always done a great job of having very solid team compositions and a bunch of back up plans to deal with target bans from the opponents. What Goldey-Beacom did not expect was Holy Family’s newly constructed triple tank team composition and well thought out pick-and-ban phase.

“I believe the sheer depth of characters available to the side of Goldey-Beacom was the difference maker in a seven-game thriller like this,” said Goldey-Beacom coach David “miztik” Lawrie. “The ability to make adjustments and always have a back-up plan for the target bans was a huge help in our success. The determination and resilience of the players to bounce back from being behind three times in a row in a best-of-7 is also extremely impressive, something required to win in a series like this against a very talented Holy Family team.”

 

Map 1 saw Holy Family get off to a flying start playing Convergence on Wakanda. Goldey-Beacom made the colossal mistake of not banning Splitfollower9’s Daredevil on the side of Holy Family. He made the Lightning pay for that mistake with a dominant performance giving him a 40 kill game with 28 final hits.

Map 2 first showed the theme of this series - Goldey-Beacom’s ability to bounce back and be resilient. Goldey-Beacom, running a 2-1-3 composition with a newly added Moon Knight pick at the helm, caused havoc to help get them back in the series. Hatch (YHP2FB)’s Moon Knight dealing 28k damage proved to be too much for Holy Family’s 3-1-2 team composition.

Map 3 was Domination on Hydra. In the regular season match up between these two powerhouses, Goldey-Beacom won both Domination maps. Holy Family managed to break this streak taking Map 3 with a Moon Knight pick of their own and an incredible performance from ieatcheetos with 40 kills, 20 final hits and 32k damage.

Map 4 was Domination on Wakanda and Goldey-Beacom made another massive adjustment moving BirdWick onto support with his high level Ultron. This change let Goldey-Beacom keep up high while also boosting up the healing numbers. The damage between BulletNBible’s “The Thing”, Hatch’s “Hela” and BirdWick’s “Ultron” proved to be too much for Holy Family’s triple tank setup.

Map 5 was a pick Goldey-Beacom was anticipating with Holy Family bringing out Convoy on Museum of Contemplation. The previous match on this map was the most one-sided match in the history of these two teams in favor of Holy Family. Goldey-Beacom was able to make progress this time running a 2-1-3 with “Moon Knight” for the narrow hallways. Even though progress was made Holy Family continued to be dominant on this map. The triple tank 3-1-2 setup on this map was thriving and a stand out performance from Joshjay18 on “Magneto” pushed them onto match point.

Map 6 was Domination on Yggsgard, this pick brought in a bit of controversy because the map is not in the competitive map pool in-game, but it states in the CACC rulebook that any map is available. Goldey-Beacom made the necessary adjustments and came out strong. BirdWick yet again moved over to healer with “Ultron” and Hatch (YHP2FB) locked in “Hela” as the main damage dealer. Hatch’s individual ability was on full display in this match with 67 percent accuracy on Hela. He had 21 kills, 11 final hits and 17k damage.

Map 7 was Convoy on Yggsgard, a map both teams are very comfortable with. With one final map both teams put their preparation and all adjustments from the previous 6 maps into this one last battle. “Deadpool” (tank) and “Star Lord” were the saves from Holy Family and “Cloak & Dagger” and “Ultron” were the saves from Goldey-Beacom. Holy Family ran a 2-2-2 composition with Joshjay18 playing “Magneto” and 1x.asim playing “Deadpool"; these were two picks that worked extremely well on the side of Holy Family. Goldey-Beacom ran a 2-1-3 team composition with 6 out of 6 players getting their comfort picks. Hatch (YHP2FB) on “Hela” was massive in this match, his individual skill was on display for a second map in a row with another 67% accuracy game on “Hela”. BulletNBible on “Deadpool” was also a problem, he managed 33 kills, 13 final hits and 18k damage. Goldey-Beacom took map 7 with conviction; everything lined up in the Lighting’s favor and they executed perfectly.