By Robert Burkholder

From September 26th, 2022

WAYNESBURG (Sept. 26) – This previous Friday, the Waynesburg University Esports Smash Bros. team finished their second round of games. Down to three players instead of four due to the resignation of Cody Lowden from the team, they put up a record of 4-2 out of the six matches they played. 

Colsen Liney and Tim Durkin won both their sets in quite a dominating fashion, but the story of the night came from a loss on the behalf of Dane Chicarello. 

Chicarello played the first match of the night against a player from Washington University in St. Louis named Tony Pajamas in competition. The match was Byleth vs. Ness, which most find to be an even matchup. Chicarello mains Ness alongside Byleth, so he had some knowledge of the possible combos he could face, but it soon became clear to all in the room that this opponent was on a totally different level. 

The first match out of the best of five went in Tony’s favor, as he had dominated the field with Ness’s powerful “PK” magic, which has a tendency to stunlock if accurate. It had become a three-stock, meaning that Tony had taken all of Chicarello’s “lives”, known as stocks, winning the set. 

In the second game, however, Chicarello was catching on, albeit slowly. He had managed to do on average 10% more damage per stock before being eliminated, which was a marked improvement. Improvements aside, the game still resulted in a 3-0. 

Chicarello had finally caught on to some of Tony’s combos, however, as game three was much closer. Tony took the first stock at a measly 41% of damage, and then promptly fell off the stage after his recovery was interrupted by Chicarello. Tony regained momentum soon, however, as he took Chicarello’s second stock after only 53% of damage. Chicarello came back fighting, taking the second Ness stock as a result of a 3-hit combo that was beautifully executed. 

The only issue? He was sitting at 105% against a fresh stock. One good combo could spell disaster, so he was playing especially careful to avoid a PK Fire, which could give Ness the opening to charge a smash attack that would certainly spell the end for Chicarello.

 In the end, however, his own caution would end the game and the set, as while camping the ledge, he had dropped down to jump back up to regain invincibility frames, a standard play to counter ledge-guarding. However, his second jump either hadn’t deployed or was somehow already expended, leading to his third stock being lost. 

Usually this would just seem like your standard loss, but it was instead an impressive triumph. Tony Pajamas is not your average collegiate Esports athlete. Far from it, in fact. According to start.gg, an Esports stat aggregation site, he played in a whopping 312 tournaments from 2016 until now, with a large number of first place finishes and a countless number of Top Five’s. To be able to take two stocks off of a giant like that is an effort to be proud of. 

Head Coach Matt Pioch spoke to Chicarello about the odd matchup.

“I did not want to tell you that he got second place in NECC last year because it probably would have wrecked your nerves, but you did great in light of that.” Pioch said. “Taking two stocks off him is amazing and shows that you can adapt to tougher opponents.” 

The Smash Bros. team is currently 8-5, and have more games scheduled for this Friday. 

Liney talked about the team’s performance. 

“A successful first few games, everyone played really well, and everyone took at least one set between the two weeks.”You  can watch the Smash Bros. team alongside the Rocket League team on twitch.tv at www.twitch.tv/waynesburgesports every Friday.