What does one think of when they hear of junior Chris Gordon? Well, they probably think of one of Beaver Area's finest cross country runners, or JROTC's most disciplined lieutenant, but they probably don’t think of a collegiate esports player.

Chris's esports career began at the Community College of Beaver County orientation where Chris noticed a Nintendo Wii U sitting on a table, and he had a realization, a realization that he had to "electronically destroy someone" in the game that was currently loaded: Super Smash Brothers.

Chris is enrolled in CCBC's aviation program.

Following the electronic destruction of his opponent, some people took notice of Chris and his talents.

"I didn’t want to be on the team until the coach told me that they needed me on the team," Chris said.

As a result, Chris lent his electronic destruction talents to the CCBC team. Though Chris himself only plays Super Smash Brothers, there is a variety of games available to play on the CCBC esports team. Although the team currently plays on Smash Brothers Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch, Chris tried out for the team on Smash Brothers Melee, a version of the game that is just under 20 years old.

"Most kids who don’t play Smash end up playing Rainbow Six Siege," Chris said.

In any game, players often find a character or class that they enjoy playing the most. One of Chris's teammates, for example, only plays characters with swords. But why would Chris choose the clearly inferior Mario brother? Chris himself doesn’t have the answer.

"I just turned out to be really good with [Luigi]; I don’t know how he came to be my main character," Chris pondered.

Unfortunately for Chris, practices for the team are held at noon during CCBC's lunch break. So how does Chris practice with the team? It’s simple, he said.

"I just don’t," Chris said regrettably.

Even with this unfortunate restriction, Chris has the utmost confidence in terms of his Smash abilities.

"I’d say that I’m the all-star of the group," he boasted.

When asked if the other members of his team would agree with this assertion, Chris had no comment.

Chris believes that his first competition against another team will be some time after Thanksgiving. Perhaps this competition will find its way into the sports section of the ECHO.