On Friday night, the ETSU Gaming Communities hosted a Mario Kart tournament. Twenty participants were asked to run a single Grand Prix in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch.
Historically, ETSU Gaming Communities was where ETSU Esports lived, before esports became a recognized sport through the institution itself. Now, Gaming Communities is home to ETSU’s all-inclusive gaming club for current ETSU students.
During the tournament, the finals race consisted of the final two racers from the winners bracket and the finalist from the loser’s bracket. Finalists included Zacharias Smith, Adam Collins and Ethan Hensley. In a head-to-head Versus Battle, finalists were given the choice of one race per individual, totaling three races.
The fourth race was then selected by majority vote of the spectators. In the end, it was one individual that came out on top: Adam Collins. It was Collins’s second time participating in a Gaming Communities’ Mario Kart Tournament.
“Honestly, words can’t describe how happy I am about winning this. I put in a lot of hours into this game over the past week,” said Collins. “I’m really glad to see that all those hours of experience in dealing with chaos came to fruition. I want to give props to the other finalists for helping put on a great show and being great opponents, too.”
Collins was awarded a $25 Amazon gift card as first place winner.
“Overall, the tournament ran very smoothly,” said Liam Robison, president of the club. “We had so many people come out and have fun with us- that’s more than I could ever ask for. We hope that we can keep up this momentum and continue holding tournaments like this each semester.”
The club hosts weekly meetings at 7:30 p.m. every Friday night in the Carrier Center, on the second floor of the Culp Center, and is the landing for a spectrum of gaming interests including video games, board games, trading card games and popular tabletop classics such as Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering.
