Kentucky ESports hosted 33 players for a “Super Smash Bros.” tournament at The Cornerstone on March 6.

The tournament consisted of two brackets with 34 rounds played in the winner’s bracket and 31 rounds played in the loser’s bracket.

Any player who lost in the winner’s bracket would have a chance to play through the loser’s bracket and work their way back to the grand final, which would pit the winner from the loser’s final against the winner of the winner’s final.

“CVLY Roger” claimed victory in the grand final after being eliminated from the winner’s bracket prior. Roger would achieve redemption in the loser’s bracket to qualify for the grand final.

The event had its share of upsets, two of which came in the quarterfinals of the winner’s bracket.

The first upset saw “Wildz” taking on Kentucky’s own “Uno” in a best-of-three matchup. Wildz started off strong, using the character “R.O.B” to take a flawless sweeping victory against Uno, who was using the character “Wolf”.

Then, in game two of the match, Uno would change characters to “Bowser” and claim victory with two of his three lives, or stocks, remaining.

Game three would see Wildz counter by changing his character to “Kazuya,” which led to a back-and-forth battle that ultimately saw Uno claim the victory, sending one of the tournament favorites to the loser’s bracket.

The second match of the quarterfinals saw eventual winner CVLY Roger, playing as the character “Roy,” taking on “ChrisBCream,” who was playing as “Lucina.”

ChrisBCream got out to a dominating start, going up three stocks to one, though Roger refused to go down easily, evening the game at one stock each before finally being defeated.

In game two Roger came back with a vengeance and won, evening the match at 1-1.

The theme of gritty back-and-forth game threes would continue with ChrisBCream finding himself down to only one stock to Roger’s two before fighting back to win the game and thus the match 2-1, sending yet another tournament favorite to the loser’s bracket.

After clawing his way through the loser’s bracket and winning the loser’s finals, Roger would find himself facing off against “Pneumatic,” who had been on a dominant win streak heading into the grand final, which would be a best-of-five that, if the loser’s bracket winner claimed victory, would reset back to zero.

In game one Roger continued his hot streak and won with two stocks remaining, taking an early match lead. Pneumatic would not go down easily though, winning game two with two stocks remaining.

Momentum would swing back Roger’s way as he claimed game three to take a 2-1 match lead before Pneumatic evened the series in game four.

Game five was once again a back-and-forth battle with Roger ultimately coming out victorious, triggering a finals reset, making the rematch a winner-takes-all. 

Game one of the bracket reset saw Roger find himself in a hole early, though he was able to claw his way back to win.

Roger would come out on top yet again in game two, needing just one more victory to win the tournament.

Pneumatic, refusing to be swept, claimed a win in game three before game four ended with a dominant tournament-clinching win by Roger, who took the game with two stocks remaining.

The Kentucky ESports program is set to return to action when it hosts the DGT tournament, an event it holds every Monday, starting at 7 p.m. EST at The Cornerstone in Lexington, Kentucky.