'Becoming a bigger thing in colleges': Stony Brook University hosts virtual gaming tournament
Gamers during the esports tournament at Stony Brook University Saturday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
On Super Smash Bros. Ultimate battlegrounds, esports competitors chose their fighters and went head-to-head for Stony Brook University’s first Seawolf Strike regional tournament.
More than 100 gamers descended on Stony Brook University’s Tabler Center armed with controllers to try and win prize pools in doubles and singles tournaments. Fans of Super Smash Bros. Melee — an older version of the game — battled in a third competitive bracket.
John Daily, an alumni and former esports player for the school, signed up to compete in all three events. He said he’s seen the growth of the gaming scene at the collegiate level.
“We had biweekly tournaments but it was nothing like this with the production value,” Daily said.
Large screens projecting the games, a main stage for final matches, commentators and a separate room for free play transformed Stony Brook’s event space and esports practice room into a gaming utopia. Food trucks were also available for competitors and spectators.
Kevin Craig, Stony Brook’s esports coordinator, said the regional tournament — a collaboration between the school's esports program and its Smash Club — is the largest Smash Bros. tournament ever hosted by a collegiate program in New York and among the largest tournaments ever held on Long Island.
A former esports player during his collegiate career, Craig said Saturday’s event was indicative of the meteoric rise of esports in college programs and a developing pathway for aspiring players to push onto a pro scene.
“I always wanted to create that path to pro and do the same thing as traditional athletics,” Craig said.
There are more than 300 collegiate esports programs across North America, according to the National Association of Collegiate esports. This year, 54 SUNY programs with over 3,000 students joined the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
The winners of the doubles bracket, Chris Rella and Cody Pellerito, both juniors, said their synergy and experience playing with one another was a major benefit for the tournament.
"We talk a lot of strategy and ways to improve," said Rella, who was ranked 56th globally in the game in 2023 and is ranked sixth in New York City. "When we sit down for doubles, it almost feels pretty natural."
"We know what each other are going to do, so it's easy to expect it and be ready," said Pellerito, who is the eighth ranked player in New York this year.
Danni Andrade, a Stony Brook senior and a lead organizer for the school’s Smash Club, designed the format for the tournament and ran the event’s program, from managing various gaming stations and live feeds of the matches to collecting results and directing players to their next contests.
“Right now we’re in a transitional period where esports is becoming a bigger thing in colleges but not all colleges realize it yet, so when we put on events like this, we’re hoping to present it to other universities,” Andrade said. “There’s a lot of value and a lot of interest.”
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