Kanto to Hyrule, Mobius to Santa Destroy, Planet Reach to Little Big Planet, Cinema Student, Screenwriter, and all around gamer, Eric Parra is a bad enough dude to bring you your weekly fix on relative gaming. Whether it’s reviews, previews, or FAQs, matters that are professional or just personal, make sure you check Neon Tommy every week for all sorts of interesting tidbits in the world of video games. And remember, it’s dangerous to go alone.

Gamer's Network Logo

When you’re a gamer, chances are you play by yourself more often than not. That’s perfectly fine, more games are intended to be played solo anyways. But when you get a group going, that’s when things start to heat up. You see, gaming is one of those things that you can do alone and feel alright about, but it can be a lot more fun if you do it with someone else. Of course, not everyone may be into your particular gaming, and might find it kind of strange or off-putting, but that’s their loss, because your gaming is special to you and no one can take that away. 

Anywho, USC’s Gamer’s Network is all about group gaming. For those not in the know (presumably the solo-gamers), Gamer’s Network is a non-USC exclusive group that meets with the sole intention of playing games. Anyone can join, and in fact, people from all over, including a certain Bruin school, take part for the fun.

This is thanks in part to the current president, Johnson Lightfoote, who has been doing his best to gather these gamers and ensure they all have a good time. “I would like it for more people to come and just have fun playing games. We ask people to bring setups and whatever they want so they can have fun playing games they want to play,” Lightfoote said, promoting the idea that any game is as good as the next, so long as people want to play it. It was until recently that the club had fallen through, and Lightfoote was able to bring it back, bigger than ever.

But a president is only as good as his supporters, and with the help of the rest of the club, as well as sponsorships from ASUS computers, NOS energy drinks, SONY, and Viterbi’s Information and Technology Program (ITP), Gamer’s Network’s last tournament of the season, GAME ON 3, was a success. 

GAME ON 3 was the third and final tournament this semester of a series, held alongside the occasional LAN-parties (local area

Harrison Boppell, Jasper Lee, Akeem Shabazz, Johnson Lightfoote and Kaushik Bangalore

As mentioned, Viterbi’s ITP sponsored this event so that $450 could be awarded to the top contestants. The tournament consisted of Smash Bros. Melee, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and Halo Reach, with additional games to play for fun, including a promotional freeplay for the latest Sony Playstation Vita and a Street Fighter X Tekken setup.

Everywhere you turned, someone was smashing a Yoshi with Jigglypuff, shooting hadokens into Captain America, or placing a plasma swords and grenades into Spartans and Elites. Groups gathered and cheered and watched on a big screen as the action was projected throughout the Forum in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center. 

A big event like this obviously gathered some attention, with posts on various fighting game sites, such as Shoryuken.com, some professional gamers and top level players even decided to take part. A well known veteran, DJ Vest, entered and has been voluntarily helping out with the past few GAME ON’s through promotion and tournament rankings.  On top of which, the two top competitors for the Smash tournament were some of the highest ranking Falco and Captain Falcon players, from USC and UCLA respectively.

When you hang out with the Gamer’s Network, you’re bound to find someone who plays the same games that you do. If you’re interested, show up and bring what you want to play, maybe get some hype going around and have some good times. 

You can check out their facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/USCGamersNetwork

And see some of the action from last week here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL229E2FB63A3B8282 

And here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBED249385903493F&feature=plpp