IKE vs. Davis: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

In 2020-2021, Eisenhower collaborated with Davis HS to create the ECUP Classics, an annual friendly competition involving video games between the two schools. In the first year of the ECUP Classics, Eisenhower hosted the Mario Kart Tournament, where we gloriously won thanks to my good friend Randy Marmolejo Sandoval. Last school year, in June 2023, Davis hosted the second event of this annual competition, this time the game being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (SSBU). The SSBU tournament was different from what we had anticipated it would be.

     First things first, this by no means is a way to disrespect Davis HS. The Eisenhower Infantry and Davis C.C.A.N. clubs had good intentions and wanted to give everyone a shot at something fun, and for that, we are grateful. This is just to figure out exactly what went wrong and how we can improve.

     Here, I have the perspectives of five people who were associated with the event. The interviewees consist of 2 Davis HS students, who asked to remain nameless, Mason Volin and Davian Chavez, who were both in the infantry club at the time and helped host the tournament, and our very own video game champion, Randy Sandoval, who placed 2nd in the SSBU tournament.

     Now, for those who don’t know/haven’t watched official SSBU tournaments, the format consists of a winners and losers bracket, each match is best out of 5, 1 vs 1, each player has three stocks (lives in-game), and each player was allowed to map their own controls. Stages are handpicked or limited by tournament officials who create a formal set of rules.  Randy shared that the student who placed 2nd in the Mario Kart tournament in 2022 gave a few suggestions regarding an SSBU tournament rule set/format– but they either heavily revised his rule set or completely ignored it. Frankly, it would’ve taken far too long if players were allowed to map their controls. For the main setup, they used the in-game Tournament Mode, which, by all means, works. Me and my friends have tried it before, and it's fun. It’s reasonable. But– due to how poorly they ran the event, many participants had to play against CPUs. And, lost. A thing with using Tournament Mode is that it’s single elimination. Imagine how sad it is for someone hoping to have fun playing against other people and losing to a literal bot! According to Davian, this was due to people not being called up properly: “-they gave you a random nickname, and some people were like, ‘Oh. Who the heck is Mustard?’”  The people running the tournament didn’t even use mics to call people. Mason didn’t even get to play because he couldn’t hear his name.

     With the attendance, according to Randy and the Davis Duo, there were around 40 participants, but Davian and Mason agreed that there were about 30. The type of people there were, as expected, nerds. “They looked like discord mods.” claimed one of the Davis students. “-it felt like bullying a bunch of noobs at the game…” stated Randy. He recalled seeing a kid spam a single move of a character he uses personally. That kid ungracefully won that match. Randy and the Davis Duo agreed there were around six people could play the game properly. Though Mason and Davian shared that they played the game, I don't actually know how good they are.

     With such a large, unskilled crowd, almost every match had no flare or interest. The matches were only hype and interesting when the good players faced, which was less than 20% of all participants. The time between the rounds was the event's highlight other than hype matches. The interviewees had this shared perspective. Randy said, “-they gave us enough breaks, I’d say. The break times were long enough to get the refills we needed…” One of the Davis students shared that the C.C.A.N club was selling food for a fundraiser. However, Mason claimed, “They went a little too overboard on the food and stuff. They mainly focused on making money rather than people having fun.” This can be seen in how it was run.

     With everything put on the table, the format is simple and family-friendly. The friendly format is complemented by the casual crowd that participated, “I’m pretty sure most of them joined for fun,“ shared Randy. Which is what the ECUP Classics are meant for. "To grow a supportive community so students feel safe to take risks and discover their passion." From the perspective of the Infantry Club, the C.C.A.N Club used the tournament to make money. The Infantry Club had very little contact with the C.C.A.N Club, which had zero control or influence over how things were run in the tournament. Of course, they raised money for a good cause, but they could’ve at least paid more attention to what they were advertising in the first place. All five interviewees agreed that the tournament could’ve been better run. If someone who actually cared for the game were in charge, perhaps it could’ve been better. All in all, the event was a success. The people had fun and enjoyed themselves.