Esports 3/10/2026 11:01:00 AM

Blinn esports Overwatch, League of Legends teams earn sweeps in NACE, NJCAAe matches

The Buccaneers' League of Legends squad opens play in the NJCAAe playoffs on March 23

Esports 3/10/2026 11:01:00 AM

Blinn esports Overwatch, League of Legends teams earn sweeps in NACE, NJCAAe matches

The Buccaneers' League of Legends squad opens play in the NJCAAe playoffs on March 23

The Blinn College esports Overwatch and League of Legends teams secured victories in a pair of matches Monday, continuing a strong stretch of play for the Buccaneers.

OVERWATCH
Blinn's Overwatch squad of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Salvador Castaneda, Trey Vaughan, Jose Rios, and Charles Tomlinson earned a 3-0 victory over Idaho State University in a best-of-five National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) match.

The Bucs improved to 3-4 in the NACE West-Central Conference.

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 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 opened the series with a strong showing on Lijiang Tower in the Control mode, securing a 2-0 victory to take the early lead.

"Our team controlled fights from the start and set the tone for the rest of the series," Blinn head coach Kyle Murto said.

The Buccaneers continued their momentum on New Junk City in the Flashpoint mode, rolling to a 3-0 win while maintaining consistent pressure and clean execution.

Blinn then completed the sweep on Shambali Monastery in the Escort mode with another 3-0 victory.

Across the series, the Bucs fully completed each map objective and lost only a handful of team fights.

"Today's match was a peak performance from the team," Murto said. "Earlier this season we were losing scrimmages to this same Idaho State roster, and last semester we barely edged them in a 3-2 series. Seeing the team perform at this level shows how much they've grown over the course of the semester."

Blinn will look to carry its momentum forward as it awaits the final announcement for the Overwatch Collegiate Championship Series Top 32 bracket. The Bucs went 6-3 in the OWCC's Swiss Stage round.

The Bucs continue their Overwatch season with a match against Grayson College at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS
Blinn's League of Legends team also emerged victorious Tuesday, defeating Harrisburg Area Community College 2-0 in a best-of-three NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) match to conclude its regular season.

Braxton Jones, Andrew Vo, Brian Yang, Carlos Dickens, and Nicholas Lawless earned the win for the Buccaneers.

Blinn improved to 3-1 in NJCAAe play.

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 opened the series with a strong draft and quickly established control in round one.

Assistant coach Ryan Lucich said Nicholas Lawless led the way in the top lane while the Buccaneers' bottom-lane duo of Yang and Dickens weathered early pressure from Harrisburg Area's jungler.

Meanwhile, Andrew Vo helped swing the match with impactful plays around neutral objectives.

The Buccaneers snowballed their advantage and closed out the first round after destroying every inhibitor on the map.

Blinn carried that momentum into round two, where Yang and Dickens seized control of the bottom lane early with an aggressive champion combination.

Yang finished with a dominant 22-2-8 stat line in eliminations-deaths-assists while Dickens added 5-4-28 as the Buccaneers controlled the map and completed the 2-0 sweep.

"I'm really happy with how we were able to close out the regular season," Lucich said.

Up next, Blinn will enter the NJCAAe playoffs as the No. 2 seed and will face either Brookdale Community College or College of DuPage on Monday, March 23. Time is TBD.

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

Joseph Mares: Sophomore; Overwatch

Jose Rios: Sophomore; Overwatch

Donnivan Straight: Sophomore; Overwatch

Braxton Jones: Sophomore; League of Legends

Salvador Castaneda: Freshman; Overwatch

Andrew Vo: Freshman; League of Legends

Charles Tomlinson: Freshman; Overwatch

Carlos Dickens: Sophomore; League of Legends

Players Mentioned

Brian Yang
: Freshman; Valorant

Joseph Mares
: Sophomore; Overwatch

Jose Rios
: Sophomore; Overwatch

Donnivan Straight
: Sophomore; Overwatch

Braxton Jones
: Sophomore; League of Legends

Salvador Castaneda
: Freshman; Overwatch

Andrew Vo
: Freshman; League of Legends

Charles Tomlinson
: Freshman; Overwatch

Carlos Dickens
: Sophomore; League of Legends