R. Everett L.

This week, like most weeks on campus, BYUI hosts a game night for all the students to come and have fun with. A recreational event that lets the students who are too busy to buy board games themselves gather at the Manwaring Center by the Crossroads to sit back, relax, and play with their friends for a few hours out of the week.

               But aside from board games, the pool tables in the back, this weekly event also hosts a very well-organized Dungeons and Dragons section, for people to create creative characters, role play through epic stories in an interconnected system that allows the players from all the different tables to interact and play with each other with the goal of having the most fun.

               They even host some video games there as well, taking over the projector on the main stage of the Crossroads. Video games like Mario Kart, and Smash Bros are always in circulation there for a little bit of extra variety.

               But below the Crossroads, in the big open glass classroom there exists another off section of the game night event, where video games are the main attraction.

               In this one room, students from all across Rexburg join up here with Nintendo Switches, Game Cubes, and Gaming laptops to host tournaments for Smash Bros. Ultimate, Smash Bros. Melee, Smash Bros. P+.

               I interviewed James, one of the many event organizers of the competitive Smash Bros. scene. He elaborated that unlike most video game tournaments, on campus, there is no pay in fee to participate in the tournament. This of course means no prize money, the folks who come to play games there are all about helping each other learn how to play the game better, encourage good sportsmanship, and overall, just try to have a good time. Occasionally, the players of the different games butt heads over which game is better, but that’s all par of the course according to James. But when things do get too heated, it is always handled quickly and maturely by the organizers.

               It’s a professional and well executed event on behalf of the fighting game players of BYUI.