Esports teams from universities and schools around the state came to Anderson High School to play games and have fun during the first Anderson Annihilation Tournament. The tournament took place on January 27 at the media center in Anderson High School. Some of the schools that participated were Manchester, Indiana Wesleyan, Kankakee Valley, Ball State, and Anderson University. The universities were there to promote their esports teams and offer scholarships to students.
There was only one game offered at the tournament, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. SSBU is a Nintendo Switch fighting game that allows players to choose from all types of characters across the Nintendo universe. Some characters are a good matchup and some are bad matchup, but if you can break through with that character then there is a good chance to lose or win. All characters have special abilities, some characters can out class another character.
The championship was won by Blackford High School student Darius Osborn, who plays under the gamertag Dr. Stank. Doctor Stank plays as the character Duck Hunt. “His way of using projectiles is distinct from any other character in the game,” Osborn said. “His play style is extremely unorthodox and unique. He also has some of the most expressive movement options in the entire game.”
Duck Hunt was not Osborn’s first choice of character when learning the game, however. “For the majority of Ultimate, I was a Duck Hunt player,” he said. “But during Smash 4 and early Ultimate, I flip flopped around with Olimar, Mr Game and Watch and Mii Brawler. I tried Duck Hunt in Smash 4 but I could not figure him out. I wanted to keep trying though.”
It requires a lot of practice and focus to win tournaments like Anderson Annihilation. Osborn started playing Smash Bros. Brawl when he was just seven years old. Since then, he has perfected a practice routine. “My main mode of practice is grinding Elite Smash,” Osborn said. “What you do is you meditate for 5-10 minutes before you even open the game, warm up in training mode for 5 minutes and just play with as many people as possible. You do this until you are mentally reaching your limits. This is usually when you start getting mad at the game.”
Anderson High School Junior Shawn Stevens played a role in organizing the tournament. “The tournament was a big success,” Stevens said. We got 100 kids. . .playing esports and having fun.”
As Stevens did commentary and kept score for the tournament, he was impressed by the turnout. “Esports is under the radar,” he said. The esports team is optimistic about the turnout for Anderson Annihilation and is looking forward to their Pokemon showdown tournament in May 2024.
