Over 2,700 people gathered at Kalahari Convention Center in Sandusky, Ohio for one of the largest competitive video game tournaments in the midwest this year, called Riptide 2024.
The tournament mainly focused on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the latest entry in the Super Smash Bros. video game series. Other video game tournament-goers participated in Splatoon 3 and Rivals 2 — another platform fighting game.
Sponsored by Michigan State University’s Esports program and advertised as the “Largest Collegiate Smash Bros. Event in history,” the collegiate Smash Bros. bracket at Riptide consisted of 32 teams in a Swiss style pool bracket — where each team competes in five rounds then gets seeded into a playoff bracket. Oakland University competed in this tournament.
In 2019, Oakland University formed an official D1 Esports team, Head Coach Carl Leone leads the squad which now includes “Rocket League,” “League of Legends,” “Overwatch 2” and “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.”
Oakland’s SSBU team has had relative success within their collegiate e-sport conference, finishing 7-1 in their regular season and 3-1 in the postseason, placing fifth out of 63 teams nationally in the 2023-2024 season.
This was the first match for Oakland SSBU in their 2024-2025 season — the roster has shrunk by a few players as some graduated or moved on to coaching positions. As of now, the SSBU roster consists of Robby “Rob” Rabinowitz, Anthony “AnthonyIsntCool” Codd, Tristan “Triscuit” Toma, Pablo “Avien” Avila, Amaan “Poison Jam” Naqvi, Lucas “Nad79” Fehn, Ian “Spectre” Sellman and Kerby “Judheir” Dela Cruz.
Six competitors punched their ticket to the collegiate bracket at Riptide, but not the team’s star. Anthony Codd, according to an X post made by the player, came down with a fever before the event and could not attend.
The main six competing were Rabinowitz who plays “Snake,” Toma who plays “Pac-Man,” Avila who plays “Min Min,” Naqvi who plays “Kazuya,” Fehn who plays “Mario” and Sellman who plays “Ness.”
The stage was set, the team arrived in Sandusky on Friday — the day before the bracket would take place — to get settled and strategize before their five-team gauntlet they would face that Saturday.
Tensions were high, as all of the Golden Grizzlies would compete in the main “singles” event for Ultimate, where 1,024 players faced off in a double-elimination style bracket to see who would come out on top and claim the cash prize.
I talked to Naqvi right before the collegiate bracket started to get his and his team’s thoughts before they would face off against the first team, Baldwin-Wallace of Ohio.
“We’re going to do our best and I feel like we’re pretty confident in what we got,” Naqvi said. He seemed pretty sure of himself and his team going into the first match — despite Codd’s absence.
For context, the state of Michigan is an absolute powerhouse of a SSBU scene in the Midwest, especially in terms of collegiate representation. This is including six teams in the Riptide collegiate bracket, such as Northwood University, Michigan State University, Davenport University, Lawrence Tech University and Concordia University of Ann Arbor — as well as OU. Also, in the non-collegiate competitive scene, there is a power rankings list published every quarter for Michigan players, and most — if not all — include collegiate super stars.
At the top of these power rankings are Angel “Onin” Riordan, Adam “Suspect” Ismaili, Jesse “JeJaJeJa” Valdez and OU “Cloud” player “AnthonyIsntCool.”
Even without their top player, the first two rounds versus Baldwin-Wallace and Manchester University were no big deal. In collegiate, each team gets 12 “stocks” or lives, each player on a team gets three lives — so each team gets four players.
For example, one player can beat four players on the other team in a row to win all 12 stocks. If one player loses two lives in one match but beats the other player fully, the winning player still has to compete in the next match, but only with their remaining stock(s).
Toma lost the first match against a Baldwin-Wallace “Sora” player by one stock, but Naqvi beat that player, plus three others, winning 10 stocks and beating BW 12-10.
“I feel pretty good I’m not gonna lie … having a team behind me, cheering me on in between everything and just keeping myself composed throughout and getting [the win] — one of the greatest feelings in the world,” Naqvi said.
Oakland, for their round three match, faced off against the University of Texas-Arlington squad, who ended their collegiate playoff run last season. It was time for the Grizzlies to make a key upset to put them 3-0 in the bracket.
Pac-Man is a very slow and campy character in Ultimate, setting up traps and fishing for big hits — Toma plays Pac-Man like betting all on black at Casino Night. He sends it.
Toma came from behind — a four-stock deficit — to beat UTA player Skitz’s “Wario,” while only having two stocks to survive with. He laid out his trap and hit a power-play before Skitz could use his trump card.
“When the team is thriving when I am about to make an upset, all the buzz, like, flowing through me, it’s all the more drive to win any game,” Toma said. “I would’ve been in big panic mode if it didn’t hit.”
Games four and five versus MSU and Purdue University were unfortunately losses for the Ultimate team — in two close matches with 12-9 and 12-11 scores respectively. This resulted in Oakland not making the playoff bracket as they missed the top six cutoff but placed in the top eight. The Grizzlies placed second in their “Gold” redemption bracket and lost to Lubbock Christian University in a close set.
I talked to head Coach Leone about the collegiate event overall and the context within Oakland’s placement after it had ended, he seemed optimistic despite not making the cutoff.
“I’m really proud of the team’s performance this weekend. The Riptide Invitational was the largest college Smash event in history. 32 teams competed and we made top eight. We also got revenge on University of Texas Arlington who ended our national championship run in May,” Leone said. “Every player on our team had plenty of moments where they shined and surprised our opponents. We did all of this without Anthony Codd, one of our key players. What a great way to kick off the competitive season.”
Finally, for the main singles bracket, Rabinowitz and Fehn both placed in the top 65, admirable results for players not even in the top five in the region. Valdez of Northwood placed 33rd along with Rabinowtiz and Riordan of MSU placed 17th — the highest placement for a Michigan player.
Overall, while not the perfect start to a season, the Oakland Esports SSBU team has a bright future ahead — let’s see if they can deliver the results.