By Garet Pearson / USF ZNews
TAMPA, FL – Smash Bros Club at USF hosts weekly tournaments every Tuesday night at the new USF Esports Living Lab to introduce students to each other and grow the university video game community.
The tournaments began in 2015 and 2016 in an unofficial capacity and were hosted at the Skypad in the USF Marshall Student Center, according to current club tournament organizer Lucy Phillips. They were a huge draw for both USF and non-USF students since being a USF student was not a requirement to participate. The weeklies would bring 50 to 60 participants a week to the MSC Skypad. The tournaments moved to the esports lab in the Fall of 2024 from the Skypad.
“I attended my first Skypad Weekly in the Spring of 2019 before I was a USF student, and I was a student at HCC completing my associates,” said Phillips.
Smash Bros club was not included in the original USF Esports program when it was created in 2020. Community leaders were a large part of the effort to get Smash Bros Club to become an official part of USF Esports.
Vedhan Basnet, a senior at USF, has been involved with Smash Ultimate since 2019. Basnet has been attending Smash Club weeklies since 2022, before being enrolled in classes with USF.
“I attend Smash club weeklies because they benefit my goals as a player and my schedule as a student,” Basnet said. “I get tournament experience for free, right after class. It’s very convenient. The campus scene is also very welcoming and friendly.”