Twenty-Four Competitive Gamers Battle It Out At The Salty Joystiq Gaming Lounge

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.