Interest is high in Blinn College’s new esports teams that will begin competition this fall.
Coach Aaron Kapiko said tryouts for the coed teams will begin Monday, Aug. 10. Fulltime students from all Blinn campuses are eligible to try out.
Teams will be based on the Bryan and Brenham campuses, but members from other campuses will be able to participate remotely much of the time.
“A lot of students have shown interest for a variety of games,” said Kapiko, who took over as the program’s inaugural coach in July. Almost 70 students already have applied for the tryouts.
Blinn is one of just a few community colleges in the region offering esports scholarships. In addition to players, the College also is recruiting students to help with production, streaming, casting, content creation, and social media.
Kapiko said students can sign up for tryouts at www.blinn.edu/esports. They also can ask questions and get more information at https://discord.com/invite/wygXe3t.
Blinn will compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). Both teams will be matched against two-year colleges and four-year universities.
NACE competition will include League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Smash Brothers Ultimate, and Valorant.
NJCAA competition will consist of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Rainbow Six, Rocket League, Valorant, Madden (for Playstation 4), and Smash Brothers Ultimate (on Nintendo Switch).
The NJCAA league will include postseason play, with the first round beginning Nov. 15. Schedule information also is available at www.blinn.edu/esports.
The teams will also compete in a collegiate Call of Duty league.
“The teams, for each of their respective games, will practice three or four times a week and then compete one or two times a week, depending on the game or league they are in,” he said. “Some games are broken down by region. Some of them are with teams from anywhere in the country. It varies from title to title.”
Postseason play will feature teams with the best records. They will be seeded and placed in a playoff bracket, which may be single or double elimination, depending on the game.
Blinn esports participants receive a quality, affordable education while they compete. Blinn’s academic transfer rate is the highest in the state, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s CollegeForAllTexans.com shows that out-of-district Blinn students taking 30 credit hours will save $4,514 (44%) in tuition and fees compared to in-state residents at the average Texas public university.
Registration is now available for the Fall semester, which begins Monday, Aug. 24. To learn more, visit www.blinn.edu.