Salt Lake Community College has entered the exciting world of esports.
A group of students recently participated in the SLCC Smash Turkey Bowl, a double-elimination online tournament featuring “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” on the Nintendo Switch. The players connected using Discord, an instant messaging, voice and video communication platform.
“We are opening a new chapter for students to participate in competitions and represent our school,” said Josh Barney, the coach of esports at SLCC.
Esports is of growing interest to many, and Bruins are no exception.
“Bruin esports is starting with ‘Super Smash Bros.’ as our first title for competitions in the spring. These will place our players up against students at other [National Junior College Athletic Association Esports] colleges across the nation,” Barney said.
The tournament connected students with new players they’d never met. After a long-fought competition, the battle came down to two finalists: Brian and Volks. Brian came out on top, winning the final match without having lost a single round throughout the event.
Students who don’t excel at “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” may find other ways to get involved.
“We will be expanding into other titles as the program grows. ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Rocket League’ will be the next two titles that we are looking to launch in time for [the] next school year,” Barney said. “There will be student community events that will be happening as well, that students can get involved in for fun. We are also looking at a facility dedicated to gaming competitions and training on campus.”
The esports program at SLCC is looking to grow and expand with the college. The group is hoping to hold more events like the SLCC Smash Turkey Bowl, including a similar tournament over Christmas break.
The esports program aims to provide Bruins with new opportunities to get involved with peers.
“One of the primary focuses on what we are building is not necessarily the playing of the games themselves, but the peripheral activities associated to the games and the careers that can be found in support of the competitions,” Barney explained. “Event production, stream production, shoutcasting, in-stream content creation and more will be ways that students can get involved in the activities, even if they aren’t competing.”
Students can email Barney for more information about esports at SLCC.
