What better way to start off the weekend than with video games, basketball, and pizza? Campus has been a little quiet, so the Esports program wondered, what better way to liven it up than with video games? The first on-campus event for the program was a Super Smash Bros. tournament. That turned out to be a massive success and pulled in a lot of people for a time of fun. This time was a single-elimination bracket tournament of newly released games NBA 2k21 and Madden NFL 2021. This brought out a different squad from before and opened up for a different experience altogether.
Tournament
Things had a rocky start with the tournaments, but it got worked out and things got on their merry way. Between the friendly banter and excited outbursts, things were starting to heat up. With each match came more and more fun. There was a ruleset implemented with the tournament called the four, three, two, one ruleset. That lays out to four quarters, three minutes per quarter, and twenty-one point mercy rule. Some matches hit the mercy rule pretty quickly while others were close and competitive. In the end, it was all fun and games.
Play-Offs
As it got closer to time, a stream of the NBA playoffs was shown on a blow-up screen. It brought in a few more people to check the score and see who was winning between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets. The battle between those teams has been intense and it was fun to enjoy it with all of the tournament goers.
Pizza
It was not until halfway through the tournament that the best part came through. What else could that be other than pizza? Domino’s pizza was brought in and enjoyed amongst the group. It was just a good tournament food and brought the entire experience together.
What did people think?
What did other people think about the event? Antwon Knight, president of the gaming club, had great things to say about the event. Knight was very happy to see a good turnout of attendees. When asked about future plans for events, Knight talked about possibly trying to make these kinds of events happen more often. That is coming from one of the organizers, but what about someone just attending the event? Chandler Williams was there to be a part of the tournament. When asked about what games he would like to see for tournaments or events in the future, Williams said they wanted to see more fighting genre games since he missed the last one.
What is to come?
The Esports program and gaming club are planning more events in the near future that anyone is welcome to come out to. There is talk about when the next event will be and over what games will be on the screens. There is a huge possibility that the next game could be FIFA, but that is still to be determined. There is also talk that tournaments might not be a part of future events, but instead, there are going to be gaming nights in place to be more welcoming to the less competitive students. Keep a lookout for flyers and announcements over the next event and come on out for a great time!
