Super Smash Brothers Tournament brings on the competition

The Utah Valley Intramurals and UVU Esports held a “1v1” bracket tournament for the Nintendo fighting game Super Smash Bros. Aug. 30 at 1 p.m. in the SL Gaming Center. Along with the competitive gaming, there were raffles for water bottles and gift baskets. The first place prize was a $25 gift card for anything at UVU and second place got $15 gift card for the same thing.

“We do all sorts of different events. We try to at least once a block do special events like [smash bros] or bowling,” said Braiden Labrum, an exercise science and recreation major.

The Intramurals provides a variety of activities including Esports. According to Calvin South, a game design major and fighting games manager for UVU Esports, the Esports club is the “largest student run club,” at UVU.

Many players were casual gamers, and even a few who played in Smash tournaments competitively around Utah emerged for this small event.

“I am casual competitive, I learn the combos, skill sets and the metta about the character but I probably wouldn’t survive a competitive match,” said Christian Aldrich, an electrical engineering major and one of the finalists.

The rules were straightforward and quick. There was a six minute timer and the competitors had two lives or “stocks.” To any casual gamer this a classic setup for the Smash bros series going back to the Nintendo 64. Since there are many more platforms in the newest installment of the game, only six simple map selections were allowed. “Dreamland” and “Town and City” were the most played with the other being ironically the final in the tournament “Final Destination.” Some may know it as the map where you fight the “Master Hand.”

All characters were allowed, but the favorites used in the tournament were Falco, Link and the iconic Mario.

The winner of the tournament was Brent Aguilera, a computer science and software engineer major who won with an uppercut spin move with the character R.O.B. against Mario. His skills were prominent through his matches and showed off the fact that he used to play competitively with his choice character R.O.B.

“I used to play competitively, I used to go to tournaments, I recently stopped playing for the last [two years]. I just kinda said ‘hey this looks pretty fun’ so I just decided to come,” said Aguilera. Unlucky for those who faced off against him, many only lasted two minutes for the two matches needed to win. The final competitor, Aldrich, lasted the longest and won a round but lost the first and third.