Esports 2/24/2026 10:40:00 AM

Blinn Overwatch, League of Legends teams drop conference tilts

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team returns to play Wednesday, while Valorant resumes Friday

Esports 2/24/2026 10:40:00 AM

Blinn Overwatch, League of Legends teams drop conference tilts

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team returns to play Wednesday, while Valorant resumes Friday

The Blinn College esports teams were in action earlier this week, with both the Overwatch and League of Legends squads dropping conference matchups.

Blinn's Overwatch team of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Salvador Castaneda, Robert Vaughan, Jose Rios, and Charles Tomlinson fell 3-0 in a best-of-five National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) West-Central Conference clash against Texas Tech University.

With the loss, the Buccaneers fell to 2-3 in conference play.

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 Monday 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.
Flashpoint: Two teams fight to control capture zones that keep moving to new locations on the map once a point has been captured. The goal is to capture each point until one side has captured three zones.

The series opened on Lijiang Tower (Control), where Blinn dropped a competitive 2-1 decision.

"Despite moments where we had opportunities to take control, we were unable to string together clean teamfights or properly stabilize after gaining advantages," Blinn head coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto said.

On New Junk City (Flashpoint), the Buccaneers struggled to establish tempo and consistently lost key engagements in a 3-0 setback. The final map, Shambali Monastery (Escort), mirrored the challenges of the night, ending in another 3-0 loss to close out the sweep.

"We got outplayed across the board," Murto added. "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Execution was off, coordination broke down, and we were unable to recover momentum at any point in the series. This was not our standard. We have a lot to clean up moving forward, and it starts with tightening fundamentals, improving communication, and returning to disciplined play."

The Buccaneers continue their Overwatch season with an NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) tilt against Columbia Basin College at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

Blinn's League of Legends team also competed Monday, falling 2-0 in a best-of-three NJCAAe series to Pratt Community College.

The Buccaneers are now 0-1 in NJCAAe play.

Representing Blinn were Braxton Jones, Andrew Vo, Brian Yang, Carlos Dickens, and Nicholas Lawless.

League of Legends is a five-versus-five multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) in which teams draft champions with unique abilities and work to destroy the enemy Nexus. Along the way, teams contest objectives such as turrets, inhibitors, Dragons, and Baron Nashor to gain strategic advantages.

"Pratt was the heavy favorite going in as the reigning national champs with some extremely high-level players," Bucs assistant coach and League of Legends coach Ryan Lucich said.

In game one, Blinn drafted a composition designed to secure picks while maintaining strong teamfight potential, but Pratt controlled the map early by leveraging lane priority to create plays across the Rift. The Buccaneers were unable to match the pace.

Game two followed a similar script, as Pratt secured early eliminations in the bot lane and snowballed the advantage to close out the match.

"We knew this would be the hardest team we play all season," Lucich said, "but I did appreciate how much our players wanted to learn from the matchup and grow from it afterwards. They admired some of the things Pratt was able to pull off and learned from them after reviewing the games. We'll look forward to our next match Friday."

Blinn returns to action when it battles College of DuPage in an NJCAAe bout at 6 p.m. on Friday.

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

Print Friendly Version