Super Smash Bros Tournament a smashing success

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Kris Kelnhofer

Juniors Burhan Alwaissi (front middle) and Stephen Bhend (front right) react to losing in the championship round of the doubles tournament. A.J. Straub and Austin Pagac won the tournament.

On Thursday, November 21, New Berlin West hosted a Super Smash Bros Melee tournament. At 5 p.m, hosted in the school cafeteria, around 40 people of various grades gathered to support this tournament.   The idea of the tournament was mainly created by Nate Latus, supported through the National Honors Society.

Contestants had the choice of entering a single-player tournament or a two-player team tournament. Many actually ended up doing both. The doubles tournament started first at 5 p.m. and the singles at 6 p.m. The scoring worked so that each player had three lives. A time limit of five minutes was also used to prevent the matches from taking too long.

Over 40 people paid the entrance fee of two dollars, which was donated to the military. The event was very well-organized; four screens were set up for game play, the concessions were sectioned off in a separate area, and there were generally no hiccups in moving along through the scheduled matches.

The winners of the doubles tournament included Austin Pagac and AJ Straub, and the winner of the singles tournament was Trey Rendon. The doubles winners won plush Mario and Luigi, and the singles winner won a GameStop gift card.

Of all the participants entered, only one team in the doubles tournament and only one player in the singles tournament were girls. Both did fairly well in the competition.  The singles player made it into the final four, and the doubles team made it into the consolation final four.

The atmosphere was quite energetic with fans rooting, hollering, and being generally jovial about the whole competition.

Participant Lauren Hugdahl, a senior, said that her favorite part of the tournament was “everyone getting excited about a game that I love”.

At the end of the tournament, participants were asked to leave suggestions for the next game selection when another competition rolls around.

When asked if the tournament was a success, NHS advisor Mrs. Leigh said “absolutely”.