Heart of the South, a new regional Super Smash Bros. tournament, was held in Columbia this weekend. The tournament drew more than a hundred players to compete with a pot over a thousand dollars. Students contributed to the organization of the event.
We welcome the tournament to Columbia and hope it recurs next year. While the university is well known as a sports school, other forms of competition are less popular on campus. But with the national and international rise of eSports, that is quickly changing. Interest in Smash Bros. and similar events is large on campus and it has now been proven that competitions can draw players and an audience.
Student organization of this event also shows that other students could do it for other eSports and similar activities. We encourage other interested students and organizations to form events for other competitive games, from League of Legends to board games. While we are not well known for these competitions, that could easily change with their rising popularity.
Additionally, these sorts of events allow for the recruitment mantra that the university has hundreds of clubs and gives the ability to form more a real-world application. Even if a formal club for a game doesn’t exist, university policy means that one could be formed easily. In a school with over 30,000 students, finding the minimum number of people to form a club, and then competitions, should be relatively easy.
In the end, these competitions allow for alternatives and supplements to sporting events for those who prefer the precision and timing of Smash Bros. to the physical power and speed of conventional sports. Their existence helps build a niche for more types of students, ultimately strengthening the student body and university as a whole.
We applaud the success of Heart of the South and hope that other events follow in its wake.