The Blinn College esports team competed in Rocket League and Super Smash Bros matches Friday and came away with mixed results.
The Buccaneers’ Rocket League squad of Bradyn Cox, Jabria Price, and Xavier Johnson were awarded a forfeit victory over College of DuPage before outlasting Heartland Community College 3-2 for a victory. Both matches were NJCAA Esports (NJCAAe) East 2 Conference bouts.
“We have been putting in a lot of work for the past several weeks, working on communication, rotations, and individual mechanics,” Blinn assistant coach and Rocket League manager Kyle Murto said. “We have improved at a breakneck speed. I want to specifically call out Jabria, who came on as our lowest-ranked player with a lot of work needed to get on the same level as the rest of our team. He has risen in skill extremely quickly, and put on a heck of a performance that was instrumental in our victory today.”
The Bucs (2-0 NJCAAe) grabbed the first match of the series 3-2, but fell 3-1 and 5-1 in the second and third rounds. In rounds four and five, Blinn rallied to earn 4-3 and 2-1 (overtime) victories to capture the matchup.
In a pair of makeup tilts, Blinn’s Cody Bentlage competed in NJCAAe matches against Dallas College-Richland (Thursday, Feb. 8) and Barton Community College. Bentlage fell 3-1 to Richland and earned a forfeit win against Barton.
“While you never like to see a forfeit, at the end of the day a win is a win and we will take them,” said Murto, who also coaches the Super Smash Bros team. “We will be working hard this week in an effort to compete against some of the top players in the NJCAAe. We have a lot of work to do to catch up, and we will do our best to come back next week and win some matches.”
Blinn Super Smash Bros will compete in seven one-on-one matches at 7 and 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 13. The Bucs will face Southeast Community College and State Technical College of Missouri while also competing in a Blinn-versus-Blinn matchup. The Bucs will then take on Crowder College, Heartland, Barton, and Dallas College-Brookhaven. Next up for Blinn Rocket League is an NJCAAe doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16. The Bucs will battle Mineral Area College before facing Daytona State College at 6 p.m.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 45 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
