The Blinn College esports program kicked off its 2023 fall season with a split of two matches Tuesday.
The Buccaneer Overwatch team cruised to a 3-0 series victory (best-of-five) over West Texas A&M University, while Blinn's Rocket League squad was defeated by Shawnee State University 5-2, 2-1, and 3-1 in three rounds.
Blinn Overwatch's triumph came in its National Association of College Esports (NACE) opener. The Bucs compete in the West Central 2 Conference. Blinn's victorious quintet was made up of Haluk Tanriseven, Donnivan Straight, Andrew Dugas, Francisco Amezcua, and Matthew Hutchings.
"Our first match of the season turned out to be a dominant showcase for us," said Blinn assistant coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto, who is a graduate of West Texas A&M. "This was a fun game to begin the year on. Being able to go against your Alma Mater is always an exciting thing. We came into the match as heavy favorites, but A&M put up a fight in the first match of the day. They came out playing an aggressive team composition that we did not expect, which made us make a couple changes to our playstyle in the intermission period, which resulted in us being able to run away with the rest of the maps in the series."
Murto's Overwatch teams have seen a rapid surge in success since the program launched in 2020, competing for conference and national titles on a yearly basis.
"There are expectations for us to win our conference and be somewhere among the top 20 teams in the nation," Murto said. "This was a good first showing for our players, and we look to improve as we have a lot of tough competition this year."
The Blinn Rocket League team had a tough debut as it dropped to 0-1 in NACE play. The Bucs are a member of the East 6 Conference.
Competing for Blinn were Xavier Johnson, Vincent Kremer, Braeden Buffington, and Logan Mcclain.
Murto also oversees the Rocket League team.
"We faced a really strong Shawnee State team who is a favorite in our conference," Murto said. "We definitely came in as massive underdogs, and while the first match was rough, we would begin to turn things around going into the second matchup. While it was a clean sweep for Shawnee State, I am still proud of all my players for hitting way beyond their weight class. We put up a fight every inch of the way, and I have big expectations from them as this year progresses."
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 44 NJCAA national championships since 1987.?
