Esports 11/13/2025 1:16:00 PM

Blinn Call of Duty falls to Keyano in NJCAAe regional semifinal

The Buccaneers will face USC-Sumter or Brookdale in the third-place match on Nov. 18

Esports 11/13/2025 1:16:00 PM

Blinn Call of Duty falls to Keyano in NJCAAe regional semifinal

The Buccaneers will face USC-Sumter or Brookdale in the third-place match on Nov. 18

The Blinn College esports Call of Duty team fell to Keyano College in the NJCAA Esports Call of Duty Regional Playoffs on Tuesday.

The Buccaneers came up short in 3-2, best-of-five semifinal series, and will now play for third place.

Jaden Navarro, Aariz Ali, Karsyn Krchnak, and Jordan Vo competed for Blinn.

The Bucs will play in the national tournament but can improve their seed with a victory in the third-place match. Blinn will face the loser of the Brookdale Community College-University of South Carolina-Sumter semifinal match at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

Tuesday's matchup pitted the four Bucs against the Huskies, with the teams 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.

Keyano earned a tight 250-248 victory in the opening Hardpoint round and took a commanding 2-0 series lead with a 6-0 victory in the Search and Destroy round.

Blinn avoided a sweep and fought back to tie the series, starting with a 3-1 victory in the Control round. The Bucs then rode the strong play of Navarro to earn a 250-118 win in the second Hardpoint round to knot things at 2-2.

In the decisive fifth round, the Huskies would prevail 6-3 in Search and Destroy to win the series.

"This loss definitely stings, but it was some of the best energy I've heard us have all season," Blinn assistant coach and Call of Duty coach Ryan Lucich said. "I know we can bounce back and beat this team when it matters even more in the national tournament. We will definitely need to work on our Search and Destroy strategy before we play the third-place game and head into the national tournament."

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

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Players Mentioned

Aariz Ali: Sophomore; Call of Duty

Karsyn Krchnak: Sophomore; Call of Duty

Jaden Navarro: Freshman; Call of Duty

Jordan Vo: Sophomore; Call of Duty

Players Mentioned

Aariz Ali
: Sophomore; Call of Duty

Karsyn Krchnak
: Sophomore; Call of Duty

Jaden Navarro
: Freshman; Call of Duty

Jordan Vo
: Sophomore; Call of Duty