On Friday, January 30th, Sewanhaka High School held its third annual Super Smash Bros Tournament in the Board Room after school.This fun, competitive event was held by Sewanha-Con, the school’s pop culture club, to bring together the teachers, as participants and students as spectators, cheering for or against their favorite teachers. The host of the event was 11th grader Jonas Carrillo.
Super Smash-Bros is a platform fighting video game that features a variety of cross-over characters from other Nintendo games for players to choose from. Players can choose iconic characters from Kirby to Link and battle others across a variety of stages. This game, unlike other traditional video games, includes knocking off opponents off the stage to dwindle their lives, while managing damage done by opponents, and utilizing the character’s specific moves to the player’s advantage.
Sixteen teachers partook in the tournament: Mr. Mirsky, Mr. Aragon, Ms. Avanzi, Mr. Henderick, Ms. Napolitano, Ms. Winter, Mr. Elfassy, Dr. Wu, Ms. Fitzsimmons, Dr. Isseks, Mr. Miranda, Ms. Demas, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Florko, Mr. Perfetti, and Mr. Hidalgo. The tournament was held in four brackets, starting from eight rounds, to four, to two, and then the finale.
The tournament began by setting up Ms. Avanzi and Ms. Napolitano against each other, where Avanzi suffered a crushing loss of 3-0 due to walking off the stage twice. The game moved steadily throughout the tournament. Mr. Henderick, who lost to Gonzalez in the final game of the third round, expressed “I hate to say it, but Dr. Wu [is going to win]” when asked about his opinion of the finale. Dr. Wu, however, said “ [he] was rooting for Mr. Gonzalez.”
Dr. Wu has held the crown for Super Smash-Bros champion since the first time it took place in Sewanhaka two years ago. Many teachers expected Wu to take the title for the third consecutive time. However, the second to last round shocked everyone in the audience after Dr. Wu lost to Mr. Mirsky in an extremely close match. After their battle Wu congratulated Mirsky for his win.
Mr. Kenny, the school principal, exclaimed that, “Mirsky beating Wu is equivalent to Villanova beating Georgetown in the NCAA finals in 1985” after the match.
The last round featured Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Mirsky going head to head for the trophy. It was another close fight. At the start of the game, Mirsky lost a life first, but remained strong for a good chunk of the match. Mirsky made a comeback and each player eventually had one life left.. Finally, with just over four minutes left, Mr. Mirsky’s Dr. Mario was knocked off the stage by Mr. Gonzalez’ Snake. Mr. Gonzalez took the crown!
“I saw my fate before me,” Gonzalez said to reporters when asked what was going through his head in the final few seconds.
The third annual Smash-Bros competition was an enjoyable and entertaining event to end off the month with. There was happiness, surprise, as well as well-meaning booing and cheers throughout the tournament. Overall everyone left the event excited and looking forward to next year’s clash!
