Jonathan Mason '24, a computer science major, was named conference MVP for the third consecutive year.

"We expected to win the conference ever since the fall," he said. "We knew that with Dillon, Chris and me, we could win any match in the MAAC. The math works out if you play three really good players and they all win, the other team has almost zero chance of actually winning."

Dillon Diaspro '25, an English major, went into the tournament with a little more apprehension.

"It's important to keep in mind if something goes wrong, what to do to get back on track," he said. "In the end, it did work out. We did what we needed to do."

Both Mason and Diaspro credited the team's cohesiveness led to the MAAC title.

"This season — in the championship — we all played our own parts really well and all did what we needed to do to be successful," Diaspro said. "We had a lot of really smart players we could coordinate with and it was nice to have so many people smart about the league and the math needed to win."

In addition, the team also successfully recruited several strong first-year students — as the sport receives more recognition.

"It's heart-warming to see that something that maybe I thought 10 years wasn't going to be big or wasn't really going to really matter in my life, and just a hobby, would be something significant that so many people would really be able to enjoy," Diaspro said.

“We are very proud of our students' performances at the MAAC eSports Championships,” said Mike Medina, director of recreation. “The growth of Quinnipiac's eSports program over the last two years has increased the number of students by 50% while increasing from 3 to 5 competitive teams this year.”

Having our Super Smash Brothers team make it to three consecutive finals and back-to-back championships was a great feat and a credit to the students who pushed one another to ensure a title defense when everyone else in the MAAC wanted to beat them, Medina added.

Younger students interested in competing with the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate team are encouraged to reach out.

"If I ever had a high school student send me an email saying, 'Hey, I want to be on the Smash team when I come there, what can I do now or can you help me,' I would definitely drop everything I am doing and ask, 'What do you need?'," said Mason. He said he would also encourage them to participate in local tournaments as soon as possible to build their skillsets and develop new techniques.

"Even though it's a competitive sport, it's really cool to care so much about this unique sort of thing and have fun with it," Diaspro said. "It's really great to meet so many great people and have so much fun."