VINELAND, NEW JERSEY—In a narrow
building off Landis Avenue, local residents battled one another in a video game
for a cash prize. Controllers clicked and clacked away as players made their
run for first place.
At the Salty Joystiq Gaming
Lounge, at 921 E. Landis Ave., competitive gamers came to play on Nov. 13 in a Super Smash
Bros. Melee and Wii U tournament. The tournament was a one-on-one double
elimination format. Entry fees went toward the pot prize. They hold tournaments
like these every week.
The lounge has gaming posters
hanging on the walls, stacks of Wii U, Xbox One, and Playstation 4 games on
shelves with little gaming statues, and two rows of high-quality monitors
running along the walls.
Twenty-four people showed up at Salty,
some to compete, some to spectate, and some for both. For Smash Bros. Melee, 14
players entered and for Smash Bros. Wii U, 11 players ended. The payout for
first place out for each game respectively was $42 and $35.
But that’s expected from locals,
larger scale tournaments have prize pools up into the ten thousands.
A projector is set-up in the
middle of one of the walls, creating a cinematic viewing stream of video game
conventions, high-profile tournaments, or just a regular’s video game matches. They
serve snacks and soda too.
Many of the players who come to
Salty Tournaments are locals to Vineland. But it’s common for people from
different counties such as Atlantic and Gloucester. During Salty Joystiq’s
bigger tournaments, people have come from North Jersey, Philadelphia, and Delaware.
The owner, Matthew Jordan Boone,
23, opened the business in 2012 and is planning to expand to create better
tournaments.
Will Sykes, 25, a member of Salty
Joystiq, said one of his favorite experiences there was the 100+ tournament
they held for Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom. Players from Syracuse
traveled to Salty to compete. One competitor lost $100 making a side-bet on
tournament results.
Jermain Sullivan, 20, said that
he comes to Salty to “have an escape for life.”
Most of the tournament matches are
best of three, but once a player makes it to top three, the matches become best
of five. During a best of three and five, some rules are different. One of
Sullivan’s favorite memories is when he made it to top three for the first
time; he forgot that it was a best of five and blundered on the rules since he
never had top three experiences before.
First place in Smash Bros. Melee
went to Kile Johnson, who signed up under the alias Tank. First place in Smash
Bros. Wii U went to a player called Sapphire.
