Sunday, September 18th saw over 180 students come together at the College Avenue Student Center at Rutgers University-New Brunswick to
attend Fall Friendlies, the first casual LAN event held by Rutgers Esports.
Featuring a wide variety of games such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Super Smash Bros, and so many others, the day was packed with passion , competition, and fun. Fall Friendlies saw Rutgers students laughing and gaming from when we opened doors at 11 a.m. to when we started winding down at 10 p.m. Alumni like top Super Smash Bros. Melee player James "Swedish Delight" Liu came out to the event to join the fun and lend advice to the students. Creating an environment where students can come together, form a gaming family, and get interested in Rutgers Esports is all that we could ask for at Fall Friendlies. Achieving those goals and watching them be expanded upon only makes this event an even greater success.
Students from all walks of life came to the event. While the Student Center was comprised largely by Computer Science and ITI majors, there was a number of different majors represented at the event like biology, business, engineering, music composition and many more. The event also had players participating in small casual tournaments that took place throughout the event such as a 1v1 League of Legends tournament as well as tournaments for both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U for prizes like a 1000RP gift card, a Fox Amiibo, and more! Congratulations to Ray Xu (League of Legends), Michael "Pudgy Panda" Vasta (Super Smash Bros. Melee), and John "Action John" Macone (Super Smash Bros. for Wii U) for their Fall Friendlies victories!
Rutgers Esports could not have made this event happen without the support of our partners: Twitch, Tespa, Kite+Key, and Vasculogic. Thanks to them, we were able to provide students with incredible giveaways and incentives, pushing the event to the next level. In order to enter for a chance to receive one of the items in our giveaways, people became members of the Rutgers Tespa chapter. Because of this, we saw over 100 new people join the Tespa movement. We are always grateful to our partners for their support as without it, our first ever casual LAN event would not have been nearly the success that it was. Their continued support will be invaluable for achieving the goals we have set out this year.
Most of all, we want to thank everyone that came out to the event. Everything we do at Rutgers Esports has been and always will be for the community. Seeing such a diverse group of people come together because of their passion for gaming is a beautiful sight that always inspires everyone here. All of you are the ones that make what we do possible, not us. We simply try to support the community. The passion felt on that Sunday drives us to work hard every day to keep our dream alive: making Rutgers the top college for esports. We learn and improve every event, especially by hearing your feedback. Fall Friendlies was undeniably a good start to this year. Together, we'll continue that success to make this year a revolutionary one for Rutgers Esports.