Esports 10/16/2025 1:30:00 PM

Blinn's Valorant team shuts out Depaul for NACE victory

The Buccaneers' Overwatch and Call of Duty teams were defeated in NJCAAe and NACE tilts

Esports 10/16/2025 1:30:00 PM

Blinn's Valorant team shuts out Depaul for NACE victory

The Buccaneers' Overwatch and Call of Duty teams were defeated in NJCAAe and NACE tilts

The Blinn College esports team picked up a Valorant victory but dropped matches in Overwatch and Call of Duty play Wednesday.

The Buccaneers were on the winning side of a Valorant tilt against DePaul University, prevailing 2-0 in a best-of-three National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) series.

The team of Ilies Dolliazal, Milad Khorsandi, Hayden Rubino, Samuel Long, and Brian Yang earned the victory for the Bucs and improved to 3-3 in NACE matchups.

Valorant is a tactical, team-based, first-person shooter set in a near-future world. Teams of five players choose unique agents with distinct abilities, combining shooting skills with strategic use of each agent's toolkit. Teams alternate between attacking and defending. Attackers aim to plant a spike at one of the designated sites, while defenders try to prevent this or defuse the spike if planted. The first team to win 13 rounds claims victory. If both teams reach a tie at 12-12, overtime is triggered, and the match continues until one team wins by two rounds, with teams alternating between attacking and defending in each overtime round.

The Bucs won the opening game on the Lotus map 13-8 after winning the final five rounds. Blinn then powered past DePaul 13-7 on the Ascent map to close out the series.

"This match was a breakthrough performance that showed the full potential of the team after weeks of hard work," Bucs assistant coach and Valorant coach Patrick Daley said. "The energy was incredible; players were out of their seats, cheering each other on, and feeding off the excitement of taking down one of the strongest teams we have faced in NACE so far. We have another big opponent Thursday in Laredo College, and the team is eager to keep this momentum rolling."

Blinn will battle Laredo in an NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) match at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

The Bucs were unable to keep their winning ways going Wednesday as Overwatch dropped 3-0 decisions in best-of-five sets against Brookdale Community College (NJCAAe) and Loyola University-New Orleans (NACE).

Competing for Blinn was the quintet of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Donovan Hernandez, Trey Vaughan, and Jose Rios.

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 Wednesday 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.

Wednesday's matches were contested in the Control, Hybrid, Escort, and Flashpoint modes.

The Bucs dropped to 1-2 in the NJCAAe East Conference and 1-5 in the NACE West-Central Conference.

"We've come a long way this semester, but at the same time, we're still slipping up on the basics, and that's something we're determined to fix," said Blinn head coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto. "We're entering the final stretch of NACE play, and while playoffs are out of reach, we're pushing hard to close the season strong with a few statement wins. For NJCAAe, our only losses have come against undefeated teams, so we're still positioned well, but dropping below .500 isn't acceptable for our standards."

Blinn Overwatch will play a NACE doubleheader against the University of Texas at Arlington and the Academy of Art University at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 20.

The Bucs wrapped up play with a 3-0 Call of Duty setback in a best-of-five NACE series against Nichols College.

Jaden Navarro, Aariz Ali, Karsyn Krchnak, and Jordan Vo were in action for Blinn. The Bucs fell to 4-3 in NACE play.

The matchup pitted the four Bucs against the Bison, with each team attempting to collect three wins across three modes of play in the first-person-shooter game:

Hardpoint: Teams secure rotating capture points, earning points for control. A team wins by reaching 250 points first.
Search and Destroy: Teams alternate attacking and defending, with the goal to plant or defuse an objective. The first team to win 6 rounds claims victory.
Control: Teams attack and defend two capture points, with limited lives adding an elimination aspect. The first team to win three rounds claims victory.

The Bucs were unable to find their footing against unbeaten Nichols, and assistant coach and Call of Duty coach Ryan Lucich said his team will look to clean up some of its mistakes with the postseason on the horizon.

Blinn Call of Duty resumes play with an NJCAAe contest against Trinity Valley Community College at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 54 national championships since 1987.

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