Super Smash Bros., anyone? New College and Ringling students kick off eSports rivalries

In an ambitious move by the newly-formed NCF eSports and Gaming Club, a group of amateur Novo Collegians took on some experienced Ringling College of Art and Design (RCAD) students on December 4 for a game of Super Smash Bros. It was the students’ first-ever intercollegiate rivalry and the beginning of an emerging trend for the neighboring athletes.

“Our team was a ragtag collection of Super Smash Bros. players who, before the competition, only played casually on their own time,” said thesis student Rhys Shananan, the founder and co-president of the New College team, which was just created this fall. “The Ringling team was a varsity team, which had already competed in Smash Bros. tournaments and had regular training, so we knew we were in for an uphill battle.”

Shanahan and his seven fellow students were ready, even with their limited competitive experience with the Nintendo fighting game. They arrived for the 5:30 p.m. Saturday match on the RCAD campus, which is just a five-minute drive from New College, and began livestreaming the games on Twitch.

Both teams were equipped with 18 lives (called “stocks” in Super Smash Bros.), with each player getting three lives each and competing until eliminated.

“Ringling had a nice setup [during the livestream] where viewers could see both the faces of the players playing as well as the actual video game itself in the center,” Shanahan said.

The New College team included Skylar “Sky” Kimball, playing as Sonic the Hedgehog; Joey “J” McMahon as Zero Suit Samus; Ari “Marshmallo” Ginsberg-Klemmt as Ness; Jarett “Virus” Ohana as Captain Falcon; Kranti “Daisy Rot” Jafar as Zelda; Nic “G Man” Steinig as Ganondorf; and January “Salad” Ohana as Pikachu.

“In Round 1, Ringling chose a character called Marth, who is almost as fast as Sky’s Sonic, but Marth has a longer reach than Sonic does, forcing Sky to play aggressively and close the distance,” Shanahan said. “Marth took one of Sky’s stocks first, but Sky respawned and managed to stun Marth and prepare a devastating powerup attack and throw Marth off the map, taking one of Ringling’s stocks. Their Marth did not let that happen again. Despite Sky’s aggressive playstyle and forcing Ringling to keep moving, Ringling managed to take out Sky’s remaining two stocks.”

The gaming continued for eight rounds, with Shanahan selecting various players based on their skill levels, like the “heavy-hitting” Captain Falcon and the “slippery” Zelda in Round 5. By Round 6, New College had lost five players to Ringling’s first two players; it was undoubtedly a show of prowess by the Ringling crew.

“If that doesn’t speak miles to Ringling’s training regimen and skill level, I don’t know what does,” Shanahan said. “But our sixth player was our best player, who I was saving for last. Nic Steinig won 11 out of 12 matches at the New College internal competition to find his placement amongst our team.”

Ultimately, New College lost the first competition against Ringling College, but both teams had a blast and can’t wait for the next game.

“I’m happy we managed to eliminate fully half of a well-trained, well-organized varsity eSports team, especially since our team was only successfully put together just a couple days earlier,” Shanahan said. “The teams will grow, they’ll become more organized and—hopefully, with some help from the school—we can get some facilities to start real dedicated practices and even offer scholarships to incoming students interested in competing in eSports.”

For more information on the NCF eSports and Gaming Club, visit novoconnect.ncf.edu/organization/ncfgaming.

To watch the December 4 livestream of the Super Smash Bros. game on Twitch, visit twitch.tv/rrollerssb.

Abby Weingarten is the senior editor in the Office of Communications & Marketing.