Students looking to join an unconventional club might consider the Boston College Smash Club (BCSC). While it is still in the process of becoming a registered student organization (RSO), the group hopes to get approval soon.
Currently, BCSC is a group of 40 people who get together and play the SuperSmash Bros. Melee GameCube video game competitively. Group members compete in tournaments all over New England. The group practices one to three times per week, or every day for a few hours if there is a tournament coming.
Casual weekly walk-in group meetings take place on Monday nights and are posted on the group’s Facebook page. BCSC also gets together with students from Northeastern, UMass Amherst, and the Boston University Video Gaming Society, which hosts “casual smash Fridays” every week.
The group chose SuperSmash Bros. as its sole videogame due to the wide range of people to which the game appeals.
“SuperSmash Bros. is a game that is very accessible,” said Ryan Romanos, BCSC president and CSOM ’17. “It appeals to people who may not play video games that much but can still bring in people who are more … into that sort of thing.”
Members of BCSC participate in off-campus tournaments against other schools one or two times per month. The group mostly competes in “Crew Battle” style tournaments. These are either seven vs. seven or eight vs. eight person competitions, and one member from each team plays a competitor individually.
The winning player moves on to the next person, and the team that runs out of people first loses. Teams compete in a best-of-three game set, and the winning team advances in the tournament to the next bracket. The overall winner of each tournament receives a cash prize.
Group members enjoy the community and the face-to-face interactions that the SuperSmash Bros. Melee video game encourages. Since the game can only be played in person–not online–the members of BCSC have met and befriended many players from around New England.
“There are a bunch of nice people who go to tournaments every week that you wouldn’t have known otherwise,” said A.J. Ty, BCSC vice president and CSOM ’16. “You get to know them, and can ask them for advice or to play with you. Smash players are some of the nicest people I have ever met.”
Tournaments that the group competes in include “Game Over” every Tuesday night in Somerville at the East End Grille; the “Northeastern Smash Attack” (NSA), which draws over 250 attendees each year; and the currently ongoing Intercollegiate Melee Tournament. On Tuesday, Oct. 7, BCSC is playing against BU.
BCSC will be co-hosting an event on Monday, Oct. 6 from 7 to 11 p.m. in 141N Stokes alongside the Anime Club of Boston College (ABC). The event is in honor of the new Smash Bros. video game that came out on Friday, and there will be a small tournament for anyone who wants to play. The grand prize for the tournament winner is a free copy of the new game.
Once it becomes an official club on campus, BCSC is hoping to add a charity aspect in order to give back to the New England community.
“One of the biggest things that we are hoping to expand about our club would be to find a charity aspect, whether we could host tournaments where the funds go to charity, or get our membership out playing video games with kids in local hospitals, or something along those lines,” Romanos said.
The club is also hoping to get mentorship once it becomes an official club, which would be similar to a little-big system. Romanos and Ty believe that a mentorship program would support the group’s family-like feel and would help members get to know each other better.
BCSC is looking for new students to join their club, and anyone interested in SuperSmash Bros. is highly encouraged to join.
“As long as you play Smash, and as long as you love Smash, we welcome you here,” Ty said. “Also, if there’s a girl out there who plays Smash Bros., please join.”
Featured Image courtesy of Nintendo
