Trini places 5th in Rio eGames competition

The event was hosted by the International eGames Committee (IEGC) and held at British House, Brazil last Tuesday . Though it was held during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games the competition is not affiliated with the Olympics.

Jardine was one of eight athletes from around the world participating in the competition featuring the game The Super Smash Bros for Wii U. He was invited to the competition after placing second at the local GamesCon2016 tournament.

“This would be Darien’s first international tournament and he would go down in history for being a part of this historic event,” Lee-a- Ping pointed out.

Lee-a-Ping, who also attended as manager, explained that the competition format was double elimination with a best three out of five in each round. Jardine in his first game was matched up against the world’s number one player, Elliot Carroza-Oyarce (Ally) from Canada who had placed first at the Evo Championships (largest and longest- running fighting game tournaments) earlier this year.

“Unfortunately, the difference in experience and skill showed as Canada’s :”Ally” would go onto win 3-0,” Lee-A-Ping explained.

Jardine was sent to the losers bracket and had to face off Mauro Gimenez (Gado), the undefeated champion in Argentina for four years. “This was set up to be another disappointment but Darien showed resilience and managed to make an upsetting victory, winning in a clinch play in the third round to make him 3-0,” Lee-A-Ping reported.

Jardine would then go on to play Leonardo Lopez (MK Leo), the number one from Mexico and ranked within the top 10 in the world. “Again the difference in experience and skilled showed as Mexico’s ‘MK Leo’ would make a clean sweep of 3-0. Canada’s “Ally” would end up winning gold edging out USA’s Larry Holland (Larry Lurr) in the grand finals 3-2 and Mexico’s ‘MK Leo’ placing third,” he reported. Jardine tied for 5th place with Germany’s David Whoha (Sodrek) “and has earned the respect of the Super Smash Brothers Community across the world”.

“Darien did his absolute best and he has done Trinidad and Tobago very proud,” Lee-a-Ping said.

He extended congratulations to Darien and said “we look forward to seeing you get better and better and competing again on the international arena.”