The Blinn College esports team can call itself a national champion for the first time in program history.
The Buccaneer’s Valorant team defeated Northern Virginia Community College 3-0 in a best-of-five series to win the NJCAA Esports championship on Friday.
A combination of starters and substitutes, including Hayden Whitaker, Austin Ray, Adam Laamoumi, Teague Morgan, Bruce Nguyen, Braden Nardeccia, Devin Jennings, Jaxson Barfknecht, and Jacob Pullen earned the title for Blinn.
“We have finally reached one of our first goals when we started this program three years ago — to be NJCAA national champions,” Blinn head coach Aaron Kapiko said. “The players all played phenomenally well and even when we made some subs while up with a solid lead, they played just as well. This was a great cap to our NJCAA Valorant season; now it’s time for us to build on this dominance for years to come.”
The celebrations could just be starting for the Buccaneers, who will compete for the Collegiate Valorant South Spring championship on Sunday, April 30. Blinn’s Overwatch team and Jaydon Flores, a member of the Bucs’ Super Smash Bros team, will also compete for national championships on Sunday, April 23.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 43 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
