The UHD Gators have been eliminated in the spring 2025 playoffs of their Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online crew battles. This is quite the upset considering their performance in the regular season of the National Association of Collegiate Esports and the National Esports Collegiate Conferences leagues. With half the roster set to depart, the future of the team is uncertain, and there will be a need to recruit new players.
UHD Gators went down to their sister campus, the University of Houston, to fight UH White for their second to last NECC match on March 17. While the UHD Gators put up a good fight, UH White decisively won the first two games, 0–5 and 0–6.
Despite this being their first loss, the UHD Gators felt confident as they made it into the NACE and NECC playoffs. Their spirit would be short-lived, for the UHD Gators would be eliminated by UNO Black in their first match of the NECC playoffs, 0–1 and 0–2.
With their focus shifted to NACE, the UHD Gators practiced and strategized for their semifinal match against TAMUSA SSBU Academy; however, they underestimated their opponents and lost, 0–3 and 0–1—ending the UHD Gators’ desire to win a league.
While the UHD Gators achieved a notable record in the regular season, issues surfaced behind-the-scenes, which threatened the team’s performance throughout the season and contextualized their losses in the playoffs.
The main issue the team faced was an inconsistent roster size. A minimum of four players are needed to compete on match days; additional players on the team roster can serve as substitutes. Due to personal scheduling conflictions and one member leaving to study abroad, the UHD Gators were left with just four players following spring break.
This would prove to be troubling when a player could not compete on a match day or make it to the eSPORTS console room on campus. In fact, the UHD Gators forfeited two matches due to not having enough players to compete, though these matches did not affect their advancement to the playoffs.
UHD being a commuter campus inherently limits team members’ availability, especially when compared to other universities whose teams live on campus. Hour-long commutes and reliance on METRO public transit greatly limits the times in which team members can attend match days.
Negotiating reschedules with other universities was difficult due to the team’s volatile roster. Spring break proved to be a hectic period full of scheduling issues for the UHD Gators, for instance, because not all universities share the same week of spring break as UHD.
The future of the current era of the UHD Gators Smash Bros. team is up in the air. In addition to the aforementioned issues, Team Captain and player Abraham Leija “ChupaSaur4” is graduating and player Adam “Gooeyest” plans on transferring to UH—leaving only half a team.
To withstand these vacancies, the UHD Gators depend on incoming UHD freshmen and current students interested in and skilled at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to attend fall tryouts and join the team.
Nevertheless, management are looking towards the future and plan to continue supporting the team.
“I’m proud of [the UHD Gators] for making it this far, year after year,” said UHD eSPORTS Coordinator Richard T. Rodriguez. “This isn’t the end. Gotta keep the fighting spirit, especially with the Switch 2 coming out and us [the eSPORTS program] getting it ready for the fall.”
