174 players compete for $2000 at ‘Almost Heaven' Smash Bros. tournament
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — One of the most popular party video games got serious in Morgantown on Saturday as 174 players from across the east coast vied for more than $2,000 in prize money at the 'Almost Heaven 6' Super Smash Brothers tournament.
According to several players at the event, Almost Heaven 6 is far and away the most competitive Smash Bros. event in West Virginia history; many of the state's best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Melee players were competing on Saturday, along with several out-of-state players who are in the top 100 global power ranking for Smash Ultimate, including Syrup (#14), Zomba (#21), and Mr. E (#66).
Justin 'Hawk' Rosa, the vice president of WVU's Smash Bros. club and the #1 ranked player in West Virginia, said the event is the best way for players and organizers to show off West Virginia's gaming talent to the rest of the country.
'Our goal essentially is to give West Virginia players an opportunity to show their skills against some of the best players in the world,' Rosa said. 'We have multiple top 100 players in the world and they've all come to see what West Virginia is about and see our event, and we couldn't be more grateful for that.'
Caleb Hoffman, a WVU alumni and the tournament's head organizer, said the club began reaching out to top players back in November to encourage competitors from out of state to make the trip. Over the years however, the tournament and its organizers garnered a reputation of their own, which Hoffman attributes to good old-fashioned West Virginia hospitality.
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'It's incredible to see the growth. Just two years ago, when we ran this event, we had a 70-person bracket. This year we had to cap the entrants allowed because we were worried about the fire safety, so it's crazy to see how fast it grew in popularity,' Hoffman said.
'West Virginia hospitality goes a long way in our smash scene—anyone who comes out of state, we give 'em a free pepperoni roll for driving. We give our top players a free pepperoni roll for winning the tournament. So it's all about that hospitality. I think that's what we do differently than other scenes.'
Although the Smash Brothers club at WVU has seen great success at Almost Heaven 6, club members say getting to this level of success and visibility was a time-consuming effort, requiring years of build-up at the grassroots level to prove they could run their events well and have the players to back it up.
If you want to learn more about competitive Super Smash Bros. in West Virginia, you can follow the official account on X, or follow the WVU Smash Ultimate club page here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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