Esports club holds ‘Super Smash Bros.’ tournament

Prem Chandrasekar, Managing Editor

The Naperville Central Esports Club hosted a “Super Smash Bros.” Tournament on Feb. 7.

The tournament was the second “Smash” tournament held at Central this year.

“[The tournament] was a double elimination bracket, and each match was best of three games,” Esports club leader Rishabh Jain said. 

Twenty-four students participated in the tournament.

Senior Victor Carrol won the tournament, while freshman Debo Hassan and junior Braden Hajer came in second and third respectively.

“I had a pretty big feeling of accomplishment after getting second,” Hassan said. “At the last tournament, I was lucky to even make it eighth or ninth.”

The game, which was released in 2018, became really popular due to the simplicity of controls.

“A lot of people play [‘Smash Bros.’] and it provides a huge player base from casual to competitive playing, so even if you’re not that good at the game, you still have fun,” Jain said. “It can be competitive with the professional player, or you can just play it with your friends at home.” 

Hassan agrees, adding that just playing the game helped him make the grand finals.

“I didn’t do that much to prepare for the tournament because I went to team practice, which definitely sharpened my game-play, ” Hassan said.

Preparations for the tournament were extensive.

“We had to ask to borrow Nintendo Switches and then set them up,” Jain said. “We then set the mic connected to the monitors, made sure that the HDMI was on the dock and then set up the bracket.”

However, compared to earlier tournaments, this tournament went well because of the preparations. 

“The tournament went on smoother and smoother as the day went on,” “Smash” coach Will Ao said. “We peaked in performance for this tournament.”

Ao added they were planning on adding more features to tournaments to make it more accessible.

“We’re going to be adding a stream to one of the setups so people outside the school or players that want to look back at their matches can go watch,” Ao said. “There is also going to be commentary for that game.”

The next tournament will take place on Feb. 27 in Room 225.