Today: Mar 28, 2024

Super Smash Bros. tournament for students

Sarah SheltonFeatures Editor 

Three, two, one. Go! 

On Tuesday, Feb. 22, Programs Council, also known as ProCon, held a “Super Smash Bros” tournament on the Nintendo Switch. 

The event was held in Farnham Programming Space with two Nintendo Switches set up, one for the tournament and one for Mario Kart, which was set up “just for fun,” according to ProCon’s Instagram. 

“One of our nighttime committee members, Ramsley came up with the idea for this event last semester and we decided to do the event this semester,” senior nighttime programmer Katie Kost said. 

Kost said they purchased the two Nintendo Switches with their semesterly committee budgets, but they were not very well versed with the video game. 

“We’re going to do a practice round first, assuming not everyone knows how to play,” Nighttime programmer Ramsley Exantus said. “Third place gets a $25 Amazon gift card, second gets $50, and the final winner gets $125.” 

Seven people showed up to play “Super Smash Bros”, which turned to Six when a student said he “gave up” after the practice round. 

“I personally expected there to be more of a turnout at the event but regardless I was happy that the students that did attend had a good time,” Kost said. 

Each student playing introduced themselves to each other while eating snacks and setting up the game. 

“I love the atmosphere. I love the energy. we’re here for the love of the sport, the e-sport, and the recreation,” English creative writing major Maciel Valle, a junior, said. 

Valle said he has been playing this game with his brothers and friends since the GameCube came out.  

When opening the game for the practice round, the first four students playing immediately laughed at how many characters options there were to choose from, the rest of the characters still have not been unlocked.  

According to Computer Science major Miles Meade, a junior, he was not used to that.  

“If it wasn’t raining, I could have just gone and got my own switch,” Meade said.  

Valle said he typically plays as PacMan, but because of the limited character option, he played as Kirby. 

“It must be tough for them because their mains aren’t in the roster,” communications major Chris Rosales, a senior, said.  

Some students even brought their own controllers. 

“I was just sitting here and I saw students bringing their own controllers,” Exantus said. 

The controllers they had were the JoyCon controllers that come on the side of the Nintendo Switch screen, but ProCon let the students who brought their own set it up. 

“I’m not using a single joycon. Maybe for Mario Kart, but not for smash,” Rosales said. 

Rosales brought a pro controller that was able to connect to the switch without a wire, just like the JoyCons.  

After the initial practice round and every few rounds after that, a character battle would come up with a computer, CPU, character. The winning player had to fight this CPU because that is how characters are unlocked in the game. 

The six students playing decided together how they were going to conduct the tournament, what rules they were using, picked the amount of stock (lives) they will each have per round and picked what items they wanted during the rounds. 

“They’re running the event,” Kost laughed to the other programmers when the students started setting it up. 

Communications major Alex Grant, a junior, took over on running the tournament to make it as to make sure everyone got a chance to play. 

“To kind of become a part of organizing it was fun,” Grant said. “It was definitely a little nerve wracking, but, I’ve done it a few times before, so it wasn’t too bad.”

Each student had the chance to play a few times because the students decided to make it a double-elimination tournament. 

This had Grant writing on the whiteboard trying to keep track of who goes next, who was winning and who was losing. 

“My pinkies just went numb,” Meade said after his first game.  

Grant is a part of the eSports club and many players on campus know him for being good at the game. His old roommate, Meade, said he thought about him the second his current roommate told him about the tournament happening. 

“Alex I know will wreck anyone at this game,” Meade said. 

He was right because Grant came in first place winning the $125 Amazon gift card. 

“Everyone did really well,” Grant said. 

This may have been a ProCon event, but Grant said he participates in monthly tournaments with eSports.  

“Southern eSports, fantastic club on campus,” Grant said. “They do smash tournaments usually monthly and they’re fantastic.” 

Chris Rosales, Alex Grant and a few other students getting ready for their practice round | Sarah Shelton

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