Esports 3/5/2026 10:33:00 AM

Blinn esports splits Wednesday matches

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team swept Trinity Valley

Esports 3/5/2026 10:33:00 AM

Blinn esports splits Wednesday matches

The Buccaneers' Overwatch team swept Trinity Valley

The Blinn College esports program split a pair of matches Wednesday, sweeping Trinity Valley Community College in NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) play while falling to Conestoga College in a National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) tilt.

OVERWATCH
Blinn's Overwatch squad of Joseph Mares, Donnivan Straight, Salvador Castaneda, Trey Vaughan, Jose Rios, and Charles Tomlinson defeated the Cardinals 3-0 in a best-of-five NJCAAe West Conference clash. The Buccaneers improved to 3-0 in the NJCAAe West 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 Wednesday 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 match on Ilios in the Control mode and quickly seized momentum, taking the map 2-0.

"We dictated the pace of the fights from the start and never allowed Trinity Valley to find momentum," Blinn head coach and Overwatch coach Kyle Murto said.

The Buccaneers made a lineup adjustment on Blizzard World in the Hybrid mode, inserting Rios for Vaughan to better match the map's hero pool. The change paid off as Blinn maintained strong offensive pressure and secured a 3-1 victory.

Blinn returned to its original lineup for the final map on Watchpoint: Gibraltar in the Escort mode, with Vaughan reentering the lineup as the Buccaneers completed the sweep with a 3-0 decision.

"Overall, this was a very strong showing from the team," Murto said. "We controlled the tempo throughout the series, executed our compositions well, and never allowed the match to become close."

Murto added the Bucs are aiming to maintain their usual high standard in postseason play.

"We are looking to earn the top seed for the postseason and return to our normal form of making it to the national championship every semester," he said.

Blinn Overwatch returns to action when it battles Penn State University in the Swiss Stage of the Overwatch Collegiate Championship Series at 7 p.m. Thursday.

VALORANT
Blinn also competed in a NACE Valorant bout Wednesday but fell 2-1 to Conestoga.

The team of Ilies Dolliazal, Milad Khorsandi, Tyler Hartman, Samuel Long, and Brian Yang competed for the Buccaneers, who dropped to 1-4 in the NACE East Conference.

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.

Assistant coach and Valorant coach Patrick Daley said the series featured heavy momentum swings from map to map.

"Our series against Conestoga ended up being a back-and-forth set where momentum shifted heavily from map to map," Daley said. "There were stretches where we played very solid Valorant and looked in full control, but also moments where Conestoga capitalized on mistakes and took advantage of our slower starts."

Conestoga took the opening map, Bind, by a 13-9 score. Daley noted several rounds came down to late one-versus-one situations as Blinn remained competitive throughout the map.

Ilies Dolliazal helped keep the team organized in mid-round situations while Brian Yang and Tyler Hartman found key opening eliminations to keep the score close, but Conestoga used late-round economy control to close the map.
Blinn responded with its strongest showing on Split, earning a convincing 13-6 victory.

"From the start our communication felt sharper and our spacing improved dramatically," Daley said. "That momentum carried us through the map."

Daley credited Long and Khorsandi for applying consistent pressure with their utility while the Bucs secured multiple clean rounds on both attack and defense.

The deciding map, Abyss, swung firmly in Conestoga's favor as the Canadian squad applied aggressive early pressure and maintained control throughout a 13-2 win.

"Despite the final result, the Split performance showed what the team looks like when communication and confidence are clicking," Daley said. "The focus moving forward will be maintaining that level of discipline across the entire series and limiting the slow starts that can give strong teams early control."

Daley added the Buccaneers will now shift their focus fully toward NJCAAe competition.

"Despite our NACE playoff hopes being over, we're looking to push hard into the CVAL conference and make big waves there," he said.

The Bucs will get back to work with an NJCAAe showdown against Navarro College at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Print Friendly Version