Esports 2/28/2026 9:30:00 AM

Blinn League of Legends gets first NJCAA Esports win with sweep of College of DuPage

The Buccaneers improved to 1-1 in NJCAAe competition

Esports 2/28/2026 9:30:00 AM

Blinn League of Legends gets first NJCAA Esports win with sweep of College of DuPage

The Buccaneers improved to 1-1 in NJCAAe competition

The Blinn College esports League of Legends team earned its first victory of the spring season Friday, sweeping the College of DuPage 2-0 in a best-of-three NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) matchup.

The win improved the Buccaneers to 1-1 in NJCAAe play.

Competing for 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.

Blinn assistant coach and League of Legends coach Ryan Lucich said the Bucs anticipated a tough matchup heading into the contest.

"DuPage matched our ranks pretty well," Lucich said, "so we figured it would be a competitive game going in."

In round one, Blinn drafted a composition built around brawling champions with strong crowd control. Despite early struggles in the bottom lane, Jones and Lawless generated advantages in their respective solo lanes to keep the Bucs within striking distance.

"The early game did not go great for us as DuPage was able to take out our bot lane several times," Lucich said, "however, Braxton and Nicholas were winning their solo lanes. We were able to stop the bleeding to make it out of the laning phase, and once teamfights started, our composition had really good synergies to take out DuPage's carries."

A pivotal teamfight swung momentum firmly in Blinn's favor.

"Thanks to a huge combo by Andrew and Braxton, we snowballed the rest of the game to take the victory," Lucich added.

Round two featured a different approach, as the Buccaneers opted for a composition that emphasized lane pressure and map strategy over large-scale teamfighting.

"We had a much different draft and did not have the same teamfight tools," Lucich said. "Instead, we relied on winning lanes through bot with a poke combination and made some good strategic plays around the map."

With the game evenly contested into the mid stages, a decisive play near the Dragon objective shifted the tide.

"The game was relatively even until Braxton and Nicholas had a huge 2-on-3 performance on dragon that allowed us to then take the Baron," Lucich explained. "From there, we were able to snowball and close out the series."

Lucich praised his team's response following its season-opening defeat at the hands of Pratt Community College.

"I'm proud of this bounceback from our first game, as we showcased our talent with this semester's roster," he said. "We have multiple ways in which we can win games and hopefully our team synergy just continues to grow."

Next up, Blinn League of Legends battles Brookdale Community College in an NJCAAe match at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 2.

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

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Players Mentioned

Brian Yang: Freshman; Valorant

Braxton Jones: Sophomore; League of Legends

Andrew Vo: Freshman; League of Legends

Carlos Dickens: Sophomore; League of Legends

Players Mentioned

Brian Yang
: Freshman; Valorant

Braxton Jones
: Sophomore; League of Legends

Andrew Vo
: Freshman; League of Legends

Carlos Dickens
: Sophomore; League of Legends