Esports 2/26/2026 10:40:00 AM

Blinn Overwatch defeats Columbia Basin, but Bucs drop Valorant match to Converse

Blinn Overwatch competes in the Overwatch Collegiate Championship Series on Thursday

Esports 2/26/2026 10:40:00 AM

Blinn Overwatch defeats Columbia Basin, but Bucs drop Valorant match to Converse

Blinn Overwatch competes in the Overwatch Collegiate Championship Series on Thursday

The Blinn College esports program split a pair of matches Wednesday, highlighted by a dominant Overwatch victory in NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) action.

The Buccaneers' Overwatch squad of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Salvador Castaneda, Robert Vaughan, and Charles Tomlinson earned a 3-0 sweep of Columbia Basin College in a best-of-five NJCAA Esports East Conference matchup.

With the victory, Blinn improved to 2-0 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 Thursday featured 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 selects the next map.
Escort: The attacking team moves a payload to its destination while defenders attempt to stop them. The payload advances when attackers are nearby, and the attackers must complete the route before time expires.
Hybrid: Teams capture a point and then escort a payload. Attackers must first secure the capture point before advancing 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 opponent wins, with the loser selecting the next map.
Flashpoint: Teams fight to control capture zones that rotate to new locations after each point is secured. The first team to capture three zones wins.

Blinn head coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto called the win a significant milestone for the program.

"This was a huge statement match for our program," Murto said. "Last semester, we faced Columbia Basin multiple times throughout the regular season and playoffs and fell to them four times. Tonight, showed clear growth and improvement within our roster and proved we are returning to a higher competitive level."

The series opened on Busan in the Control mode. The Bucs dropped the opening submap in overtime before rallying for a 2-1 victory.

"The start was a little shaky," Murto said. "We fell behind, but the team responded well, cleaned up positioning and ultimate usage, and won the next two rounds."

On King's Row (Hybrid), Blinn again overcame an early deficit. After conceding the first point and nearly allowing a second capture, the Buccaneers mounted a four-minute defensive stand to halt Colmbia Basin's momentum.

"After swapping sides, we completely flipped the momentum," Murto added. "We executed cleanly on offense and immediately pushed through to secure the map."

The final map, Escort, went 1-0 in favor of Blinn and was the team's most complete performance of the night.

"From the start, we looked confident and in sync," Murto said. "We identified what Columbia Basin wanted to play, adjusted accordingly, and executed our composition extremely well. It was a dominant showing to close out the series and complete the sweep."

Murto praised his team's resilience after a challenging stretch of matches.

"I'm extremely proud of the team," he said. "The last few weeks have been rough, and we've stumbled in key moments. Tonight, we corrected a lot of those mistakes and showed resilience when things didn't start perfectly. We still have a long way to go before we're ready to compete with some of the top programs in the country again, but this is a strong step in the right direction and something we can build on moving forward."

Blinn Overwatch continues its season with a Swiss Stage match against the University of Illinois Chicago in the Overwatch Collegiate Championship Series at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

The Bucs' Valorant team was also in action Thursday and dropped a 2-0 decision to Converse University in a best-of-three National Association of Collegiate Esports East 1 Conference matchup.

Competing for the Buccaneers were Ilies Dolliazal, Milad Khorsandi, Tyler Hartman, Hayden Rubino, and Brian Yang. Blinn fell to 1-3 in the conference standings.

Valorant is a tactical, team-based, first-person shooter set in a near-future world. Teams of five players select unique agents with distinct abilities, combining precise shooting mechanics with strategic use of each agent's toolkit. Teams alternate between attacking and defending, with attackers attempting to plant a spike at one of the designated sites while defenders work to prevent the plant or defuse the spike if it is set. The first team to win 13 rounds claims victory. If both teams reach a 12-12 tie, overtime is triggered, and play continues until one team secures a two-round advantage, alternating sides each overtime round.

Assistant coach and Valorant coach Patrick Daley said the result was not indicative of the team's potential.

"Our match against Converse was one where we knew we were capable of a better performance," Daley said. "The result did not reflect the standard we hold ourselves to, and it was a frustrating night overall. Converse came in prepared and confident, and we struggled to build consistent momentum across both maps."

In the opening map, Converse claimed Bind 13-6 despite competitive early rounds.

"Ilies and Hayden both found opening picks that gave us chances to control the pace," Daley said. "There were stretches where our retake setups looked coordinated and our communication felt solid, but we repeatedly lost key mid-round gunfights that shifted the economy against us."

Breeze proved more difficult as Converse completed the sweep with a 13-2 victory.

"We struggled to establish defensive structure, and their coordinated site hits left little room for recovery," Daley added. "Despite working on communication for almost seven months now, we still were not talking to each other when it mattered. The team is disappointed, but ready for the beginning of a favorable stretch of our schedule and hope to gain some momentum."

Blinn Valorant resumes play with an NJCAAe match against Grayson College at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Print Friendly Version