Super Smash Bros., a Nintendo-made fighting game originally intended for casual play, showed its competitive side Saturday as professional players gathered for Heart of The South tournament.
The tournament, based around the popular Nintendo franchise, was held Saturday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
Fourth-year media arts student Andrew Zah is one of the co-organizers and founders of Heart of the South, and he said he wanted to create a larger tournament for gamers in the region, state and at the university.
“I decided to found this tournament series because South Carolina is lacking in large tournaments for Super Smash Bros,” Zah said in an email. “We have smaller events across cities in South Carolina, but not much that draws from other states. In addition, this is my last year at the University of South Carolina, and I’d like to host an amazing event before I potentially leave for my future career.”
Zah explained that his tournament is regional and is also a part of the Smash Bros. SC Circuit put together by individuals from Olympus eSports. Zah also mentioned players from North Carolina and Virginia also made the trip to Columbia for the event.
According to Zah, 125 people pre-registered for the event with 11 more signing up for it on the day of the tournament, totaling 136 participants for the competition. However, there were several people who were in attendance simply for the fun of playing the game.
"[T]here were people there who only wanted to do friendlies, and they weren’t counted." Zah estimated that about 150 to 160 people were in attendance at the tournament's peak.
According to Zah’s blog about the event, the total pot for the Wii U Singles tournament was $1390, $500 for the Melee singles bracket and $140 for the Melee doubles bracket. The victor in the Wii U Singles tournament won over $760.
Due to the success of the tournament, Zah hopes this will only propel the event to a national audience.
“I want to see Heart of the South become a national, multiple-day event,” Zah said. “One can only hope of getting top players to come out to South Carolina and play Super Smash Bros.”