Deviant Artist – Daniel Velez

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the UWGamers Fight On! event. It was quite a pleasure to attend with lots of friendly faces. This was University of Waterloo’s first fighting game event of the season. Fortunately with the support of Pownz gaming center and the excellent management of Robert Black the event was a success.

I arrived a bit late myself so I couldn’t enter the tournament, but by the sounds of it the school had a hefty turn out. There was a total number 34 of competitors were that spanned both Waterloo & Laurier Univeristy. Actually word of this event did reach out to the local gaming community and the school also had entrants from as far as Mississauga and Hamilton. Including spectators and passer byers the event was hosting well into 70-80 people.
The tournament had an array of competitors, with people sporting with fighters like Ryu, Abel and Balrog. Actually a lot of non-standard charcters did make it to the scene with Vega, Cammy, Rose and Rufus being some of the best players at the tournament. Each entrant paid a $5 entry fee, and $4 of that was entered into the prize pool. There was a total prize pool of $136 divided amongst the top 3 contenders.

The top player was Peter, a university of Waterloo student, playing with Abel walked away with $95.20 cold hard cash. Next up was Wilson who was playing with Ryu and Balrog, who was awarded $27.20. And in third place Calvin was awarded $13.20, who was playing with Ryu and Sagat. For complete list of competitors and the their ranking can be found on the Shoryuken Forums

Pownz gaming center supplied all the equipment for the tournament, which included 4 LCD TVs, 4 X-Boxes, Arcade Sticks and Speakers. The Pownz gaming center CEO actually attend the event and participated as Vega, one of the best Vega players I’ve seen if I can say so myself. On the side he met a greeted a number of the spectators making sure everyone was comfortable and promoted Pownz next gaming event, which is an entry event for the ESports Championships.

As a spectator of the event, and this being one of the first fighting events, it was a little intimidating at first. Fortunately for me I was greeted by a friend as soon as I walked in, the runner up of the tournament Wilson. Socializing at a gaming event is something different since most people are watching the game and staring at screens, but fortunately UWGamers has a very friendly crew that was nice to meet. A few friendly face and a couple pretty girls did make me feel welcome, but I really came to play the games. The UWGamers had a number of casual gaming booths scattered around the tournament for easy pick-up and play. Spectators were given the option of playing Soul Caliber 4, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Melty Blood and Super Street Fighter 4 HD remix. People at the event were always welcoming to allow new people to play and give a few pointers.

This was Robert Black’s first gaming tournament event. With the success of the event we here at Campus Gamers hope that he host many more in the future. Thank you Robert Black and UWGamers for hosting an excellent event.