Noah Stockton is a freshman member of the Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) esports team. His game of choice is Super Smash Brothers. This semester, Stockton competed against more than sixty of the best Super Smash Brothers players in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
After weeks of elimination rounds, only two players remain to contend for the Spring 2020 National Championship. PHCC’s Stockton is one of the two remaining players. He faced off against the only other remaining player during the final round of the National Champion tournament on April 30.
Stockton entered the tournament ranked number 24 from the regular season. In the first round of the tournament competition, he shut out and defeated the 41st ranked competitor from Arizona Western College 3-0. In rounds two and three,Noah played underdog to 9th ranked Centralia College’s Orpheus and then 8th ranked Ocean County College’s Skiadrum, defeating both of them to make it to the Quarterfinals.
In the Quarterfinals, Stockton faced his biggest challenge yet squaring off against the number 1 player in the NJCAA – NoStress from Snow College. NoStress had lost only one game in the regular season –the game he had played against PHCC’s Stockton in the first match of the year. In an upset, Stockton defeated NoStress again. With a 3-2 victory, Stockton moved closer to the championship match.
With only one match left to earn a shot at the National Championship, Stockton took on the 5th seed Northern Essex Community College. Entering the match as the number 24 seed, Stockton was the underdog once again. With yet another upset, Stockton defeated NECC and earned the right play in the championship match
“We are very proud of Noah for making it to the championship,” says Brian Henderson, PHCC Athletic Director. “Noah has shown that we have members of our esports program that can compete with the best of them. Our aim with our esports program is to give students opportunities. It’s exciting to see how far Noah has taken this opportunity, and we hope to see even more students follow in Noah’s footsteps soon.”
For the national championship, Noah faces the number 2 seed Ocean County College’s Elios whose only loss in the regular season was to Snow College’s NoStress. Stockton defeated NoStress twice on his path to the championship match. Stockton competed for the Spring 2020 Super Smash Brothers 1v1 Championship.
