eSports Meets Lane Stadium

By Nels Williams

Staff Writer

May 4, 2022

On Tuesday, April 26, it wasn’t football that was being played in Lane Stadium. It was a tournament for the popular fighting game for the Nintendo Switch: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Sponsored by CoStar Group and in association with the Virginia eSports Association, roughly 100 members of the Super Smash Bros Club gathered in the south end zone box to compete in a year-end tournament, with the winner receiving $500.

Attendees could also enjoy catered food and drink as well as participate in a raffle and take free giveaways provided by CoStar Group.

“I never really thought anything like this would happen since Smash by nature has always been a grassroots competitive scene,” said junior Ryan Breedlove, current Vice President and future President of Smash Club.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, or Ultimate for short, released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U on December 6, 2018. It has since sold 27.4 million copies on the Switch, making it the best-selling fighting game of all time in the United States, per NPD Group.

Officially established in 2013, Super Smash Bros Club has roughly 900 members in their Discord server, their main platform of communication for upcoming events and information regarding their typical weekly tournament, “We Tech Those.”

“I think the awareness of our club has grown a lot, especially since (Ultimate) came out,” club president and senior James Park said, who is wrapping up his tenure as President of the club. “People are more aware of all the opportunities that are available to them to join.”

“We Tech Those” is typically hosted in classrooms located on-campus, and is broadcast live for free to watch on their Twitch.tv account, SmashUltVT.

While the Lane Stadium event was solely focused on Ultimate, “We Tech Those” holds tournaments for members who compete in Ultimate, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Project+, a mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Across the United States, hundreds of small, local Smash Bros tournaments are hosted at gaming centers, colleges and universities, and community centers, but many are unable to support prize pools for the winners.

“The event was really cool. It’s not common for sponsored events to happen so the prize pool motivated players a lot to play their best,” said Liam “Lanon” Carey, who defeated his older brother Kevin “Kev” Carey three sets to one, to win the $500 grand prize.

For more information on the Super Smash Bros Club, you can join and check out their Discord at discord.gg/ajzfPkb.