Esports 11/13/2025 1:20:00 PM

Blinn's Overwatch, League of Legends team fall in NJCAA Esports Regional tournaments

Both teams will compete in third-place matches for nationals seeding

Esports 11/13/2025 1:20:00 PM

Blinn's Overwatch, League of Legends team fall in NJCAA Esports Regional tournaments

Both teams will compete in third-place matches for nationals seeding

The Blinn College esports Overwatch and League of Legends teams fell in NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) postseason matchups Wednesday.

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team went 1-1 and dropped into the third-place match of the NJCAA Esports Overwatch East Regional Playoffs, while the Blinn League of Legends team was defeated and will also compete in a third-place tilt in the NJCAA Esports League of Legends East Regional Tournament.

Blinn's Overwatch team defeated Daytona State College 3-1 in a best-of-five quarterfinal series before dropping a 3-0 decision to Bryant & Stratton College in the semifinal round.

The Bucs will now face the loser of Brookdale Community College-Columbia Basin College for third place at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

The team of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Donovan Hernandez, Trey Vaughan, and Jose Rios competed for the Bucs.

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 Push game modes.

In its opener against Daytona State, Blinn earned a 2-1 win on the Lijiang Tower map (Control) before the Falcons rallied for a 3-2 win and a 1-1 series tie on the Midtown map (Hybrid). The Bucs responded with 1-0 and 2-0 victories on Circuit Royal (Escort) and New Queen Street (Push) to clinch the series.

"With time to talk between maps, we cleaned up our communication and spacing, and our defense was nearly flawless, holding Daytona to under a point of progress, and our offense cruised," Bucs head coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto said.

Against Bryant & Stratton, Blinn was unable to maintain its momentum as the Bobcats earned a sweep. Bryant & Stratton prevailed 2-0 (Control), 1-0 (Hybrid), and 1-0 (Escort).

"Even in defeat, there were positives to take away," Murto explained. "Bryant & Stratton is an elite team, and we still found moments where we traded evenly and showed the growth this roster has achieved."

Murto praised the play of Mares, who he said displayed a level of adaptability, composure, and leadership that has been key to the team's success.

Blinn's night concluded with a League of Legends tilt against Pratt Community College. The Beavers prevailed 2-0 in a best-of-three semifinal series.

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 team of Aiden House, Braxton Jones, Nicolas Lawless, Juan Diego Castro Venegas, and Odili Oheri competed for the Bucs.

Blinn will take on the loser of the Northern Virginia Community College-Guilford Technical Community College semifinal at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

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

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