TEXARKANA, Texas — Any gamers who need to hone their skills on Smash Bros, Tekken and more should consider the weekly Tuesday night training hosted by Texarkana A&M University-Texarkana’s esports team and Hypecon.
Held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Forward Events, the training features a Super Smash Bros tournament, along with playing Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tekken and other games. The Smash Bros play starts around 6:30 p.m. at this relatively new event venue.
This is a BYOC event: bring your own controller. A current school ID gets you in free to watch with a $5 entry to play in the tournament and $10 for those not in school. First prize is 60% of the pot, 30% for second place, 10% for third place.
Hypecon’s Jesse Darby-Tillis II said he’s worked with the TAMUT esports team captains on this event, which features what’s typically the most popular and easiest esports game in Smash Bros, he said, noting the TAMUT esports team formed in early 2020.
“They’ve got the jerseys and everything,” Darby-Tillis said about the university team. Players from area high schools like Texas High School have attended the event.
“We have L-E (Liberty-Eylau High School) coming by. Arkansas High is getting their esports team together,” he said about the growing participation here locally and nationally. Why the success?
“People pushing it,” Darby-Tillis said. “I have to say I’ve been pushing and doing tournaments for five and maybe more years now.”
He wants to ensure that Texarkana’s esports scene won’t fall behind. “It took several years to finally find the right people,” Darby-Tillis said. “They just took the ball and went with it when it came to the college esports team.”
The moving parts began to fall into place, he said, and Hypecon is working on a scholarship with A&M-Texarkana for students who want to stay in town and attend university there.
As to the weekly event, he said it opens with training and free-play. Attendees have hailed from as far as Bossier City, Ruston and Shreveport, Louisiana, plus Little Rock, Arkansas.
“It creates a hub, so you just don’t have to do online play,” Darby-Tillis said about this community building for video game players. The weekly event started about six weeks ago.
“There’s always different people to play to get better,” he said, comparing it to basketball and playing against new players to improve.
Darby-Tillis aims to organize more tournaments, too, including online ones for Rocket League, Valorant and OverWatch. He anticipates a local league forming here where there are rivalries to develop — not just in football, but also in esports.
Said Darby-Tillis about the venue, “Forward Events is a new event space that started at the end of 2019.” It’s a space for intimate events like baby showers, small weddings, monthly pop-up shops and now weekly video game tournaments and training.
(Forward Events is located at 1801 N. Robison Road, Suite 10, near the Harte Hanks office. For more information, check out the TAMUT esports and Hypecon social media pages.)
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