Abraham Leija
UHD console room on the second floor of One Main Building.
The UHD Gators remain undefeated as they reach the midpoint of the spring 2025 season of their Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online crew battles season.
Based on their dominating performance, the UHD Gators are slated to advance to the playoffs in both the National Association of Collegiate Esports and the National Esports Collegiate Conferences leagues. The team’s players and managers are electrified by their feats and are optimistic about winning their first season in either league.
“We’re almost guaranteed to make it to the playoffs, and the entire league does seem at least feasible,” said team member Joshua.
In both NACE and NECC, teams from across North America compete in various competitive games at a collegiate level. For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, teams compete against each other in 4 v 4 online crew battles, where the goal is to diminish the opponent’s life count, also known as stock count. Each player has three stocks, meaning each team collectively has 12 stocks per game. The first team to win two games wins the crew battle.
The UHD Gators consists of Team Captain and player Abraham Leija “ChupaSaur4” (King K. Rool and Isabelle) and players Adam “Gooeyest” (Pokémon Trainer), Chris Hobley “Heartbreak” (Lucario), Ethan Ngueyn “IsEthan_” (Sephiroth and Shulk), Jose Martinez “lava” (Joker and Mario), and Joshua “RaidenKnuckle” (Bowser and Sephiroth); former Team Captain and former player Allen Cosep “werehunter2014” (Link and Joker) remain on the roster in a legacy role. They are managed by Team Manager Miguel Carrera and overseen by UHD eSPORTS Coordinator Richard T. Rodriguez.
Formed in fall 2023, the current era of the UHD Gators has experienced highs and lows across previous NACE and NECC seasons. The closest they came to winning a league was in the NACE fall 2024 season, where they remained undefeated the entire season until they lost to UNT Gold in the finals 1–2 by only two stocks.
Morale was at an all-time low for the UHD Gators following the major upset and the loss of four team members. Despite this, things have turned around for the Smash Bros. team this spring as they retain an unbeaten record.
“We were really close last time,” said Nguyen. “We made it to the playoffs, the finals even, and we just made a couple of mistakes, but this time I think we’re going to win the whole thing.”
“I believe we can for sure make it far, even past the playoffs,” said Martinez. “My hopes are for us to win the whole thing overall, so I have faith we can reach it this time.”
This season is proving to be their best yet for both leagues.
“The season [spring 2025] reminds me of the absolute dominance of the first season we played back when we had only four players,” said Cosep. “But now, we’ve got two seasons and new faces that are really putting in the work…
“It seems that UHD players’ skill simply cannot be bogged down by a simple player count drop. Even if it is not my success, I feel happiness and pride for the success of my teammates.”
However, one of the UHD Gators’ upcoming NECC matches is against none other than their sister school, the University of Houston’s UH White team.
“It’s not our first encounter with any of the UH teams,” said Carrera, “So it’s not just a friendly rivalry between schools under the UH System; I think, now that some of us have gone over there [UH campus], it’s also a bit of like a… teammates turned rivals kind of deal.”
UH White is also undefeated in their NECC league and boasts a former UHD Gator. These factors contribute to the UHD Gators’ reality check that the season is far from over.
“We take [the match] if we play with the strategy we’ve been doing so far against every other school—me as front anchor, Abraham is back anchor, and then whoever else is in between we kind of play it by ear,” said Hobley. “The front anchor-back anchor strategy has been working so far.”
The UHD Gators and UH White are in discussion regarding the occasion and plan to uphold the tradition of meeting in person for their NECC crew battles. This match will most likely take place at the UH campus due to the match date falling within spring break.
While representing UHD and playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate can be an entertaining and prideful extracurricular activity, it can be quite difficult to commit to team activities, find time to practice and attend match days. Many student-athletes have jobs, other university commitments, and personal life to manage.
As advocated by NACE, NECC, and UHD’s eSPORTS program, school and graduation come first. This is especially true since participation in NACE and NECC requires active enrollment, maintaining good grades, and avoiding academic probation.
“I’ve had a lot of recent changes to my schedule because I started working, which has made it hard for me to consistently practice,” said Adam. “But I still want to win for our team, so I always at least make sure I can show up for one of our game days a week. Of course, school is my biggest priority though. I guess I just try to ‘show up to everything.’”
The approaching end of the season also sparks concern for the permanence of the current era of the UHD Gators Smash Bros. team.
Two players are expected to graduate or transfer at the end of the semester and one player will be studying abroad for the rest of spring 2025, fragmenting the remaining team in half. Regardless, management is confident in the future of the UHD Gators and the UHD Esports program as a whole.
“I see UHD Esports expanding to new facilities and growing as a program,” said Rodriguez. “With our program being part of the Department of Sports and Fitness at UHD, I feel that we have the room to grow not only as a program for students but for the future generations of Gators.”
UHD Gators match days and progress updates can be found @uhdesports on Instagram.