The official student news site of Westview High School

The Nexus

The official student news site of Westview High School

The Nexus

The official student news site of Westview High School

The Nexus

Torrey Highlands PizzaRev announces permanent closing
Athena Schmelzer, Staff Writer • March 15, 2024

The PizzaRev in the Torrey Highlands plaza announced that they were permanently closing, Feb. 24. PizzaRev has stayed media quiet during this...

Esports club competes with CCA, Mt. Carmel at first interschool tournament

Two competitors huddled around the TV in, jamming buttons, focused on the screen. Richard Knapp (12) was down two lives against his opponent, Sufyan Hassan from Canyon Crest Academy (CCA), and it was the semifinal round of the first interschool Super Smash Bros Melee Tournament held by the Esports club, March 2 in Kelly Xitco’s classroom. The rounds were played best out of three, and Knapp already lost one. Down two lives, Knapp dodged his opponent’s attacks, looking for a good moment to strike. Landing a hit, Hassan’s character hung off the ledge, and Knapp chained his attacks, preventing him from coming back onto the map. At last, his opponent fell off the ledge. The spectators cheered, applauding his play.

“I was pretty nervous when playing against him because he was really skilled, but after that I had more confidence,” Knapp said.

After respawning, his opponent came back fresh, still at an advantage. Knapp was unable to come back and replicate his previous play, and his opponent knocked him off the map, winning the best-of-three semifinal series.

“A couple of the guys, especially from CCA, were really good and they kind of whooped us,” Knapp said. “It really motivated me after losing to kind of play some more and play these guys again.”

Unfortunately, Knapp was the only Westview team member left in the bracket, as others were eliminated earlier. In the finals round of the winners’ bracket, two CCA team members, Hassan and Avery Gallup battled in a best-of-five series. Hassan defeated his teammate. Despite Westview falling short, they still had a chance to come back in the loser’s bracket and challenge Hassan.

Brandon Liu (11), the treasurer of the Esports club, reorganized the bracket to ensure that it would be fair to all the teams that would be competing.

“Because we had an awkward number of participants to the tournament, we had to adapt the tournament bracket to allow for each school to have a fair chance of making it to the finals,” Liu said.

Initially, the club planned for Mt. Carmel, CCA, and Del Norte’s teams to come to the tournament, but due to miscommunication, Del Norte’s team wasn’t able to show up.

The tournament field was split into three teams of approximately four members, where they faced off with a competitor from another school in a single elimination bracket. Each round would be played as a best-of-three series. Despite the setback, many of the competitors, still enthusiastic about participating, stayed until the conclusion, where the winner of the losers’ bracket would play against the victor of the winners’ bracket. Kim advanced to the finals, playing against CCA competitor Gallup, who dominated many of his matches.

Their hands quickly moved from button from button, dodging attacks and hitting each other with all their abilities. The characters on the screen responded quickly to their every movement. After one landed hit, they would attempt to chain their attacks in a combination to inflict as much damage as possible. Kim eventually came out on top.

His last challenge was against CCA’s best player, Hassan, who cruised to victory in the winners’ bracket in a spectacular display of game mechanics and instinct. Kim was unable to overcome him in the finals.

Overall, the team members said that Westview’s first inter-school tournament was largely a success and hope to do more and to expand the club, and get more people involved in it.

“But people use deodorant and they smell fine, and you can meet really cool people that you might not expect if you have that idea. We’re just here to have a lot of fun.”

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