Second NACE Smash Brothers Ultimate Match

The second NACE Smash Brothers Ultimate Match was held in the fairly new, E-sports arena in Atwood’s basement on Friday, October 13, 6 p.m. It pitted Saint Cloud States academy team for Super Smash bros against DePauls University.  It was a pretty close match but DePaul came out victorious.

The Matches themselves were being broadcasted on three screens. It was also being streamed on discord. The lighting setup was made to put the focus on the people playing the matches.

All the matches were relatively close. The first match had Samuel Rocha of the Saint Cloud State Academy Team playing as Cloud Strife, and the player playing for DePauls university playing as Mr gaming Watch. The player from DePaul kept using a certain attack over and over where the character throws bacon at his opponent. But the Saint Cloud States player knew how to block a lot of those attacks in the first game and ultimately came out victorious with a perfectly timed attack using a fairly large sword.

“Cloud Strife is really good. I think he fits me really well. He comes from my favorite game, so that passion carries over to my game plan. It’s good to have a character that’s really good in the landscape of the competitive scene and a character that you like” said Rocha.

The third match was between Captain Falcon, a character from a nintendo racing game, and Star fox, a character from a spaceship fighter game. This was another close match. SCSU played as Fox and DePaul played as Falcon. There was a bunch of blocking and a bunch of close calls. Captain Falcon would land his falcon punch move, but other times it would be blocked and countered by the academy team’s player. The academy team won the match with a well timed strike after a counter. The energy from the team was palpable. After every win, you could see the joy and genuine happiness that was coming off them. They were there to support one another and give pointers out as well.

Saint Cloud States academy team is only in its first semester at Saint Cloud State. This is the second time they have visited another school. For academy team member Jack Hanks, He sees the team getting better in the coming semesters. Jack also has a go to character as well called Wolfe, who he believes works with his play style.

Even though the academy team lost today, Sam Rocha views it as a learning opportunity. Rocha believes this match gave them stuff to review and stuff to work on. One of the things he mentioned is that staying and remaining calm will be the key to victory in later matches.