Esports 3/13/2026 10:37:00 PM

Blinn Valorant rallies past St. Louis for NJCAAe win

The Buccaneers have won four consecutive Valorant matches

Esports 3/13/2026 10:37:00 PM

Blinn Valorant rallies past St. Louis for NJCAAe win

The Buccaneers have won four consecutive Valorant matches

The Blinn College esports Valorant team picked up another victory Thursday, prevailing 2-1 over St. Louis Community College in a best-of-three NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) match.

The Buccaneers' team of Ilies Dolliazal, Milad Khorsandi, Hayden Rubino, Samuel Long, and Brian Yang earned the win to improve to 4-1 in NJCAAe play. Blinn has now won three consecutive NJCAAe matches and four in a row overall, including National Association of College Esports (NACE) competition.

Valorant is a tactical, team-based, first-person shooter set in a near-future world. Teams of five players choose unique agents with distinct abilities, combining shooting skills with strategic use of each agent's toolkit. Teams alternate between attacking and defending. Attackers aim to plant a spike at one of the designated sites, while defenders try to prevent this or defuse the spike if planted. The first team to win 13 rounds claims victory. If both teams reach a tie at 12-12, overtime is triggered, and the match continues until one team wins by two rounds, with teams alternating between attacking and defending in each overtime round.

Blinn dropped the opening map, Corrode, 13-8 before regrouping to claim the final two maps and secure the series victory.

"Our match against St. Louis ended up being one of the more mentally demanding contests we've played this season," Blinn assistant coach and Valorant coach Patrick Daley said. "Even when things weren't going our way early, the guys stayed together and kept competing round after round."

Despite strong adjustments and key defensive moments that kept the opener close, the Buccaneers were unable to find consistent momentum.

After a reset between maps, Blinn responded with improved communication and confidence on Pearl, earning a 13-8 win to even the series.

"Sam was able to create space with early openings, and our utility usage helped make our site executions much cleaner," Daley added. "We did a better job controlling sightlines and maintaining our structure throughout the map."

The decisive third map, Split, turned into a back-and-forth battle that extended into double overtime before Blinn secured a dramatic 16-14 victory.

"Ilies kept our communication steady during a chaotic final map, and we had several clutch performances that helped us close it out," Daley said. "The resilience the team showed after the first map really says a lot about the growth of this roster."

Blinn Valorant continues NJCAAe play against Columbia Basin College at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 17.

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

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