Game On: Video Gamers Army has its First Tournament

Video games are one great hobby. They are an interactive medium that is unlike anything else, and most of all they are fun to play with or without friends. There are certain games, however, it can get very competitive between friends. With that in mind, Suffolk University’s own video game club, the Video Gamers Army, held it’s first video game tournament on Friday in the Donahue Building from 5 to 10 PM. The first, second, and third place winners each won gift cards to the video game store, GameStop. The club has held tournaments before but this one was different from their other tournaments in the past.

The tournament was not only open to members of the club, but to anyone at Suffolk University. The Video Gamers Army, or VGA decided on instead of using one game, like most video game tournaments, there was going to be a new game introduced in each round. Each round had a game that represented a different genre of video games, which made the tournament fairer for everyone. It was also a double elimination tournament, which means that a person would have to lose in a game twice in order to be eliminated. Also, instead of playing newer games on the consoles out there today, the club also decided to use the Nintendo Wii’s download service to use older games that everyone is familiar with.

The Nintendo 64 is a fan favorite amongst gamers, as classic titles such as Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Brothers, and Star Fox 64 have provided a lot of fun for gamers and their friends with multi-player modes. It was no surprise that those three games, along with Mario Tennis and Pokémon Puzzle League, were in the tournament. The games were selected by: the President Casey Glynn, Vice President Jenn Capezzuto, and Treasurer Richard “Richie” Capezzuto.

“We [the VGA] decided something different, a retro tournament,” says Richard, “We all decided on focusing on the Nintendo 64 and the games on that system.”

There were close to 20 students participating from all over the university, all ready to play in the tournament. They were also recording the games played and were streaming them through the Internet. The tournament progressed quickly, with everyone’s skills in the video games being showcased throughout. Despite some people being knocked out of the tournament early, they stayed and watched the rest of the tournament.

Aubrey Root, a senior at Suffolk University and member of the Video Gamers Army said “This year’s tournament was more organized and a lot more fun.”

The finals of the tournament had Richie take on student Brian Huang, which resulted in a big back and forth battle in Super Smash Brothers. The two students fought for a while until Brian emerged as the winner.

In the end, all the students who participated had fun and were ready for the next tournament to occur, which will be in November when the new game Halo 4 comes out. For anyone interested, the Video Gamers Army meets every Tuesday and Thursday at 1pm in the Donahue Building in Room 526. They are always looking for new gamers to join and have fun with them.