There could only be one winner in a pool of 64 primed San Jose State gamers.
Students came prepared Wednesday night for seven-minute matchups of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, ready to take home a prize of $1,000.
Christmas came early for animation and illustration sophomore Claire Kerr, who used the screen name “saNTa!!!,” as she took home the first place prize.
The tournament, hosted by smash.gg, had vanilla Smash duels with three lives, no hazards and no items. The double-elimination tournament gave students a second chance before being eliminated.
Tensions ran high in the round of 64 with students bringing out their best characters hoping to get in a rhythm for the rest of
the tournament.
Software engineering junior Gabriel Tenocelotl was competing in his second Smash tournament and faced sophomore psychology major Kevin Pham in the first round.
“It had intense vibes for a first match because I didn’t have any warm-ups so I was a little scared that I needed to practice,” Tenocelotl said.
Tenocelotl stuck with his main character, Yoshi, while Pham came prepared with hours of practice with the Pokemon Incineroar.
Pham did not keep up with the nimble play style Yoshi brought to the matchup and lost to Tenocelotl.
“This guy is wrecking my shit right now,” Pham said. “He’s destroying me and tossing me around.”
Other first round matches had players on the edge of their chairs, including mechanical engineering freshman Diego Andaluz, who lost to cognitive science junior David Eloey.
“It’s pretty nerve wracking,” Andaluz said. “But after the first match I felt kind of good, but after I heard all the clicks from his controller I knew this guy means business, I needed to get amped up.”
Andaluz couldn’t match Eloey, who was using the character Chrom from the “Fire Emblem” franchise, and lost the match.
“I’m probably gonna win,” Eloey said. “I came here knowing I was gonna win it all.”
Eloey, also known by his screen name Bingsu, said he wasn’t nervous like other competitors were, breaking the game down into pieces rather than looking at it on a larger scale.
“Smash is kind of like a puzzle because not every player plays the same,” Eloey said. “Some people play more aggressive, some people play more passive, it’s kind of like using your brain and not playing against the character in the game, but against the player playing the game.”
Eloey seemed to have the puzzle solved for the majority of the tournament, beating out opponents in the round of 64 and Sweet 16 to finally make his way to the grand finals.
There he faced off against animation and illustration sophomore Claire Kerr, aka “saNTa!!!.” But it wasn’t their first time meeting on the battlefield.
“[Eloey and I] play a lot and his play style was a lot different then what we do in friendlies,” Kerr said.
Kerr went into the championship primed with Pac-Man as her main character, ready to take down Eloey and his Ridley gameplay. Ridley comes from the “Metroid” franchise.
Eloey had lost a match in the Sweet 16, so to win it all he needed to beat Kerr twice in a best two-out-of-three finale.
Eloey came out swinging, taking the first three matches against saNTa!!! 3-0.
Kerr said the first round against Eloey was far different than the friendly matches they have played before, leading her to adjust how she handled the final round.
“In every match you change your play style constantly,” Kerr said. “You need to see what they’re doing and react. It’s 70% a mental game and 30% a hand game.”
Kerr was in the zone after dropping the first match and did not seem to let up.
The opponents were engaged on screen, exchanging blows back and forth while their damage percentages rose.
Kerr whispered “sexy” under her breath after Eloey landed a massive hit on her character. But his “sexy” gameplay wasn’t enough to take the grand prize home.
After losing, Eloey kept his head high, and took home a $200 prize. He said he was happy his friend was able to beat him.
“I’m not that upset,” Eloey said. “I think it’s great because [Kerr] and I, when we first started playing Smash here, she was the only one I played friendlies with and it’s crazy because we were both in the
grand finals.”
He said the $200 he won will mostly be funding his next few trips to the bar.
“I’m not pissed to be honest because I get to have shots and I got money to pay for my shots,” Eloey said.
For the champion, her prize money will help her break even with years of competing in Smash tournaments. Kerr said she has competed in around 90 Smash tournaments so far.
“I’m going to treat it like I’m paying off all my tournament entry fees from the past five years,” Kerr said.
