National Honor Society (NHS) recently hosted a gaming tournament with the popular new game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch. The four-day tournament was held at lunch for 40 participants with a $10 entry fee, $50 worth of gift cards as the top prize and $1 viewing fee for any students who wanted to watch.   The tournament was held March 4-7 as an NHS fundraiser.

Following the recent success of Nintendo’s fifth edition of the video game franchise, senior Kyle Pico and the NHS Officers wanted to provide an outlet for students to compete in the growing field of eSports, while raising funds for NHS and having fun.

“Super Smash [Bros.] Ultimate is a big video game that everybody is talking about, so we saw this as an opportunity to bring everyone together,” Pico said.

Each tournament round featured one six-minute match, where each of the 20 teams had a combined six lives. Each player could choose between 74 different characters.

With a first round bye, Team C.H.E.C. MATE, consisting of sophomores Jaxon Lee and Davin Wambogo blew by the second and third rounds to reach the semifinals. They defeated team USAA in the first semifinal game, with Lee pulling off the 1 player versus 2 player win.

As they moved to the finals, Lee and Wambogo cruised past the Gruesome Twosome, consisting of freshman Emmanuel Mijango and Nico Sanchez, defeating them 2-0 in a best of three series.

“Davin and I constantly practiced for five hours straight to prepare for this tournament,” Lee said. “It definitely paid off.”

In recent years, eSports, a form of competition using video games, has grown to a whole new level, with hundreds of professional teams competing in sold-out tournaments and amassing a large following of supporters who watch online.

Streaming platforms like Twitch recently have had success in providing viewers with live videos of these eSports tournaments, such as when the top platform for the Electronic Sports League, ESL_CSGO, brought in 587,794 concurrent viewers during a Counter-Strike tournament on March 3, 2019.

The Super Smash Bros. franchise began in 1999 on the Game Boy, and since the Nintendo Switch’s release in March 2017, fans were longing for a new edition to the game,  according to a Dec 7. CNET article.

“I was very excited when the game first came out, and I haven’t stopped playing since,” Lee said. “I already have over 180 hours playing.”

Correction: The initial reporting stated the entry fee was $1 and there were $25 in prize gift cards.  The entry fee was actually $10 per participant and the top prize was $50 worth of gift cards.