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The Grid “pwns” the Pyramid

Over 200 gamers competed in “The Grid,” a video game competition that spawned from a PC game event called Beachcon, at The Pointe in Walter Pyramid Friday night.

The main event of the evening was the Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament.

“We found out that [Super Smash Bros. Brawl] would be one of the most popular games we’ve ever hosted as a tournament,” Au said. “So they decided to make a full fledged event out of it.”

Thirty-two players competed in the tournament through double-elimination matches. In the final match, the first person to win three games won the tournament.

Sophomore criminal justice student Oscar Herrera won a $50 Gameplay gift card after winning the final match of Super Smash Bros. Brawl against fourth year microbiology student Bijan Olumba.

“I’m just glad I won,” Herrera said. “Honestly, I lost two of the rounds already and thought I had already lost, but I ended up winning three in a row after that, and I won.”

From 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., gamers played nonstop on The Grid’s 8 big screen projectors, 20 TV’s and an arsenal of video game consoles.

The event featured seven different tournaments with $800 in prizes from local store Gameplay, according to Event Coordinator Chris San Palo.

“The Grid is our big video gaming event,” San Palo said. “We have tournaments and free play all night.”

San Palo said that, a few years ago, CSULB housing decided to put on a separate event in the fall dedicated to console gaming.

Another gaming event called BeachCon had integrated a video game console tournament into it, which CSULB housing called “The Grid.”

“We found that [console gaming] was so popular, we decided to expand it to its own event,” San Palo said. “So, in the fall semester we do the grid, and in the spring semester, we do BeachCon.”

This year, San Palo and other housing techs organized the event and volunteered their own video game consoles, TV’s and games.

Equipment and video games were not in short supply, even though they were volunteered.

“It’s a big list,” Allen Au, one of seven housing techs, said regarding how many games The Grid had. “We have Madden, FIFA, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart 8, Street Fighter, Rock Band, Pokemon X and Y, Just Dance and all the classic games and a computer ‘indie’ station.”

But the biggest prize of the event was a Nintendo 3DS that nursing Freshman Gabriel Pahung won in a raffle at the end of the night.

Win or lose, many of the participants, like fourth year communication student Sid San said that making friends in the gamer community was his favorite part of The Grid.

“It was super fun, this is my first tournament and everyone is really nice,” San said, “This would’ve never had happened if it weren’t for everyone with the same interest of games.”

In the end, San Palo said that The Grid is for the for the community of gamers like San, whom he might not have ever met if it weren’t for video game events like The Grid.

“We decided [The Grid] was important to throw [for the resident gamers],” San Palo said. “If those residents don’t go to any other event, they might come to this because they are around other gamers and people they like to hang out with.”

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