On Friday, Feb. 21 the Esports Club collaborated with a group from Arsenal Comics, bringing the first ever Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournament called “School of Smash” to Moorpark College.

Held in room 217 of Moorpark College’s Technology building, the tournament featured over 30 attendees who all competed for a chance at winning the tournament or finishing as one of the top three players.

The tournament organizer from Arsenal Comics, Kennedy Collier worked with the Esports club and organized the bracket for the singles tournament. Collier also noted the large turnout for the event.

Collier stated, “I was surprised that we got 32 (attendees), I thought we were gonna get 20, on a good day.”

The venue opened up at 4:30 p.m. and officially started at 5:15 p.m. with four Nintendo Switches setup around the room with Gamecube adapters, and all were hooked up to their own flat screen TV to play on.

Some of the setups were donated by competitors in the tournament in order to allow more people to play at once, and to help the tournament run more smoothly.

The rules for each match were three lives per player with an eight minute match timer. Most matches were best of three, but during winners-finals, losers-finals and grand finals, matches were best of five.

The event was also sponsored by Tespa, a collegiate Esports organization, who offered smaller prizes to giveaway to Moorpark College students such as Tespa branded pillows, a Tespa notebook and a couple of SteelSeries mouse pads.

The president of the Esports Club, Eric Casas mentioned that he would love to continue moving up Tespa’s ranking system by continuing to work with them in the future.

There were minor technical difficulties with certain controllers since of them were wireless and those controllers were still connected to certain setups which delayed some matches by a few minutes.

There were not enough setups for every competitor to use at once, so there were moments for competitors to relax while waiting for their turn. Off to the side, a small area of the tournament started up where competitors could play a different game called “Rivals of Aether” while waiting for their turn.

That area of the event later turned into its own smaller tournament for “Rivals of Aether.” Competitors were able to compete in that competition absolutely free, but there were no prizes offered for it.

The tournament lasted nearly four hours, and had ended around 9:30 p.m., but the room remained open until 10, so a few people continued to play against each other.

The third place winner was Cort Johnson, also known as Venus, and his main character was Luigi. He won 10% of the prize pool which was $16.

Second place went to James Litster, also known as The Kid, whose main character was Snake. He won 30% of the prize pool which was $48.

The first place winner was Robbie Bergamn, also known as Bob the Dusclops, whose main character was R.O.B. He won 60% of the prize pool which was $96.

“This is a really good environment. I go to Moorpark, and I didn’t really know that we had a place like this,” Litster stated. “I’m really glad I found it because this was a really sick venue, and just a really good vibe.”

Despite the competitive nature, people were friendly and supported each other throughout the tournament.

The faculty advisor of the Esports Club, Jonathan Bair, commented on the civility of the tournament.

“Everyone was extremely friendly, there was a lot of good positivity in here and even if people lost, there was uplifting I heard.” Bair added on. “That sportsmanship is amazing to see. The camaraderie is amazing to see too, and it was just great to have everyone in here.”

The Esports Club plans to do another tournament next month, but the date is still undetermined.

“Not weekly, but at the very least monthly, we’d love to do that. To give the people in the smash community a place to go to and play, while also keeping our meetings open for people that want to play other games as well, and give them representation as well.” Casas stated.

For any questions regarding future tournaments, or any updates on the Esports club, follow the Esports club on Instagram.