The Gaming Intern is a series that follows *SCAPE’s Intern Kay as they go around interviewing the leaders of various local esports communities. It aims to achieve a deeper understanding of esports topics, and allows us to see them through the eyes of the leaders themselves. In this article, we interviewed the leaders of the Smash G community.

Smash G is a Singaporean gaming community onboarded here with *SCAPE, which organises monthly events for Super Smash Bros. youth players across the island. Their series of tournaments at *SCAPE, called Autopilot Club, has been successfully bringing many people together due to their shared passion for the Switch fighting game. Simultaneously holding physical tournaments and streaming their events online, Smash G has been able to reach out to players, both new and old, to allow their community to grow.

For youths who are interested in participating in their tournaments, do look out for their Autopilot Club tournament announcements via our *SCAPE esports Discord [Join here!  https://discord.gg/gK6zaS8m3y]

(Smash G leaders on set with *SCAPE Intern Kay for the interview)

What’s the age range of Smash G tournament participants?

Yong Han: For the younger people, they could be around 12 years old, and the older ones can go up to around 18 to 30.

Yecheng: Yeah, I don’t think they are playing anymore but before COVID we used to have a participant who was 30+ years old. Right now, the oldest one is around 30.

(Smash G June’s Autopilot Club event, photos courtesy of Smash G)

How has the Smash G community made efforts to reach out to more participants?

Yong Han: Yeah. I believe some of the older players do make an effort to interact with the younger people. Some of them form their own communities and play together

Has there been any personal experiences with age discrimination within your community?

Yong Han: Within our community, I believe that there is a very distinct age gap between 2 groups: those who joined pre-COVID, and those who joined post-COVID. The pre-COVID participants are a little older and are already going to the army, while the post-COVID participants have just entered junior college or are still at secondary school. This creates quite a noticeable gap.

Yecheng: Aside from the gap itself, I won’t say that there is any real or large form of age discrimination. Sure, there is going to be some difficulties when the older folks- like myself- try to communicate with the younger ones, but when it comes to playing the game, most of the players can put this difference aside. They simply focus on the game.

Super Smash Bros. is a game on the Nintendo Switch console. Do you think the fact that it’s on the Switch makes it more or less accessible to the general public?

Yong Han: Yes… and no at the same time. Yes because the Switch is very family-friendly, not very expensive, and has a lot of games. The Switch console is also small which makes it portable and easy to bring out. However, at the end of the day, the Switch is still a console, which means that people need to buy it. It’s not something that everyone will want to buy, like a phone or a PC.

Yecheng: To add on to that, if you compare the Switch to other consoles, it is cheaper. It can even be up to $200-$300 cheaper than the other mainstream consoles, especially the latest Xbox. Yong Han also mentioned the family-friendly aspect of the Switch, which can be seen via the popular Switch games, such as Mario Party and Mario Kart. Even 1-2-Switch! It is a rather old Switch game, but it is still good for friends and family.

Before we end this interview, please promote Smash G to the viewers.

Yong Han: We hold Super Smash Bros. tournaments here at *SCAPE and at another location which you can find out about from our Smash G Discord! It is where you can learn more about our events and activities.

Yecheng: Do check out our tournaments if you have yet to do so, regardless of whether you are a hardcore or casual player of Smash. We would like to have you join our community. Our tournaments do have a bit of an entrance fee, but don’t worry, it’s nothing that is unaffordable.

(Smash G’s June event in *SCAPE’s Mediahub, photos courtesy of Smash G)

Gaming Intern’s In-A-Nutshell:

A final word and insight from Intern Kay

For a video game that is considered to be on the more “family-friendly” side, I was surprised by the age range of the tournament participants at Smash G’s events. Indeed, it might be skewed by the fact that *SCAPE is an organisation that focuses on empowering youths. This means that the esports communities onboarded would also be more catered to the youths as well. However, it was still quite eye-opening to know that the “older” participants are considered to be those exceeding the ages of 30- which debatably, in comparison to other categories, is only at the early middle-ages.

Since Super Smash Bros. is a type of game that is pretty appropriate to families, I had expected the turnout to have a much larger age range than Yong Han and Yecheng described since it is a video game that can be played by both the young and old in a competitive scene. Yet, according to the 2 tournament organisers, there already is a bit of a gap and difficulty in communication from the mere decades of age difference alone.

While the results of this interview is not able to speak for the whole of the gaming community, or even the local esports one, it certainly is interesting to see the range of participants coming in. It leads me to think about whether there is an even larger age gap that cannot be seen as easily, since the people exceeding 40 years of age do not show up to begin with.