The Smash brotherhood is a club comprised of people who play the video game smash bros. Smash Bros is a completive multi-player fighting/platforming game. You play as many different Nintendo characters as well as a few third party ones and try to knock the other players off the screen. With each hit you increase your victim’s percentage making each hit knock him farther. You have a variety of attacks to achieve this, but each one only takes, at the maximum, the press of a button and the movement of a directional stick. But utilizing the variety of moves at your disposal at the right time takes skill.

Smash Bros is a video game that has been present among students in this school. You can see students playing it on their Nintendo 3DS before school and even during lunch. So it makes sense that this game would attract enough members to practically fill the class hosting the club. I would accredit this to the fact that smash bros is easy to learn but difficult to master. This means that many players can spend a lot of time learning the game and enjoy it on many different skill levels.

Junior Pablo nabarrete Club founder skill level: “Pretty high, enough to teach someone”

Ian Jennings 11^th grade

J: Which version of the game do you play?

P: We only concentrate on Smash 4 right now.

J: What would you say to the people who would prefer to play Melee ? ( Melee is the Game Cube version of Smash Bros and is preferred by competitive players. It was also the subject of a mild argument I overheard in the club when I entered.)

P: We were planning to play Melee since it’s a big room, but we will only play the newer games that are just the basics because Melee is difficult.

J: Why would you say Melee is more difficult?

P: It’s faster paced than Smash 4.

J: What setting do you play the game on?

P: We played two stocks * and time mode** for seven minutes no items***

*stocks Is the number of lives a player has. When a player loses all his stocks, he has been defeated for the match. The last player alive wins.

** In time mode the goal is to gain points, which are acquired by killing another player and lost by being killed. The player with the most points when the timer stops wins the round.

*** Items can be a variety of tools uses to achieve your goal. They spawn in random areas giving the nearest player a greater chance to pick it up and use it. Although they can be used strategically, some prefer to disable this element because their random nature gives the game a luck based element instead of a focus purely on skill.

J: What controllers do you use?

P: We recommend the Game Cube controller with the adaptor to the Wiiu for new players instead of the Nintendo 3DS, because some tournaments don’t allow the Nintendo 3DS.

J: What’s your favorite moment of playing this game?

P: My favorite moment is when everyone comes together, or when you spike people.

J: Explain what spiking is.

P: Spiking is basically an input where you hit the character down and they die.

J: Why has this game had such a long lasting appeal?

P: The reason why it has had such a lasting appeal is because it made everyone come together.

J: Who is your favorite character?

P: Ness.

J: Why did you start this club?

P:I started this club so that players could get more recognized for Smash and have tournaments between high schools.

J: Now tell me how you started this club. What was the process? What did was you have to do?

P: Me and my brother just realized that we that we should make a club. If we enjoyed Smash then other people would enjoy Smash too.

J: What does playing in person have that playing online doesn’t have?

P: With online, you don’t interact in person and it lags.

J: Have you made any friends playing this game? And if so, tell me about them.

P: I have met so many friends playing this game because it brings people together. If you fail or miss something, they correct you.

J: Do you have any stories of people teaching you?

P: Yes, I do. I have made a lot of mistakes, but I try to improve.

J: What do you want to say to any readers who may be interested in joining your club?

P: For the new readers we will teach you how to play competitively and get into the esports* scene,(professional competitive video games).

J: How would you describe your average club meeting? How do they go down?

P: We just meet every Tuesday after school from 3.15 to 5. It’s pretty normal.

J: But what really happens during these meeting?

P: We have tournaments for ranking and personal training.

J: How would you describe the atmosphere of this club?

P: The atmosphere of this club is pretty light, pretty happy, because everyone gets a chance to play.