A silence settled over the esports room as Jackson Wright, a mass communication senior, and Renato Rodriguez, an entrepreneurship sophomore, faced off in the grand finals of the UREC’s Fortnite tournament on Tuesday.

Six students had already been eliminated from the bracket-style, single-elimination contest, and with an exclusive T-shirt for the winner on the line, both players were in it to win.

The tournament was played on UREC computers in no-build, OG Fortnite, with each competitor playing an independent game and the win being assigned to the player that ended with the most points. One kill netted one point, with bonuses being awarded for finishing in the top three of the lobby.

Although the final match started close, Wright, who had dominated his two prior games, took home the victory and the shirt with a victory royale and 15 kills.

“I came in expecting to play hard,” he said. “And the shirt is fire.”

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Wright went into the finals on a hot streak, with two standout games behind him. His first ended with a victory royale and 19 kills, and his second was a top 10 finish with 15 kills. His performance is the result of years spent with the game. Wright said he lies somewhere on the line between a casual and hardcore gamer, but he’s been playing Fortnite semi-consistently since 2020.

Like most other competitors, Wright entered the tournament on a whim.

“I had just finished with a workout last week when I saw the poster,” he said. “I thought it looked fun.”

The same was true of Rodriguez, who played all of his tournament matches with a beach towel wrapped around him and swim goggles resting next to his mouse. He had gone straight from the cool water of the pool into the fires of competition and ultimately left a little disappointed.

“I’m down a little bit,” he said. “I just wasted two and a half hours for nothing.”

Although the competition started at 6 p.m., the action didn’t start until an hour and a half later. The tournament’s first two rounds boasted 11 forfeits, with the first real match not taking place until the quarterfinals.

Tournament supervisor Animaan Singh said there were 19 entries in total, with less than half showing up for the actual event, something he wasn’t shocked by.

“Registration was open for about a month,” he said. “So you get a lot of people that signed up weeks ago and haven’t thought about it since.”

On top of the forfeits, there were a couple small instances of technical difficulties. One competitor’s audio cut out for a minute, and another struggled with connecting a mouse. Singh said road bumps like these are unavoidable, with the tournament as a whole still being a success.

“We do these events to get people to be more competitive and involved,” he said. “It was nice to see everybody get through them [technical problems] and still play without any complaints.”

The tournament succeeded in giving the students something to look forward to. Ana Moreas, a chemical engineering sophomore, walked to the UREC after a physics test just to congratulate her friend, who won her first game in the tournament after excitedly looking forward to the event for a week.

“She was very excited,” Moreas said. “She talked about it so much over the last week.”

Moreas’ friend was Jaedyn Corbin, a digital art sophomore, who left the tournament with a final record of one win and one loss. Corbin has been playing Fortnite since around 2018, but she mainly plays for fun, with this tournament being no exception.

“I’ll have to see how other people are playing, but I’m not too confident in my chances,” she said after her first match. “I’m just here for fun.”

The competition also gave players the chance to put their personalities and interests on display through their skins of choice. Moreas used her Leon Kennedy skin, as she’s a big fan of the Resident Evil games, from which Leon originates.

Eddie Lowery, a bioengineering major, rocked the Brite Hatsune Miku skin. Miku is a digital pop star with long electric blue hair, and Lowery said he just loves the look of the skin.

Fahd Khattak, a computer science sophomore, views his skin choice as a way of paying tribute. He uses the Lebron James toon squad skin, modeled after James’ appearance in “Space Jam: A New Legacy.”

“I think Lebron’s the GOAT,” he said.