This year at Heritage, Ms.Sawyer, Kai Courtney who is a junior this year, and a few others worked together to start the Super Smash Bros Tournament. They had to do a lot of planning before they could make the Tournament official. In fact, Courtney said, “One thing I feel like I’m really good at is planning.” Courtney explained, “It was very fun having something that we just thought of as a small idea turn into a reality.” Courtney and Ms. Sawyer set up a way for any student who attends Heritage to be able to sign up for the Tournament. To enter the Tournament, all you had to do was sign up and pay the $5 entry fee. This entry fee went towards funding the ESports team and game design class go to the Dream Hack conference in Atlanta. Those who signed up for the Tournament started in the top bracket in the first round. The players who won in this bracket moved on to the next round of the Tournament, while those who lost were moved down to the losers bracket for one last chance to advance further in the Tournament. Once they lost in the loser’s bracket, they were out of the competition for good.
The bracket itself was made by senior Riker Dillard who was one of the people who assisted in setting up the Tournament. Riker was tasked with managing the dates and confirming that the players were aware of their match times. He was also in charge of rescheduling if the need to do so arose. He said that he wouldn’t place a bet on who was going to win because the future seemed so unpredictable. Riker suggested, however, that Jay Williams (StevieJayW) had the most potential to win the final round because junior Austin Whaley (Williams’ opponent) “solely plays one character.” He explained that this is an issue because, “If you don’t switch up characters with Jay, it’s really easy for him to figure out your playstyle.”
Courtney explained that he had confidence in junior Hayden Powers (AllTimeRedPig), and he hoped Powers would making it to the end of the Tournament. Even though Powers made it all the way to the semifinals, he ended up losing that round. Because he lost, he was bumped down to the loser’s bracket. He battled against Austin Whaley (Ginger) in the loser’s bracket and lost. Because Whaley won against Powers, he moved back up to the top bracket, progressing and going up against Jay Williams in the finals. Whaley and Williams fought as hard as they could in the final round, but in the end, only one player came out on top. In this final round, Whaley beat Williams and won the entire Tournament. Whaley said that the best part of the Tournament was, “the loser’s finals.” He said, “that was my favorite match against Hayden.” He disclosed that he felt the round against Powers was very nerve-wracking because it was a very balanced match. Since Whaley won the Tournament, he ended up getting a trophy of his own making. He put a lot of work into making this trophy, not thinking that he would be the one to receive it. Overall, everyone included in the Tournament had a fun time and several people have expressed interest in the possibility of another Smash Bros Tournament next year.
