Two eSports fighting games tournaments are coming to campus this month, along with two $500 prize pools, confirmed Daniel Silva, vice-president of Gaming and Multiplayer eSports of Ryerson (GAMER).
GAMER is Ryerson’s only video game club officially recognized by the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU). The tournaments are being organized by GAMER in partnership with Canadian Gaming Tournaments (CGT), a company that organizes eSports events across the country at a semi-professional level.
“Hopefully, the tournaments means a lot more community involvement at Ryerson,” said Silva, a 19-year-old, second-year psychology student.
Silva has been working with CGT since August to try to set up an eSports event at Ryerson. His work has finally come to fruition.
“We want our events to be as public as possible. We want to bring people from outside of Ryerson to see what we’re doing here. But to do that we need as big a following as possible. That’s why we’re partnering with CGT.”
Pierre St. Rose, event organizer at CGT, has been working closely with Silva.
“These tournaments will be the first of their kind at Ryerson, especially one being held at the Student Learning Centre,” said St. Rose. “We’re still trying to lock down how the setup will look, with it being our first fighting game tournament and with it being the first eSports tournament held at the SLC amphitheatre.”
St. Rose thinks it will be a fun experience for all, and encourages anyone interested in learning more about eSports to come check it out.
The events will be held at the SLC main entrance amphitheatre and will require a $5 entrance fee. The first event will be a Mortal Kombat X tournament held on Oct. 23 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The second will be a Street Fighter V tournament, held on Oct. 30 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Both are bring-your-own-controller events and will be standard elimination style bracket tournaments with five rounds.
Silva said he hopes that this is the first of many events to be co-organized by GAMER and the CGT throughout the year.
Born and raised on the west coast. Undergraduate at Ryerson University, school of journalism. Reports about video gaming and eSports.