Upstate’s Collegiate Smash Scenes Clash at The University of Rochester’s Intercollegiate Summit
Twenty players. Eight schools. Four streams. One victor.
On February 25th, legions of carpools from Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, and Rochester took to the roads towards the University of Rochester’s iconic Rush Rhees Library.
The first event of its kind, the UofR’s Intercollegiate Summit brought together top Ultimate players from RIT, Cornell, Binghamton, Ithaca, Nazareth, University at Buffalo, Erie Community College, and UofR itself for a white-hot intercollegiate invitational sporting some of Upstate’s strongest competition.
With names such as Amaryllis, Castellia, Wing, MEGA CHAD, and SassyFlygon, the event promised intense sets to the delight of spectators while providing newer college students an opportunity to mix it up with the best.
The summit follows on the heels of the UofR-hosted intercollegiate crew battle in Fall 2022 as the school seeks to further deepen connections between Upstate’s collegiate Smash scenes and provide an avenue for players from different corners of the region to meet, practice together, and promote traveling to each other’s events.
Players set their sights on the $200 prize pot (courtesy of UofR’s Dual and SassyFlygon) as round-robin pools kicked into gear on the bright Saturday afternoon.
Twenty competitors were invited, allowing each player multiple sets on stream thanks to Cornell’s multi-stream setup paired with the UofR’s typical stream, and players participated in a minimum of four sets. With such a wide sampling of Upstate’s talent, players made sure to take advantage of sets and friendlies alike for the chance to get in some impactful practice.
Players that were invited included:
Rochester – 3 Colleges, 9 Players:
University of Rochester: SassyFlygon, Dual, roy, Kenneth
Rochester Institute of Technology: Castelia, Sled, Shady, GWOLF
Nazareth College: beef
Southern Tier – 3 Colleges, 7 Players:
Cornell University: Wing, Colin, Musa
Binghamton University: Amaryllis, Serta, SlingShot
Ithaca College: Oats
Buffalo – 2 Colleges, 4 Players:
University at Buffalo: MEGA CHAD, Drip, BlxckGnarly
Erie Community College: walkin
While each school held its own in the main bracket, none had as dominant a showing as Binghamton University.
Bing made a powerful statement with three of the top four placements belonging to Serta, Amaryllis, and SlingShot, providing a plethora of nailbiter sets alongside landslide victories. With the exception of losses to SassyFlygon, each Bing competitor only dropped sets to each other in the top 16 bracket, further demonstrating their dominance over other attending schools.
While unable to take the title home, Serta provided the venue with a sweat-inducing 2-3 set against SassyFlygon in Winners Finals and an outstanding bracket performance to reach 2nd place despite an early loss to RIT’s Castelia in pools.
Despite such a competitive showing from S-Tier, SassyFlygon successfully defended his university’s home turf with a whopping 8-0 set count throughout the bracket, only dropping games to Bing’s Serta and UofR’s own Dual.
The golden child of UofR’s victory follows a strong performance in the UofR’s Intercollegiate Crew Battle, where he provided an especially stubborn Luigi-shaped anchor to fuel the victory of the school’s A-team.
Ironically, to this victor went the spoils of just a single dollar of profit after his pot donation for overcoming the difficult invitational bracket! Fans can rest easy knowing the winnings were exchanged for a small bag of cheetos – truly a meal fit for a champion.
Amidst all the competition, many players took the time to meet people they normally wouldn’t cross paths with, reunite with old friends, and share in their love of everybody’s favorite children’s party game. Students sharing meals with new acquaintances from other schools, playing games with that one player everyone told them they had to meet – it gave the impression of a bootleg crossover episode.
The UofR’s intercollegiate events seek to strengthen the bonds between upstate’s collegiate smash scenes while giving a diverse array of players the chance to improve against competitors they might not typically face outside of major tournaments. To learn more about the UofR’s smash scene and support its future intercollegiate events, join its discord here.
The Intercollegiate Summit and its bracket can be viewed at this link.
VODs from the Intercollegiate Summit’s streams can be found here:
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