50-plus competitors vie for 'Marvel vs. Capcom' dominance in Club

The Texas A&M University-Commerce Sam Rayburn Student Center hosted a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 15. The tournament, sponsored by GameStop in Sulphur Springs and held to commemorate the release of the third entry in the critically acclaimed fighting game series, was hosted at The Club and was open to all students on the day of the game's release.

The activities of the tournament began at The Club in the late afternoon. At 4:00 pm, the participants of what would be a 52-player contest were required to register themselves at the front table. The four corners of The Club containing wall-mounted televisions each had an Xbox 360 gaming console hooked up to them. Each console featured a match in which the player that won 2 of 3 fights would advance to the next round. As each console became available, new matches were assigned until the round was over, after which the process would repeat itself.

The matches did not start until approximately 4:15, which left the contestants with time to mingle and plot out strategies. Several of the players had even played the newly released game immediately before the tournament in preparation for the day's competition.

"Dante is one of my main characters so far because his move sets are easier to memorize," contestant Charlie Biter said. "It's mainly about countering what your opponent uses. If they use a brawler, use a fast character."

Although the game's recent release status has prevented several of the competitors from practicing very much, if at all, before competing, a number of alternative tactics were employed by the players in hopes of advancing to the final round. Some of the contestants relied on their background knowledge of the franchise in order to decide what strategies they would adopt when the competition began.

"I did get to play the game just a little bit last night and a bit today but not much so I don't have a whole lot of experience," competitor Mikey Kenney said. "I did play Marvel vs. Capcom 1, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and even Street Fighter vs. X-Men so I've got a few strategies that we'll see on screen."

Once the first round began, different spectators separated from the center of The Club and pulled up chairs to gather around any of the four matches occurring at that time. The selection of characters used in each match ranged from the characters of Capcom video game franchises such as Ryu from "Street Fighter" and Dante from "Devil May Cry" to mainstream Marvel Comics characters such as Spider-Man and Captain America. The spectators voiced their enjoyment of the onscreen action that the game provided.

"There are a lot of different combos that are pretty cool," spectator Cedrick Freeman said while waiting for the next round to start. "There are a couple of people that don't know all of the controls yet, so that's fairly interesting."

In between each round, there were several smaller events going on as well, such as the raffles. At the end of each round, a raffle was held in order to give out prizes such as "Marvel vs. Capcom 3" themed controllers and a 12-month subscription to Xbox Live. One participant managed to actually win two of the prizes in a row, while another won after walking in just minutes before the announcement of the winning ticket.

In addition to the raffles, a costume contest for the characters of the game was also held. However, due to a lack of entrants, the prize for it went to the sole contestant involved, Noah Doran. For his costume based on the character of Ryu from the "Street Fighter" series, Doran received a free copy of the game for the Xbox 360.

"I had to buy all of the equipment from Goodwill and it took me about 2 hours to put together," Doran said, in regards to his costume. "This is the best 2D fighting game that I have ever played"

As the tournament advanced to the final round, the final matches were displayed via projector on the screen at the front of The Club and utilized its surround sound system. Although the final round, determined by winning three out of five battles, required all five fights to be played out in order to determine the victor, the final match, as well as the grand prize, ultimately went to Chazmon Bradley.

"It feels great, I didn't expect to win, but once I made it to the final round, I was really happy," Bradley said. "I love the game and had already preordered it, so I'll probably give that copy away to a friend."

Bradley attributed his success to his previous experiences with "Marvel vs. Capcom 2." According to him, it was simply a matter of getting used to the system and playing from there.

Club Coordinator Wayne Grabow said that he is impressed with the progression of the event and considers the tournament a huge success.

"We had about 70 people in here and 52 competitors in the tournament," Grabow said. "I would say that the turnout was pretty good."