Everyone has hobbies to fill their time after class, whether that’s exercise, music, or video games with their friends. But are you ready to take your late-night gaming sessions to the next level?
A student-created and run video game tournament titled Cereal City Showdown will be taking place on Sunday, October 13 at 5 p.m. at the Battle Creek Pride Resource Center. There is a $5 venue fee to attend and a $5 fee per bracket to play. Players can win the pot collected through the bracket fees and a Cafe Rica gift card, and beginners are more than welcome to attend.
The tournament has come a long way from where it started – as a project created by student Aiden Bunnell for KCC’s Service Learning class.
“Local tournaments are a really fun part about the fighting game community for me, so after I had the idea in service learning I just ran with it,” Bunnell said. “I had hoped for something like this during the class and thanks to the support of everyone who helped, I was able to get it off the ground.”
Several popular fighting-style games will be featured, such as Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Guilty Gear Strive, Street Fighter 6, and Tekken 8, with many more in consideration for the future.
“I would love to do more niche games, specifically I really want to run Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, one of my personal favorite more niche fighting games. More retro games are always fun,” Bunnell said.
The tournament may have started as one student’s idea for class, but it has morphed into a fully fleshed out social event for gamers with the help of various small businesses and organizations in the community.
“The main reason that I continued the video game tournament outside of the Service Learning class was because the people at BC Pride provided me with a ton of support and I was able to keep going,” Bunnell said. “Battle Creek Pride and Cafe Rica have been the two big supporters, they provided me with a grant in order to purchase things for the tournament as a test of their grant program, and Battle Creek Pride lets me use the Resource Center as the space to play. I can’t stress enough how much they’ve helped me to get it off the ground, and specifically Michelle and Tristan the owners of Cafe Rica helped me a ton with lots of great advice and ideas to help out.”
Most students have taken the Service Learning class this tournament has stemmed from, but seeing Bunnell take it to the next level after the semester’s end is nothing short of inspiring.
“The most rewarding part about the tournament is seeing all of your hard work paid off, and letting people enjoy themselves just playing some fighting games. The main goal with them was to just have something like this in Battle Creek, I always loved going to tournaments and so being able to be the one to put them on is my main mission. There are hopefully many planned for the future,” Bunnell said.
You can learn more about the tournament and register for brackets in advance here. You can contact Aiden Bunnell at busbunnell@gmail.com with any questions.
