Esports 9/24/2025 9:28:00 AM

Blinn falls to Keyano, Texas Tech in NJCAAe, NACE matchups

Blinn Call of Duty gets right back to work with a NACE tilt against Fisher on Wednesday

Esports 9/24/2025 9:28:00 AM

Blinn falls to Keyano, Texas Tech in NJCAAe, NACE matchups

Blinn Call of Duty gets right back to work with a NACE tilt against Fisher on Wednesday

The Blinn College esports program dropped a pair of matches Tuesday.

The Buccaneers' Call of Duty team opened up play in the NJCAA Esports division with a 3-1 loss to Keyano College, while Blinn Rocket League fell 3-0 to Texas Tech University in a National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) matchup.

The Blinn Call of Duty squad of Jaden Navarro, Aariz Ali, Karsyn Krchnak, and Jordan Vo battled Keyano in a best-of-five series. The Bucs are now 0-1 in NJCAAe play.

The matchup pitted the four Bucs against the Huskies, 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 assistant coach and Call of Duty coach Ryan Lucich said the Bucs were prepared for a tough matchup with Keyano and that was exactly what they got.

In the opening map (Hardpoint), Blinn raced out to a 30-point lead, but the Huskies battled back for a 250-200 victory.

In the Search and Destroy round, Blinn and Keyano battled it out in a series of close one-on-one battles but ultimately went the way of the Huskies. In the end, Keyano took the map with a 6-2 victory.

Blinn took a map from the Huskies in the Control round, earning a 3-1 victory. Lucich credited Navarro and Ali for their efforts in the round.

The final round of the match was contested under Hardpoint rules and proved to be a back-and-forth affair. Krchnak had a particularly impressive start for the Bucs with 24 eliminations. The round came down to several key eliminations in the closing moments, and Keyano ultimately prevailed 250-245.

"Going in we knew Keyano was extremely talented with three starters who have been together for several semesters," Lucich explained. "While this wasn't the result we were hoping for, we showed that we can go toe-to-toe with one of the top teams not only in the NJCAAe, but also nationally. This series really could've gone either way and I look forward to a potential rematch down the road in the playoffs."

Blinn Call of Duty returns to play with a NACE tilt against Fisher College at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Blinn's Rocket League team of Edward Tejada, Aaron Konen, and Vallentino Rossi was also in action Tuesday, and dropped a best-of-five series to Texas Tech. The Bucs are now 0-3 in the NACE West Central Conference.

Rocket League combines elements of soccer with fast-paced car mechanics. Teams of three players use rocket-powered vehicles to hit a ball into the opponent's goal. The team with the most goals during a five-minute round wins.

The Red Raiders earned a 3-2 victory in the opening round, took round two 2-1, and closed out the series with a 3-2 win.

"Even though we lost, this was arguably our best performance of the season so far," said Blinn head coach and Rocket League coach Kyle Murto. "Every game was close, and it's tough to walk away empty-handed when we know how well we played. We're competing in one of the most competitive conferences in the nation, where nearly every opponent has the talent to make a deep playoff run. On paper, we're the underdogs, which means we have to work that much harder to earn wins this season."

Blinn Rocket League continues its NACE campaign with a matchup against the University of Texas-Dallas at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

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

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Players Mentioned

Aaron Konen: Freshman; Rocket League

Vallentino Rossi: Sophomore; Rocket League

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

Aaron Konen
: Freshman; Rocket League

Vallentino Rossi
: Sophomore; Rocket League

Aariz Ali
: Sophomore; Call of Duty

Karsyn Krchnak
: Sophomore; Call of Duty

Jaden Navarro
: Freshman; Call of Duty

Jordan Vo
: Sophomore; Call of Duty