A (Smash) Brotherhood

Every Wednesday at 5 p.m., gamers gather at Atwood Memorial Center’s Esports lounge for the Breakaway Super Smash Bros. Tournament. Over 20 students and gaming enthusiasts participated last week. The environment was both friendly and focused.

Super Smash Bros. Is a long running Nintendo video game franchise where players use iconic characters from Nintendo’s rich history like Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, and Pikachu. The game’s goal is to use various attacks like punches and kicks to knock your opponent off the stage. The more damage you take, the further you will be launched when hit. Some characters also have special items like a sword or a bow and arrow. Other characters have magic abilities, while some like Donkey Kong (a giant ape reminiscent of the classic King Kong) need only their fists to win the game.

Chase Neukam, director of Esports said events are streamed live every week on Twitch.TV. Breakaway serves as practice for the Smash club and the top players on the Varsity Smash team.

The season will culminate with the NorthStar tournament on March 10., coincidentally Mario (Mar10) day, at Atwood. “We have 130 people signed up right now, and we anticipate having 150 to 170 by the event,” Neukam added.

Both the latest Ultimate and the beloved Melee versions were played. Switch Pro controllers and GameCube controllers are the norm here, but a couple of players used keyboards to control the game.

The player EVANKWONDO using the character Marth (a skilled swordsman) started the Melee tournament with a win, but the bombs and boomerangs of player Perfect Sunset using Young Link (a Tolkien influenced reincarnation of legendary hero) proved too much for him in the quarterfinals. Perfect Sunset switched to the Peach character (a princess who is no damsel in distress) halfway through the round, boasting he could win with any character in the game.

Meanwhile players Sulroy and Tamale took their first round all the way to the wire, with Sulroy squeaking past with the Dr. Mario (Super Mario with a PHD) win. But Sulroy’s night would be disrupted by a sweeping win from player FoBanks in the quarterfinals.

Sunset knew he had his work cut out for him as he headed into a best-of-five semi-finals against FoBanks. They were trading blows and were locked in close games, but FoBanks, using the Falco character (a bird who uses a laser gun), managed to get the last kill in the first two matches. Sunset switched to Mr. Game and Watch for game three, but it was not enough to avoid the sweep by FoBanks.

Next up players Mcnutty and BLRASMU battled for the honor of facing Fobanks in the Finals.

Mcnutty’s Fox (a speedy gunner with powerful kicks) dismantled BLRASMUs Ice Climbers by splitting them up and juggling them off the map. Suffering minimum blows, Nutty’s speed controlled the pace of the series until game 3, when the ice climbers started landing their hits.  Nutty led the series 2-1 heading into the crucial Game 4. Nutty clutched out his final life and went on to win the series despite BLRASMUs valiant efforts.

Finally, at 9 p.m., the time had come. Fobanks with Falco vs. Nutty with Fox in the finals. Within 20 seconds Fobanks batted Nutty off the map. It didn’t take long for Nutty to even things up and begin a comeback. They dashed between each other, trying to land a killing blow. Nutty took games 1 and 2 despite falling behind early in both. Nutty’s focus was razor-sharp and Fobanks was getting frustrated by his inability to recover and grab the edge of the map.

Game 3 was on another level. Neither could outmatch the other until Nutty sacrificed his own life to finish off Fobanks below the ledge. While Fobanks was trying to grab the ledge to save himself from a bottomless pit, Nutty lunged off the cliff with a backflip and sent Fobanks flying to his doom with a downward jab. A feat he did twice. Later, it seemed Fobanks might be within reach of victory after he stole the ledge from Nutty, sending him to his final stock, but moments later, Nutty landed the series-ending blow with an up-air kick, sweeping the finals.

Nutty couldn’t be beat with Fox. His speed was top-tier, but Nutty maintained the focus to land powerful hits on his opponents and rack up damage. To cap it all off, his midair maneuvers were powerful and won him many games. Often risking everything, he had the precision to land hits when his foe was vulnerable.

In the end, who won and who lost the tournament wasn’t important, these players are bonded by friendship and a love of the game. A fellow Marth player, Nic Barney, drives from Wilmar every week to play with the guys because he loves the community.

Barney says, “This is one the most powerful, physical things I’ve ever experienced.”.