On February 16th, I sat down with two members of the OU Esports “Marvel Rivals” B Team to discuss a recent comeback victory following a losing streak at the start of the Spring 2026 season. OU’s B Team squared off against Southern Nazarene University in a best-of-five matchup and came out on top with a flawless victory.
Manny “Lelouch” Rangel and Cappu “C4ppu” Pascual recounted their match with excitement and ran through the details surrounding their win. Their first round, on the map called Hell’s Heaven, was a particular highlight.
“We were running a dive comp that game,” Pascual said. “One of our players, Dayvon, was playing Magik, and he performed really well that time. We were able to hold point and get enormous picks.”
Rangel was a substitute in the first round but switched into the main lineup for the second and third rounds of the game. The second round, which took place on the Central Park map, held another victory for the team.
“We played our regular brawl comp,” Rangel said. “I was playing Winter Soldier, and our two tanks were Emma Frost and Groot. We did our triple support (comp), too.”
“I was playing Jeff after a long while of not being able to,” Pascual said. “I ended up getting a quad on the first point, and we were able to capture it very easily.”
The third round of the match was a similarly easy victory for B Team thanks in part to an excellent play by Rangel. He had been holding onto his ultimate ability for a long period but was able to utilize it to get a team wipe.
As Pascual and Rangel described their experiences during the game versus Southern Nazarene, I understood why this match was so crucial to them. Their answer to losing was to practice and improve.
Pascual shared that the B Team’s morale was low going into the game. going into the game versus Southern Nazarene, but the team had been practicing constantly and working on communications between players.
The team’s three preseason matches all ended with shut-out losses, and the first official match of the season against the University of Central Oklahoma was another shut-out.
“Being able to bounce back from that as a team and being able to play what we were practicing in our scrims perfectly (was great),” Rangel said. “We were able to utilize our materials and talk with our coach to be able to perfect our game.”
“All of us have been putting in our work,” Pascual said. “I feel that showed off in that Hell’s Heaven game.”
While the preseason losses were hard, the B Team didn’t stew in failure. They practiced more and internalized the lessons learned for official matches.
“Having our captain, Rylan, with us, talking with us after each round was helpful,” Pascual said.
Another improvement over the fall semester was the B Team sticking to preset team comps for the season. The team has focused on building core comps over swapping to comps that weren’t as familiar. As the team develops its skills in the future, it will incorporate newer lineups.
Staying calm and composed is one of the biggest keys to B Team’s success, as well. Rangel and Pascual, along with the rest of their team, kept level heads in the match and came out on top.
The rest of the season is shaping up to be big, too.
“I think it looks promising,” Rangel said when asked about the season. “I hope we can win the rest of the games of the season.”
Rangel and Pascual shout out their team captain, Rylan “Rypiggy,” as well as their coach, Devan “Dravenslade,” and the rest of their teammates. They also extend their thanks to their friends and family for supporting them over the past competitive season.
For those interested in watching OU play Marvel Rivals, tune into
on Tuesday and Wednesday nights to check out the action.
