Esports 10/14/2025 8:46:00 AM

Blinn's League of Legends, Overwatch teams fall in NJCAAe, NACE matchups

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team continues play with an NJCAAe match Wednesday

Esports 10/14/2025 8:46:00 AM

Blinn's League of Legends, Overwatch teams fall in NJCAAe, NACE matchups

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team continues play with an NJCAAe match Wednesday

The Blinn College esports team went 0-2 in a pair of matchups Monday.

The Buccaneers' League of Legends team dropped a 2-0 decision to Northern Virginia Community College in an NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) tilt, while Blinn's Overwatch squad was defeated 3-0 by Shawnee State University in a National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) match.

In League of Legends play, Blinn's team of Aiden House, Braxton Jones, Nicolas Lawless, Juan Diego Castro Venegas, Odili Oheri fell to the Nighthawks – the NJCAAe defending national champions – in a best-of-three series. The Bucs fell to 1-2 in NJCAAe play.

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) where teams of five players draft champions with unique abilities to work together to gain control over a map. The game's objective is to destroy the enemy Nexus while securing objectives like turrets, inhibitors, and neutral monsters. Teams must control a map and destroy a Nexus while contesting neutral objectives such as Dragons and Baron Nashor for powerful boosts.

Blinn assistant coach and League of Legends coach Patrick Daley said in light of the loss, his team showed promise against one of the best teams in NJCAAe.

"This was a stronger showing than I think we expected, and I'm proud of our newer players for punching above their skill level," Daley said. "I also want to give Nicolas a shoutout for an awesome debut. He was able to jump out to leads against NOVA's top laner both games and proved to be a threat."

Up next for Blinn League of Legends is an NJCAAe tilt against St. Louis Community College at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 20.

The Bucs' Overwatch team of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Donovan Hernandez, Trey Vaughan, and Jose Rios was also in action Monday, and fell to Shawnee State in a best-of-five contest.

Blinn is now 1-4 in the NJCAAe West Central Conference.

Overwatch is a team-based, first-person-shooter in which players select heroes with unique abilities and work together to complete objectives across multiple map modes. Each team can strategically choose its maps based on team strengths and opponent weaknesses.

Each round Monday included a different win condition based on the following modes:

Control: Teams fight to capture and hold a single point. The first team to reach 100% control wins two rounds in a best-of-three format, where the loser of each round picks the next map.
Escort: The attacking team moves a payload to its destination while defenders try to stop them. The payload moves when attackers are near it, and the attackers aim to complete the route before time runs out.
Hybrid: Teams capture a point and then escort a payload. The match is typically one round for attackers, who must secure the point first before moving the payload.
Push: Teams battle to control a robot and push it toward the opponent's side. The first team to push it farther than their opponents wins, with the loser picking the next map.
Flashpoint: Two teams fight to control capture zones that keep moving to new locations on the map once a point has been captured. The goal is to capture each point until one side has captured three zones.

Monday's match was contested in the Control, Hybrid, and Flashpoint modes.

The Bears earned a 2-0 victory on the Lijiang Tower map (Control); a 3-1 win on the King's Row map (Hybrid); and a 3-1 victory on the Suravasa map (flashpoint).

"This series showed our continued growth and progress," Blinn head coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto said. "While the final score looks one-sided, this was one of our most cohesive performances yet. We played more as a unit, showed clearer coordination in fights, and our understanding of individual roles continues to improve each week. The biggest differences now come down to small but costly mistakes, missed cooldowns, delayed ultimates, or taking the wrong angles. Our mechanics and fundamentals are looking strong, but those few slip-ups have been enough to swing fights out of our favor. So, despite the loss, our team is heading in the right direction."

Blinn Overwatch gets back to work with an NJCAAe tilt against Brookdale Community College at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 53 national championships since 1987.

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Players Mentioned

Donovan Hernandez: Freshman; Overwatch

Joseph Mares: Sophomore; Overwatch

Jose Rios: Sophomore; Overwatch

Donnivan Straight: Sophomore; Overwatch

Aiden House: Sophomore; League of Legends

Juan Diego Castro Venegas: Freshman; League of Legends

Braxton Jones: Sophomore; League of Legends

Players Mentioned

Donovan Hernandez
: Freshman; Overwatch

Joseph Mares
: Sophomore; Overwatch

Jose Rios
: Sophomore; Overwatch

Donnivan Straight
: Sophomore; Overwatch

Aiden House
: Sophomore; League of Legends

Juan Diego Castro Venegas
: Freshman; League of Legends

Braxton Jones
: Sophomore; League of Legends