Esports 10/21/2025 9:38:00 AM

Blinn's Overwatch, League of Legends teams pick up victories

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team faces Daytona State in NJCAAe play Wednesday

Esports 10/21/2025 9:38:00 AM

Blinn's Overwatch, League of Legends teams pick up victories

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team faces Daytona State in NJCAAe play Wednesday

The Blinn College esports team went 2-1 in a trio of Overwatch and League of Legends matches Monday.

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team competed in National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) play and fell to the University of Texas at Arlington before taking down the Academy of Art University. Blinn's League of Legends team defeated St. Louis Community College in an NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) tilt.

In Overwatch play, the team of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Donovan Hernandez, Trey Vaughan, and Jose Rios fell to UT-Arlington 3-1 in a best-of-five series before prevailing 3-0 over the Academy of Art.

The Bucs moved to 2-6 in the NACE 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.

Both of Monday's matches were contested in the Control, Hybrid, Escort, Flashpoint modes.

Blinn head coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto said his team's setback against UT-Arlington proved to be one of his team's better performances of the fall and set his team up for a better result against Academy of Art.

"In our second match of the night, we looked fully composed, and it was a strong way to end the NACE regular season," Murto said. "Our coordination, cooldown tracking, and team communication were on point from start to finish.

"While it's frustrating knowing we could have closed the night with two victories, the progress and improvements are clear. The team is playing smarter, more in sync, and continues to build momentum week after week."

Blinn Overwatch gets back to work with an NJCAAe tilt against Daytona State College at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

The Buccaneers' League of Legends squad prevailed Monday behind the team of Aiden House, Braxton Jones, Nicolas Lawless, Juan Diego Castro Venegas, and Odili Oheri. The team picked up a 2-1 victory over St. Louis in a best-of-three set and improved to 2-2 in NJCAAe matchups.

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.

The two teams split the first and second rounds before the Bucs prevailed in round three to close out the series.

Blinn assistant coach and League of Legends coach Ryan Lucich said the team used a favorable composition in the deciding round, led by a series of strong plays from Jones to give his team an early lead.

"I'm proud of how this team fought today and were able to stay focused in a long and close series," Lucich said.

The Bucs continue their NJCAAe League of Legends season with a matchup against Brookdale Community College at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27.

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