Wilkes University Esports officially kicks off with their first matches of the season this week. The organization has grown so much since it was first introduced one year ago by the legendary Robert Eskra, assisted by coach Val. As of now, we have a team for five games: “Rocket League,” “Overwatch 2,” “League of Legends,” “Valorant” and my specialty “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.”
I think I speak for everyone in the Esports organization that we are very excited to start this season. Mostly every player is coming in hot with their practice and we are pumped up to defeat one college after the next in competition. Since I am a Smash player, I will give some insight on the competitive scene for collegiate, team-based Smash leagues.
The format of our competition is a special mode called crew battle. Two teams of four players play against each other in a line-up format. Team A sends in Player 1 and Team B sends in Player 1 at the same time. The winner of the first match moves on to round two with the same amount of stocks that they finished the last match. Suppose Team B needs to send in a new player after their lead was eliminated. The entire Team B is allowed to strategize characters, players and stage bans as they send in Player 2. The first team to be completely eliminated loses the match. Since this is a competitive scene, it is traditional to play an entire set (best of three) against the opponent.
There are a couple of additional rules to take note of, in case you would like to gather your friends and try this format for yourself. The same character cannot appear twice on a single team during the match. Once you have picked a character for the match, you must stick with that character until the next one. The stage-pick is done through a traditional banning system, which includes: Final Destination, Battlefield, Small Battlefield, Pokemon Stadium 2, Town and City, Smashville, Kalos and Hollow Bastion. Stage bans depend on the winner of a match, though a lot of players like to “gentleman into PS2.”
The conference that Wilkes Esports is signed under is called the National Esports Collegiate Conference, or NECC. This organization spans the entire United States and includes hundreds of colleges and universities. The organizers of the conference have designated members for writing the rulebook for each of the games. These people are the ones who decide how competitions go and are constantly adjusting rules based on direct feedback from teams.
It is thanks to such a considerable amount of effort that I, and lots of others like myself, am able to compete in my favorite video game while on campus. Some of those other people are my teammates whom I met through the program. They are worth cheering for.
Last year, our star player was Mooch, aka Drew Fiedler. He mains Pac-Man, Pokemon Trainer and Kazuya and was able to wipe out entire teams by himself. Unfortunately, he graduated, so we have some big shoes to fill. He can still be seen on stream attending local tournaments.
Our current standing team includes Toggers (Robert Thomas), Cheese Toast (Logan Dickson) and myself, Master Freeze with the addition of a handful of substitute players who will soon make a name for themselves.
Toggers mains Ness…but I promise it’s not what you think. While many Ness players spam “PK Fire” and make it hell for their opponent, Rob takes a new approach that makes the game practically unplayable if you don’t know the matchup. He makes great use of aerials, throws and just a sprinkle of special moves to absolutely dominate.
Cheese Toast has experienced quite the improvement arc, originally maining Little Mac before switching to a more viable character: Samus. His movement as Samus combined with the stylish tossing of projectiles is very impressive. You should take a look at his controller, which we call the “cheese machine”.
As for Master Freeze, I play Snake and Mr. Game & Watch. I will let you challenge me if you want to find out how I defeat my opponents. I am also working on improving my other favorites: Wario, Lucario and Villager. Surely, I will be unstoppable.
Finally, I want to give a special thanks to our coach, Valentino Timonte, who dedicates so much time for the organization and has been the reason for so much improvement that we have all experienced as competitors.