Molloy Edges out Farmingdale 2-0 in a Tightly Contested ECAC 4v4 Crew Battle

ECAC Collegiate 4v4 Crews may be an online league, but when the Molloy University Lions and Farmingdale State College Rams were slated to face each other in the final match of the Division A regular season, there was only one option: to play the match offline. Molloy and Farmingdale were no strangers to each other, as 3 years prior in a collegiate offline league (named the CESL Long Island Fall 2022), the two teams faced off numerous times with different teams. Both colleges had A teams and B teams with highly contested matches, including Farmingdale’s A team (featuring players like SoulArts, Deaft, and Petrikov) defeating Molloy’s A team (featuring players like 2thiccnicc [now Torna], GutBustr, and [REDACTED]) in the final match to lift the trophy. Familiar faces were also present in both school’s B teams, with Empirony (Farmingdale) and supermario (Molloy) having numerous close face-offs. Yesterday on November 13, 2025, at Farmingdale’s esports facility, the rematch finally happened.

Personnel were different for both sides this time around, but the familiarity was clear. Farmingdale’s Varsity lineup for the game consisted of well-known LI talent: Louie (Mii Brawler), Thomas (Cloud), NikShadow (Little Mac), and VB3 (Pac-Man). Wildogz (Palutena) is also on the stacked roster, but unfortunately could not make this match, which perhaps made a difference. Molloy brought along 5 players, with 2 of them being unknowns in the LI space: Fenris (Kazuya) and Knightunio (King Dedede). Nonetheless however, LI’s premier veterans Torna (Sephiroth) and yufine (Pac-Man) topped off a lineup complemented by supermario, LI’s co-residential ZSS who is no stranger to tournaments.

In a 4v4 format there are a ton of mental factors and the crew battle environment forces players to play differently and take matchups in a lot of interesting ways. In Game 1, Molloy led with a strong foot in Torna, while Farmingdale led with their own strong foot in Louie. A very close game that Louie nearly took with an F-smash on the ledge, but Torna played around Brawler’s raw power really well and took the game 1-0. Farmingdale brought in NikShadow, where Torna was able to take advantage of the favorable matchup (Sephiroth vs. Little Mac) and took 2 more stocks. Molloy then brought in their unknown wildcard- Fenris the Kazuya, who put in an absolute shift: taking NikShadow’s final stock without losing any, and edging out VB3 in a janky bout decided by hydrant shenanigans. Molloy now had a 7-3 lead. Farmingdale brought out Thomas, who was tasked with a great comeback. After Fenris was out, Molloy sent in supermario, and despite essentially being down the entire game, managed to just be scrappy and evasive enough to make a close 1 stock game, taking 2 stocks off Thomas to set up Yufine for a smooth finish. 1-0 Molloy.  

It was not broken so it was not fixed, Molloy led with Torna again. He went on a tear-beating VB3 with 1 stock remaining and taking 2 stocks off Louie before succumbing. Molloy entrusted supermario to edge out stocks, and so he did, finishing off Louie and taking two stocks off of NikShadow. Fenris was sent in again, taking care of NikShadow, but not before losing 1 of his own stocks. Thomas was again the last resort and kept up the positive momentum by cleaning up Fenris and setting up an even 3 stock showdown with yufine. It was 3 stocks to 3.

Thomas, being quite experienced with the Pac-Man matchup, played excellently. Using disjoints really well and never letting yufine truly get going, the game was tight the entire time. Yufine pulled away with a slight lead on the final stock, and despite Thomas’s solid survivability, managed to end the game with an ice cold Z-drop apple to give Molloy the 2-0 victory. From the win, Molloy has moved all the way up to 6th seed in the entire Division A but still are behind Farmingdale (2nd seed) in the standings due to an inferior stock difference (54 to Farmingdale’s 78). However, the win is a huge morale boost for Molloy going into the Division A playoffs.

Farmingdale’s Twitch Stream viewers were treated to a “thug finals” featuring SoulArts and Torna. Vibes and gameplay were great throughout the night. Offline crews are one of the best things about smash, and this one absolutely did not disappoint. It’s highly recommended to check out the full footage from the Twitch Vod, because there was some fascinating and high quality smash being played from both sides. Undoubtedly, there is a chance that Molloy and Farmingdale can face once again in the Division A playoffs. If that happens again, it shall be played offline again, and maybe even at a venue that spectators can come watch live… (?)