On Oct. 24 the Student Veterans of America (SVA) debuted their first club event since before COVID by hosting a last-man-standing, winner-take-all “Super Smash Bros.” tournament in Danner Hall raising money for future events and promoting the club itself.
According to the SVA Secretary Joseph Lopez, they were told that the club had four months to plan an event otherwise the club would be seen as inactive and their funding would be pulled.
“Luckily, the last people who ran the club left money in the account, so we were able to use that to plan this event,” said Lopez.
To participate in the video game brawl, and snack on pizza provided by SVA, players had to pay a $5 entry fee and their names were placed into a hat to be drawn for competition.
Winners were to receive a $25 Best Buy gift card.
“We were a little nervous about how this would play out,” said Lopez.
But much to the surprise of SVA members and leaders, the event saw more than two dozen people participating.
“We are ecstatic with the turnout right now. This is doing way better than we thought, and it’s a great thing for the club…” said SVA President Kyle Silveira.
The team was, at one point, worried about running out of pizza because so many people were flooding in, but ended up having enough in the end.
As for the players, most brought controllers from home and were eager to play against people.
“I think it’s cool…,” said Khristian Ngim, a Delta student who played against his friend Erick Gonzalez and won. “I like how the game brings people together whether you’re good or bad.”
Gonzalez took his loss well, saying he wasn’t surprised because Ngim is so good.
“He beat me pretty bad…he just has more experience and is better than me,” said Gonzalez.
The tournament idea was a passion project from SVA Secretary Rafeal Sanchez, and all members of the club referred to it as his “brainchild”.
“This is my baby and I’m glad to see it going well,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez’s passion for video games and commitment to SVA stems from his experience as a range coach in the Marines.
“I love fighting games and I noticed everyone was playing smash bros…when I was in the military I used to play Tekken tournaments in Japan. I wanted to host it and see if it pops off,” said Sanchez.
As the idea came to fruition the club needed at least 10 signatures, but according to Sanchez received 30 signatures from people around Danner.
A total of $275 was raised during the tournament. With the money earned from the tournament, Sanchez hopes to do better for the veteran community.
Everyone involved in the event was so passionate. One student, Demitirus Javen Mestayer, volunteered his own microphone and controllers and helped SVA organize the tournament.
With so many people showing up, they had to extend the tournament beyond the original 5:30 end time.
Despite receiving permission from Student Services to go past their allotted time, Delta custodial staff asked the SVA to stop the event and they were unable to move forward.
The tournament still had 14 players who wanted to participate, and the winner was remained undecided, so as a result they scheduled a second tournament for Oct. 31.
The SVA also raised the prize to $100 cash, a $25 gift card to Best Buy, and a fairy tale poster.
Dawn Lopez was the winner of the tournament and praised the SVA for planning the event.
“I still don’t believe it I didn’t think I was going to make it too far, I knew there were good players…it was really fun – I liked how everyone was communicative and listening to feedback. It was very well put together. I can’t wait to see what they do with the next one,” said Lopez.
