BECKLEY, W.Va. -- The WVU Tech Super Smash Ultimate team kicked off their Spring season in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) Monday night in the Golden Bears esports lab, falling to the Bethel University Pilots by a score of 2-0. 

Tech regulars Frickroll (Trenton Smith, Jr.), Wolfwarrior (Ian Shaffer, Jr.), and ScytheC (Clayton Wilson, Jr.) welcomed AvailingStorm (Thomas Vecellio, Jr.) to the squad, who also plays on the Golden Bears Rainbow Six Siege team and was getting his first taste of Super Smash crews play.  

In the ECAC, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate is played in a three-man crew battle format, with each team trying to be the first to knock out all the other team's players. Each player in the lineup enters with three stocks, or lives, and competes until they're knocked out, or they knock out all the competition's players. In other words, each team starts a match with 9 stocks and the first to run out loses. The two teams then play a best-of-three game series. 

WVU Tech's game one lineup began with Wolfwarrior as Sora, who faced off against the character Villager for Bethel. Wolfwarrior would get a stock but fall to the Villager, bringing up AvailingStorm as Joker next for the Golden Bears. He'd also get one stock before falling to the Villager, bringing up captain Frickroll as Little Mac in a tight spot, down 7-3. He'd do what he could, dispatching the Villager, the Pilots' number two player Byleth and all the way to their anchor, a Mario, before running out of stocks, and Bethel took the game 3-0. 

For game two WVU Tech lead with ScytheC as Bowser, and Bethel again sent out the Villager. ScytheC matched well with the Pilots' leadoff but was stricken by bad luck and fell to the Villlager after only getting a stock. Frickroll came in with Little Mac in the two-spot and quickly took the Villagers last two stocks, moving on to Bethel's next player, a Mario. Frickroll would defeat him but lost two stocks during the fight, losing his last to the Pilots' anchor, a Kazuya. That brought up AvailingStorm as Joker with the game tied 3-3. He'd fight hard and get a stock, but the veteran Kazuya would prevail this time, taking the game 2-0, and the match 2-0. 

The Golden Bears Super Smashers play again next Monday at 8 p.m., and the match will be streamed on Twitch (WVUTechGoldenBears).