If you like video games, I highly recommend that you find a local community for your favorite games. Often times you’ll find groups of people who share the same interests as you do, and often they’ll get together and have local tournaments. Tournaments are a great way to interact and meet new people, all the while getting to play your favorite game and improve your skills.

My name is Austin, more commonly know in my community of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo Wii U as TheEvilTurnip. A little over half a year ago I offered to take over the TO position for the Binghamton Smash Bros. scene in my region. I just thought I would take a minute and talk about what this experience has been like for me, what I hope to get out of it, and what I'd like to give back to the community.

Firstly, I TO a biweekly Smash Wii U tournament as part of Binghamton University’s Video Game Association, and there are definitely a lot of added on obstacles that come along with not being hosted out of a proper venue. We are fortunate enough to have many people interested in competing in this game, however, this can create a tournament turnout to up to about 50 people at times, and running a double elimination bracket in the span of three hours is not something that can be done easily in a tournament of this size. Why three hours? Well, that is the time we are allotted in the room we have reserved on campus. But we do our best to make it work.

There are many things to consider. Naturally, there is the preregistration process. One of my colleagues creates a polling system and the bracket which I am granted access. Throughout the week, from the time the preregistration goes live to the hour of the actual tournament, I am periodically checking for new participants and added them into the bracket and trying to seed them as best as I can, taking into consideration player skill-level and trying not to pair close friends against each other early on.

On the day of the tournament, I drive my car to campus with my equipment. This includes a Wii U and a flat screen TV (to play the game on), a laptop and capture card (to record some matches), and a small tablet (to view and edit the bracket on). The rest of the e-board and I plead with the community to bring whatever tournament setups as they can, as the more setups we have the faster we can get through the tournament. It’s always a race against the clock to finish the tournament in time. When we are let into the venue, it’s go time. There’s always a sense of urgency when it comes to setting everything up in a timely manner, hooking up all my equipment, getting the recording set up, etc. All the while trying to split my focus enough to add in all the last minute players who register for the tournament right there.

When all is said and done, it’s time to call out the first matches, and just like that the tournament is underway. A big part of it is efficiency, calling out the next match to be played as soon as a previous one is reported and the results are entered into the bracket system. Also, I am not just a TO, I’m a competitor also. When it’s time for one of my matches to be played, there are a few people I trust enough to hand over my tablet to and temporarily act as TO while I play (don’t worry, I tend to win my matches quickly). With the cooperation with all the participants, a potentially very stressful event can turn into a really great experience.

There are a few responsibilities that I have taken on beyond simply organizing the tournament as well, mostly on my own accord. As I mentioned before, I like to record the gameplay of the matches that are recorded on my setup. I’ll later edit this and upload them to YouTube on my channel with custom thumbnails and all. This is a process that does take a pretty large chunk of time, but I enjoy it and I like having an archive of previous matches so that I and the rest of the players can look back and analyze their matches and maybe watch some matches that they missed before. I am also able to export the tournament bracket data and use an online tool to create ELO rankings of all the players. These rankings are based on wins and loses, but further who one wins and losses against. This allows players to see how they compare against other players from a non-biased perspective and it also allows me to seed them more accurately in the bracket.

So what does competitive gaming mean to me? Overall I have a love for the game and the community of players therein. Smash Bros. has become a passion of my life and being a part of this community as both a TO and a competitor has been a wonderful experience overall. I have made many good friends along the way and I don’t really know where I would be without them, even beyond the game. As this new season of Binghamton Smash kicks off, I want to create an environment where everyone is able to share the and discover the benefits of practicing and improving alongside one another, as rivals and friends.