St. Edward’s Esports hosted a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament for students and gamers to participate in. The St. Andre Multipurpose Room was transformed into a gaming hub, with monitors running various video games.
The tournament kicked off at 3 p.m. after participants signed up for bracket placement. Each match was a 1v1 with the winner being best of three. There was both a winners bracket for undefeated gamers and a losers bracket, where gamers could get a second chance to win. After losing two games, players were out of the running for the prizes offered.
The most coveted prize offered was a Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart installed in it. There was also a Universal Arcade Stick F500 V2, a Nintendo controller, a box of goodies fitted with Red Bulls, electronic wipes and GripShield. Esports also raffled off branded water bottles to participants in the event.
Upon entering, there was a table offering snacks, drinks and of course, Red Bulls, which the Esports program has a sponsorship with. AUSTEA provided different tea and milk tea beverages, and Jersey Mikes also sponsored the event, providing sandwiches for all participants.
There was a significant turnout for the event, and matches started right around 3:15 p.m. due to technical difficulties. Multiple battle stations were set up, and Esports called different players by their gamertags and directed them to their stages as the battles commenced. For attendees who weren’t playing, there were monitors lining the room with various video games they could play. Most attendees simply watched the matches, rooting for strangers and friends as the tournament went on.
In the back of the room, Esports set up a ‘main stage’ which was streamed live to their Twitch, and also projected onto a large screen in the room. When matches weren’t playing, they had players from the official Smash team battle to entertain both the room and the viewers on Twitch. Between matches, they would show the bracket, outlining who was still in competition and which matches were next up.
As the matches started to wean out players, Esports provided commentary on the main stage matches. Players from the Smash team and occasionally head coach Tony Zhong would tell spectators what was happening, and outline strategic moves by the competitors.
Some Esports players participated in the matches, with the catch of not being able to win prizes. Two were eliminated, but one stayed on until the final matches. The final matches between non-Esports players started with players ‘LaserXL’ and ‘ethangorelick’, with the winner being best of five, not three like previous games.
- Winner Ethan Gorelick poses with his prize, a Nintendo Switch. He attended a previous on-campus Smash tournament his freshman year. “This time went exponentially better,” he said. “The first time was my freshman year and I think I fought two people and lost on the second round. So I went way further this time. I think this event was a lot more well established as well, so it was very fun, good hosting.” (Hailey Womack / Hilltop Views)
Ethan Gorelick secured the win against LaserXL before facing an Esports player, sophomore Wes Daniels, in the Grand Finals. Since Gorelick had won in the losers bracket, he needed to win one match as a ‘reset’ before facing Daniels in the last match. There was stunning gameplay back and forth, and the first match went to the fifth round, before Gorelick secured the first win. However, Gorelick lost in the final match. Since Daniels was unable to claim a prize, Gorelick was first in line and chose the Nintendo Switch.
“I think the competition was very strong the whole way through,” Gorelick said. “Gave me a run for my money, especially towards the end. It was very fun, good, healthy competition.”
Zhong was appreciative of the turnout to the event, and looks forward to hosting a similar one next semester.
“I love the turnout. When I first got here at three, there were people walking in and out the door,” Zhong said. “I think there was at least 50 people (that) attended. It just kind of sucks that I didn’t really know how the turnout was going to be. I didn’t plan for a lot more people to show up than I intended. I mean, this room fits 80 people and at one point it felt like there was 80 people in here. I want this event to engage the entire campus. I want to reach more audiences, even maybe the casual players, or maybe involve Mario Kart next semester. I’m simply looking to expand and see how I can do it. But I love the turnout, I love how enthusiastic players are and overall I think that players had a great time and that was reflected to me. So I hope I could host another event like this in the spring.”
