The University of Wisconsin Stout Esports Super Smash Bros team attended the Minnesota State Mankato – Rockstar Invitation on October 21
st in Mankato, Minnesota.
There were 14 colleges and universities signed up to compete in a best of three double elimination tournament!
| University of South Dakota |
Wartburg College |
| University of North Dakota |
Bethany Lutheran College |
| Gustavus Adolphus College |
Buena Vista University |
| St. Cloud State University |
Wayne State College |
| Minnesota State University - Mankato |
University of Wisconsin – River Falls |
| University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire |
University of Wisconsin - Stout |
Blue Devils Starting Lineup:
Elliot Klenk
Sam Mead
Ethan Hershberger
Zach Janot
The Blue Devils faced off against the host team, Minnesota State Mankato in the first round of the tournament and took a clean 2-0 win to move onto the next round.
Klenk and
Mead led the way with some dominating battles to get by the Mavericks.
During the second round of the tournament, the Blue Devils got to take on their Highway 94 rivals of UW-Eau Claire. This time it was
Hershberger taking the early lead for the Blue Devils to bring in their heavy hitters to close out another 2-0 victory to move onto the Winner Semi-Finals round.
With a top 5 position already secured, the Blue Devils went to battle against St. Cloud State University. SCSU is an experienced SSBU team, and the Blue Devils felt their strength in game one, going down quickly 0-1. During the second stage, the Blue Devils captain,
Elliot Klenk dominated to bring the series back to a 1-1 tie to force game three! The final stage of the match was a grueling battle with both teams trading the lead early on. It came down to the two anchors of each squad to show what they could do. The match went down to the final stock for each player, but it was SCSU prevailing to move onto the Winners Finals, forcing the Blue Devils to make a lower bracket run if they wanted to secure a top finish.
The Blue Devils met up with the team they knocked into the lower bracket in the first round of the tournament, Minnesota State Mankato. MNSU has now built up three, 2-0 victories in a row to get themselves fighting for a top 4 position against the Blue Devils. The Blue Devils could tell that MNSU has been heating up throughout the day and are bringing another level of intensity to this match, trying to get revenge on the Blue Devils. The Blue Devils take the early 1-0 lead but the Mavericks still had fight in them to battle back in the second stage to tie up the series, 1-1. Once again, the final stage came down to the final stock, 1 life to 1 life. But it was the home team that were able to come out on top, knocking the Blue Devils out of the tournament for a top 5 finish in the end.
Final Results:
1st: St. Cloud State University
2nd: University of North Dakota
3rd: Minnesota State Mankato
4th: University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Tied 5th: University of Wisconsin - Stout
Tied 5th: Western Technical College
