Esports 11/11/2025 1:28:00 PM

Blinn League of Legends wins regional quarterfinal, punches first ticket to NJCAAe national tournament

The Buccaneers will face Pratt Community College in the semifinal round Wednesday

Esports 11/11/2025 1:28:00 PM

Blinn League of Legends wins regional quarterfinal, punches first ticket to NJCAAe national tournament

The Buccaneers will face Pratt Community College in the semifinal round Wednesday

The Blinn College esports League of Legends team won its NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) Eastern Regional quarterfinal tilt Monday, and punched its ticket to the national tournament in the process.

The Buccaneers' team of Aiden House, Braxton Jones, Nicolas Lawless, Juan Diego Castro Venegas, and Odili Oheri earned a 2-0 victory over Brookdale Community College in a best-of-three series.

Blinn will play in the NJCAAe national tournament for the first time in program history, but will first look to boost its seeding for the tournament by winning the Eastern Regional championship. The Bucs will battle Pratt Community College in the semifinal round at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

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.

Against Brookdale, Blinn rolled to a win in the opening round before rallying from a big hole in round two to complete the sweep.

Bucs assistant coach and League of Legends coach Ryan Lucich praised the performance of Jones, who Lucich said almost single-handedly prevented the series from going to a decisive third round.

"I really cannot emphasize Braxton's performance enough in that second round," Lucich said. "He completely put the team on his back and secured us the national playoff bid. I'm really proud of how we played today. Round one was likely the best team game we've played all season and Braxton's performance was probably the best he's had in his time at Blinn and really showcases how much work and care he has put into this team since joining.

"I honestly kind of wrote off round two and started preparing for round three, but they surprised me with resilience that I cannot commend enough."

Blinn's Call of Duty team is also currently in postseason play and will open the NJCAAe Esports Call of Duty Regional Playoffs against Keyano College at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

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

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Players Mentioned

Juan Diego Castro Venegas: Freshman; League of Legends

Braxton Jones: Sophomore; League of Legends

Players Mentioned

Juan Diego Castro Venegas
: Freshman; League of Legends

Braxton Jones
: Sophomore; League of Legends