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James Parmer and Becky Parmer compete against Jeff Padgett and Justin Kothenbeutel in the team finals of the Smash Brothers Tournament held in the Union on Friday night.

UUB hosts Super Smash Brothers Melee face-off

Students competed in GameCube tournament for various prizes

By: Nicole Porter

Posted: 10/23/06

Video game enthusiasts and occasional players alike came out this past Friday night to give it their best in the Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament.

The first-ever tournament for Super Smash Brothers Melee on GameCube was in the billiards room of the University Union.

The tournament included both a partners and singles competition, and prizes included a $75 gift card to Game Stop to the singles winner, two $25 gift certificates to each of the winning pairs and movie passes for the Union movie theater.

It was a best of three competition with Justin Kothenbeutel, senior music major, and Jeff Padgett, junior music performance major, winning the first round of the first match and Becky Parmer, sophomore English major, and her brother James Parmer, 21-year-old Macomb resident, winning the second round. Kothenbeutel and Padgett won the third round, making them the overall champions.

The competition took place in rounds, with the other competitors and supporters looking on and enjoying the free food that was provided.

As the night progressed and more and more players suffered defeat, many stuck around as support or out of interest for the matches.

When the final singles match came, it proved to be James Parmer and Michalik as the last two competitors.

In the first round, both Parmer and Michalik chose Zelda and duked it out until Parmer won. In the second round, with friends supporting both opponents, the battle raged on fiercely until finally Parmer pulled a second win and the title of singles champion.

"It feels pretty good and I have a lot of adrenaline right now," Parmer said.

Michalik walked away with the second place title and a $15 gift card.

"It was a good round and good fighting," Michalik said.

As the third round progressed, the crowd got increasingly excited until Kothenbeutel and Padgett finally won.

"It feels OK," Padgett said after the win.

Several competitors had been practicing for days before the tourna ment.

"We've been practicing from about 10 (p.m.) until 2 (a.m.) every day for the last three days," said Jonathan Michalik, freshman music composition major, about he and his partner Kevin Bressanelli, freshman music performance major. "We should have practiced more."

Some competitors found other ways of practice more helpful.

"We've been practicing all afternoon and we've been playing a lot with friends," said Becky Parmer.

Even first-timers and novices tried their skills out.

"This is my first time and I was very nervous, but very optimistic," said Michael Reed, junior English major. "My opponent played well and was very gracious."

The competition was not the first video game competition hosted by the UUB. With the success of last year's Halo tournament and this year's Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament, the videogame dueling will surely continue.