Esports 3/27/2026 9:31:00 AM

Blinn Valorant outlasts Wake Technical to move to NJCAAe semifinals

The Buccaneers face Northeastern Oklahoma A&M on April 2 with a championship berth at stake

Esports 3/27/2026 9:31:00 AM

Blinn Valorant outlasts Wake Technical to move to NJCAAe semifinals

The Buccaneers face Northeastern Oklahoma A&M on April 2 with a championship berth at stake

The Blinn College esports Valorant team moved one step closer to an NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) national championship Thursday.

The Buccaneers defeated Wake Technical Community College 2-1 in a best-of-three NJCAAe Valorant National Tournament quarterfinal match and are now two victories away from the program's second NJCAAe Valorant title. Blinn won the 2023 NJCAAe Valorant spring national championship.

With the victory, the Bucs advance to the NJCAAe national semifinals, where it will face Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 2. A win would send Blinn to the championship match against either Pratt Community College or Columbia Basin College.

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.

The Bucs opened the series in dominant fashion before overcoming a narrow setback to close strong in the deciding map.

"This was a strong overall showing from the team," Blinn assistant coach and Valorant coach Patrick Daley said. "We had a dominant opening map, a tough overtime loss, and then a confident close on the decider. The guys showed great composure, especially in how they bounced back."

Blinn's lineup of Ilies Dolliazal, Milad Khorsandi, Tyler Hartman, Samuel Long, and Brian Yang set the tone early on Haven, where the Bucs controlled the match from the outset. Strong coordination and consistent early-round success fueled a decisive 13-3 victory.

"We came out sharp from the start and never let them build momentum," Daley added. "Ilies kept the team organized, and we were consistently finding opening picks that made things flow."

The second map, Pearl, proved to be a battle. The teams traded rounds throughout regulation before Wake Tech edged out a 14-12 overtime win to even the series.

"We had opportunities to close it out in regulation, but a few late-round losses pushed it to overtime," Daley said. "Even then, it was incredibly close."

Facing a winner-take-all scenario on Lotus, the Bucs responded with poise. Blinn regained control early and never relinquished it, cruising to a 13-5 win to secure the match.

"The response on Lotus was exactly what you want to see," Daley said. "The energy was high, communication was sharp, and the team executed when it mattered most."

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

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