TAMIU Esports Team Makes History, Travels to Nat’l Grand Finals LAN Tourney in Orlando

Let’s get this W.

Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) Esports student-athletes are taking aim at victory as they head to the 2025 Grand Finals LAN tournament for the National Association of College Esports (NACE).

For the first time in the program’s four-year history, the TAMIU’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (CoD) team will travel to the competition, happening April 24 – 27 in Orlando, FL.

Currently seeded in the Top 8 nationally in CoD, the TAMIU varsity team is made up of Angel Galván (Lotus), senior MIS major; Joshua García (Underscore), junior Computer Engineering major; Abdiel Meléndez (Melsky), junior Kinesiology major; and Diego Torres (Biimpi), sophomore Psychology/Criminal Justice major.

The University’s 4v4 will take on number one-seeded St. Clair Saints, Canada’s premier varsity Esports team at St. Clair College and 9-time national championship winning program in their first round Saturday, April 26.  

Also competing in this year’s tournament is Conestoga College, Cumberland University, Keyano College, Long Beach City College, University of Akron and West Virgina University.

The team, which collectively called themselves the underdogs, defied odds by making the Grand Finals, attributing much of their success to their team connection, chemistry and their constructive efforts toward supporting one another.

“I think that Esports has taught me you can be friends with everyone. There’s a lot of new people that we have met, people from different backgrounds and I think that it’s people that you might not think that you’ll get along…you meet so many people from different teams, and you figure out what made them into their games and why they want to compete,” said Galván.

The team has been practicing daily up to four hours in preparation for the upcoming competition, in addition to studying gameplay.

For Torres, CoD team captain, the opportunity to meet and play with other schools from across the country is exciting.

“The Esports community is bigger than you think. The amount of networking you can do within school or follow what other programs have done…. We build networks with other universities,” said Torres.

University Rec Sports director Robert Garza praised the University’s Esports team for their relentless dedication and hard work as they advance to compete on the national stage. 

“We are thrilled to have our Call of Duty team representing TAMIU in the Top 8! This is our first time participating in a Tournament of this magnitude, and we are confident that our team will make the University proud. Through this experience, we hope to gain greater exposure for TAMIU—as our players have said, 'We want to put TAMIU on the map’,” Garza said.

Previously, the University's Esports teams have made significant strides within collegiate gaming, including finishing fourth in the nation during the Call of Duty: Vanguard Starleague National tournament.

The University's Esports team is active on Twitch. View past streams by visiting https://www.twitch.tv/tamiuesports. Learn more about Esports at TAMIU by visiting https://go.tamiu.edu/esports. 

Registration for Maymester, Summer and Fall 2025 at TAMIU is now underway.

See the dedicated Registration Hub at https://go.tamiu.edu/registration. 

More of the University’s story is available on its social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube and online at tamiu.edu.

 TAMIU Esports athletes are headed to the 2025 Grand Finals LAN tournament for the National Association of College Esports. Pictured, from L - R: Abdiel Meléndez, Joshua García, Angel Galván and Diego Torres.