Esports 4/2/2025 11:20:00 AM

Blinn earns Call of Duty victory but stumbles in Super Smash Bros. play

The Buccaneers handed Dallas College North Lake its first Call of Duty loss of the season

Esports 4/2/2025 11:20:00 AM

Blinn earns Call of Duty victory but stumbles in Super Smash Bros. play

The Buccaneers handed Dallas College North Lake its first Call of Duty loss of the season

The Blinn College esports program picked up a Call of Duty victory Tuesday, but endured a tough night of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate play.

The Buccaneers defeated Dallas College North Lake 3-2 in a best-of-five NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) Call of Duty tilt.

The team of Jordan Vo, Aariz Ali, Isaias Nieto, and Travis Stansberry picked up the victory for Blinn, which improved to 5-2 in NJCAAe play.

The matchup pitted the four Bucs against the Blazers, 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.

In defeating North Lake, the Bucs became the first team this season to take a round from the Blazers while also handing them their first loss.

"This was a huge win," Blinn assistant coach and Call of Duty manager Ryan Lucich said. "I'm so proud of the progress we have made, and everything is starting to come together for us to make a serious run in the playoffs once again. I think this match proved that we can go toe-to-toe with any team, and we're excited for the rematch next week."

The Bucs have earned the fourth seed for the NJCAAe Call of Duty Regional Playoffs and will battle North Lake in a rematch at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8.

Blinn's Super Smash Bros. team competed Tuesday night and finished 1-5 in NJCAAe one-on-one, best-of-five play.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a crossover fighting game where players, either in one-on-one or four-on-four matches, aim to knock each other off a combat stage. The objective is for players to inflict damage to increase their opponents' likelihood of being knocked off the platform. In singles play, each player has a set number of lives or "stocks," and the match is won by reducing the opponent's stocks to zero. In crew battles, teams take turns battling, with stock carryover. The team that eliminates all opposing players' stocks first wins. Series are often best-of-three or best-of-five.

Gage Pipes earned a victory for the Bucs with a 3-0 sweep of his opponent from Moberly Area Community College, but later came up short in a 3-0 loss to St. Louis Community College.

Joshua Delossantos fell to Moberly Area 3-0 and dropped his second tilt of the night to State Technical College of Missouri 3-1.

Gage Cole dropped a 3-0 decision to Wichita State Tech University.

Kiara Molina suffered a 3-0 loss to State Technical.

Molina's first match of the night against Rose State College was rescheduled for a date to be determined. Cole was also scheduled to face Rose State, but the match was pushed to 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Pipes moved to 9-5 in the NJCAAe Central 2 Conference; Cole is now 8-5 in the Central 1; Molina fell to 4-9 in the Central 2, and Delossantos is now 3-11 in the Central 1.

"It was a tough week of competition for our team as we near the end of the regular season," Blinn head coach and Super Smash Bros. manager Kyle Murto said. "Despite some strong individual performances, our team couldn't get over the hump tonight. With the playoffs right around the corner, every match counts, and while this week didn't go our way, the team is staying focused and ready to finish strong."

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

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