Weekly tournaments for the popular Super Smash Brothers, began last weekend on Fredericton’s University of New Brunswick campus.
“There were events held in Moncton and a few tournaments held at UNB which lead up to the Fredericton Gaming Expo 2014,” said Dustin Smith, tournament organizer. “That gathered enough hype to catch Mew2King’s attention.”
Mew2King, also known as Jason Zimmerman, brought a lot of attention to the Smash community in New Brunswick after coming first place in the Fredericton Gaming Expo last August. Since then, weekly events and tournaments have been sought out by locals in order to keep their skills in the game fresh and competitive.
“We probably have the strongest Super Smash Brothers Melee scene in Atlantic Canada,” Wilson said.
Smash Bros. is a fighting game where different video game characters go head-to-head in all out two player or even eight player brawls. The popular fighting game has gained a lot of momentum leading up to its newest release of Smash 4 in November for the Wii U console. The game is particularly popular in New Brunswick and Fredericton.
St. Thomas University’s Keaten Russell and UNB’s Evan Dennis competed last weekend during the Smash 4 singles finals. Russell made it to the final match through the loser’s bracket of the tournament.
“I hope that I can sort of develop my confidence and tools to improve and hopefully take first place in grand finals in the coming months.”
Player and part-time organizer Jesse Wilson has a good feeling about the local competition in Fredericton.
“Smash Bros. 4 is still new, but it seems to have been received really well,” Smith said. “And though it is controversial Project M (another version of the game) is also a great competitive game.”
Smith has high hopes that with different games every other week, the tournaments will bring together new players or get more people to try the game.
“Even though our community is small, nearly everyone is approachable and love to help new players out.”
