Students will compete in the first Super Bowl Xbox 360 Madden tournament hosted by the University Student Union (USU).

The event will take place in the Games Room located below the Fitness Center on Thursday, January 28 at 6 p.m.

“Students have the option of coming as teams of two or if they come individually, then we match them up,” said Jeremy Hamlett, USU commercial services manager.

Students who participate will be put into 16 teams of two and will compete by single elimination, Hamlett said. The game will be displayed on the large projected screen in the Games Room, he added.

The tournament is free to join and attend for students, Hamlett said.  Students can sign-up at the Games Room to reserve their space or they can even sign-up the day of the event, he added.
The winner will take home a $25 gift certificate to Game Stop, Hamlett said.

Junior Narek Avakyan, 21, a Kinesiology major, owns Madden NFL 2009 and plays every time he has an opportunity. He found out about the tournament from a poster he saw in the Games Room.

“I would like to play in the tournament but I just started this new training for my work so it’s likely I won’t play in it,” he said.

Avakyan said the tournament is a “really cool” event especially for new students because it is a way to meet new people on campus.

Hamlett said knowing the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints will be going against each other in the Super Bowl helped them tie the tournament into the game to get people excited about it.

“We thought it would be good to get students to play with the winning teams that are playing in this year’s Super bowl,” said Sophia Powell, communications service assistant for the Xbox 360 tournament.

Powell said to her knowledge this is the first NFL tournament.

“We’ve done tournaments in the past such as Guitar Hero and Monday Night Football,” said Hamlett. “This is our first time doing a Super Bowl tournament.”

Financially preparing for this tournament was pretty easy said Hamlett. The USU usually provides funding for tournaments such as this one, he said. But this one did not really cost anything because they already had the Xbox 360 gaming system and the Madden NFL 2010 game to run the tournament.

Hamlett said he knows the base of regulars (students) who participate in the usual tournaments such as poker night will definitely show up for this one.

“I’m kinda curious to see the turnout,” he said.