Esports 3/19/2025 11:48:00 PM

Blinn comes up short in Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Valorant matchups

The Buccaneers are gearing up for the end of the season, which includes several postseason tournaments

Esports 3/19/2025 11:48:00 PM

Blinn comes up short in Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Valorant matchups

The Buccaneers are gearing up for the end of the season, which includes several postseason tournaments

It was a tough night of play for the Blinn College esports team Wednesday as the Buccaneers dropped three matches.

In a National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) match, Blinn's Valorant team fell to Kansas University 2-1 in a best-of-three series.

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.

Hector Carielo, Braeden Greiffenstein, Brendan Felicidario, Ilies Dolliazal, and Zachary Sutton competed for the Bucs, who ended their NACE season at 2-5.

Blinn Valorant now shifts its focus to the Collegiate Valorant NJCAA Esports Tournament, where the Bucs will take on Salt Lake Community College in the first round of the eight-team tournament at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 27.

In Call of Duty play, Blinn fell to Texas A&M International University 3-1 in a best-of-five NACE clash.

Competing for the Bucs were Isaias Nieto, Jordan Vo, Aariz Ali, and Travis Stansberry.

The matchup pitted the four Bucs against the Dustdevils, 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.

Blinn concluded its NACE campaign with a 2-5 record, although the Bucs will continue its run in the NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) league.

"We knew this game would be a challenge going in as TAMIU was 5-1," Blinn assistant coach and Call of Duty manager Ryan Lucich said. "We had a good showing, and it could've easily gone our way. We will find takeaways to help us for the remainder of our NJCAAe season."

Blinn Call of Duty takes on Dawson Community College in an NJCAAe tilt at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 24.

Ending the night was 17th-ranked Blinn Overwatch (Overwatch Collegiate Rankings Association), which fell to No. 3 Maryville University 3-0 in a best-of-five NACE matchup.

Blinn ended play in the NACE Super Conference with a 2-5 record.

Joseph Mares, Haluk Tanriseven, Matthew Hutchings, Donnivan Straight, and Dhruv Pandrangi went to battle 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.
Clash: Teams capture consecutive points, with the first team to a set number of points winning.

"While the final scoreline doesn't reflect it, this was a strong performance from us and I'm happy with how the team played," Bucs head coach and Overwatch manager Kyle Murto said. "We showed steady improvement throughout the series, proving that we're on the right track as we head into the playoffs as the sixth seed. If we continue on this trajectory, we'll be in great shape."

Blinn's playoff opponent and the date and time of the match have yet to be determined.

Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 50 national championships since 1987.

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