Esports 4/9/2025 9:34:00 AM

Blinn's Overwatch team qualifies for NACE Grand Finals while Call of Duty squad reaches NJCAAe nationals

Two Buccaneers ended their seasons in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Central 1 and Central 2 Conference super regionals

Esports 4/9/2025 9:34:00 AM

Blinn's Overwatch team qualifies for NACE Grand Finals while Call of Duty squad reaches NJCAAe nationals

Two Buccaneers ended their seasons in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Central 1 and Central 2 Conference super regionals

The Blinn College esports team had a busy night of postseason play Tuesday, with a mixed bag of results.

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team of Joseph Mares, Haluk Tanriseven, Matthew Hutchings, Donnivan Straight, and Dhruv Pandrangi earned a 3-0 best-of-five victory over Texas A&M University-San Antonio in the opening round of the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) national tournament.

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 Tuesday 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.

The Buccaneers earned victories in the Control, Hybrid, and Flashpoint game modes.

With the win, the Bucs – ranked 17th by the Overwatch Collegiate Rankings Association – advanced to the NACE Grand Finals as part of the top eight Overwatch teams in the country. The four-day Finals begin Thursday, April 24, in Orlando, Fla. The schedule and matchup for the event have yet to be determined.

"I couldn't be prouder of our team's effort," said Blinn head coach and Overwatch manager Kyle Murto. "While we hit some rough patches midseason, we've continued to iron things out and our coordination and synergy are peaking at just the right time. We are going to do our best to finish out strong when we go to Orlando."

Blinn's night continued with a pair of Call of Duty tilts in the NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) Central 2 Regional Playoffs.

The Buccaneers fell to Dallas College North Lake 3-1 in their best-of-five opener of the four-team tournament before rebounding to top Wichita State University Tech 3-0 in the third-place match. Blinn's victory over WSU Tech punched its ticket for the NJCAAe national tournament The seventh-seeded Bucs' will battle the University of South Carolina-Sumter in the first round of the eight-team tournament at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15.

Tuesday's matchups pitted teams of four players against each other as they attempted 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.

"Going into the third-place match, our players had something to prove after dropping a close match to North Lake," Blinn assistant coach and Call of Duty manager Ryan Lucich said. "We came out with so much energy and took a decisive victory in map one. Map two was much closer than it should have been, but thanks to some clutch plays from Aariz, we were able to take the win. After a long delay prior to map three, our players were ready to seal the series and played one of their most dominant maps of the season. I was extremely pleased with their effort and the result."

Blinn's night concluded with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate matchups for Gage Cole and Gabe Pipes. The pair of competitors competed in one-on-one matchups in the NJCAAe Central 1 Conference and Central 2 Conference Super Regional Tournaments, and both players saw their seasons come to an end.

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.
Both super regionals were contested under a double-elimination format.

Cole defeated his opponent from Laredo College 3-0 to open his tournament run, but fell 3-1 to Jefferson College and 3-0 to Rose State College to end his season.

"Despite the results, every game Gage played tonight was impressive, including his two losses," said Murto, who also manages Blinn's Super Smash Bros. team. "Gage gave it everything he had for this playoff run and for the entire semester."

Pipes started his postseason stint with a 3-0 setback to Rose State before seeing his season come to a close with a 3-2 loss to Dallas College Mountain View.

"While Gabe didn't get the outcomes he wanted today, I'm proud of his performance and growth throughout the season," added Murto. "His nerves may have shown under pressure, but his development from the start of the year to now has been incredible, and making the playoffs is an achievement in itself. Overall, both players fought hard and showed how much work they've put in this season. While the runs ended earlier than we'd hoped, their performances were nothing to hang their heads about, and we're looking forward to what's ahead."

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

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