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As McMaster students make their way back to campus, intramurals will be making a subsequent comeback.
Preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, the McMaster University Athletics and Recreation department organized a wide variety of intramural sports on campus for each fall term. These sports ranged from indoor activities such as volleyball, to typical outdoor activities like soccer. This year the intramural program will look different.
For most sports, the number of players on the teams will be limited. This is to mitigate potential community spread and to limit the number of player interactions as much as possible. The sports that are affected by these limitations are soccer, volleyball, basketball and floorball. The number of players per team is different for each sport.
According to the COVID-19 Back To Mac website, those planning for fall intramurals can expect to have a variety of outdoor intramural sports, including soccer, spike ball, ultimate frisbee, touch rugby and softball. These activities were chosen based on safety considerations and the ability to deliver them safely without compromising the experience for students.
Presently, the Athletics and Recreation department have delayed any official announcement regarding the intramurals for the fall term.
“Safety is their number one priority . . . We are still finalizing some protocol details as per the provincial government announcement,” said Peter McComie, the intramural sports coordinator.
Many of these decisions involved the inclusion of vaccine passports around Ontario for non-essential activities, allowing for further close contact between students.
"We must go through the McMaster health and safety channels before we can finalize our departmental plans and put anything out to the public about our recreational programs. Student and participant safety is the highest priority,” explained McComie.
"We must go through the McMaster health and safety channels before we can finalize our departmental plans and put anything out to the public about our recreational programs. Student and participant safety is the highest priority
Peter McComie, Intramural Sports Coordinator
The McMaster Intramural website has since provided further updates, having listed a total of 15 sports for registration throughout the fall. Out of the 16 sports, three of them are remote while the other 13 are going to take place on campus.
The three remote categories of sports are fantasy leagues, E-sports and National Football League picks. Within the E-sports category, FIFA, Madden, Rocket League and chess will be available to players to sign up for.
Every sport will offer a “PlayFun” league which is a division for those who just want to play casually, offering a social and active lifestyle blend. However, sports such as basketball, soccer and volleyball will also offer a “PlayComp” league, which is a division build for those interested in playing in a more competitive and higher effort league.
Thirteen other sports will take place on campus, which include indoor and outdoor activities. The indoor activities include softball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, touch rugby and spikeball. The outdoor activities include innertube water polo, pickleball, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, basketball and floorball.
Pricing for the fall intramurals ranges from free to $120 per team. The remote sports — such as the E-sports leagues or NFL picks — are the cheapest, compared to softball and waterpolo, which are the most expensive at $120 and $110 per team, respectively.
The season length for the fall intramurals differs from sport to sport. The outdoor sports will start in mid-September and will take place until early November due to the challenging weather conditions that occur mid-November onwards. Indoor sports will have their seasons shifted a month later, starting at the end of October and finishing by the beginning of December. However, the remote leagues will take place from September to December.
Registration for the McMaster fall intramurals will begin on Sept. 8 for outdoor sports and remote leagues, whereas indoor registration will begin on Sept. 19. Every student that wishes to participate in this semester's intramurals can do so through the IMLeagues website by creating an account and registering their team through the portal. If a student doesn't have a team and wishes to register solo, they can register as a free agent on the website and will be placed into a team.
For additional information, visit the McMaster intramurals page or the McMaster intramurals calendar.
McMaster has seen a few famous graduates walk through its halls. From Eugene Levy to Martin Short, who have both moved onto great success on the big and small screens, it’s safe to say Mac has had some notable alumni. One of those individuals is the anchor for The Sports Network: Lindsay Hamilton.
On March 5, McMaster athletics and recreation held a talk where many prominent women in sports came to speak about challenges women are facing in sports leadership today. Among those invited was Hamilton, who I sat down with to interview.
Hamilton was a graduate of the class of 2014 and by the time she graduated was already primed for success in broadcasting. Throughout her time at McMaster, not only was she a student, but she was also a varsity athlete for the lacrosse team, a presenter for a weekly sports show on 93.3 CFMU and a host on the Family channel.
“I've always been someone who is really driven and I worked really hard at university. I think putting in the work then allowed me to have a platform after university to bounce off of,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton certainly had her plate full during her undergrad, but this never stopped her from wanting more. She credits her success to the support of her family, her strong work ethic and determination. Hamilton also touched on how being so involved at school was a big factor in learning how to take advantage of every opportunity that she could.
Reaching for the stars and already having a strong portfolio in television hosting, Hamilton looked to focus on sports broadcasting once she graduated. She got some of her first breaks covering the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup in 2012 and officially joined Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment in 2014. The MLSE owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and many other prominent Toronto sports teams.
Reaching for the stars and already having a strong portfolio in television hosting, Hamilton looked to focus on sports broadcasting once she graduated. She got some of her first breaks covering the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup in 2012 and officially joined Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment in 2014. The MLSE owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and many other prominent Toronto sports teams.
After joining the MLSE, Hamilton’s resume grew and so did her screen presence. She is now on the desk as an anchor at The Sports Network for SportsCentre and representing an ever-growing and diverse presence of women in sports media.
TSN's talent roster is still overwhelmingly male-dominated, but the number of women anchors, hosts and analysts have grown a great deal over the past ten years.
It is no secret that journalism and broadcasting was traditionally a “boys club”, but TSN is making a change and regularly sees two women leading broadcasts during primetime morning recaps, Raptors and Leafs games. This is one example of the trend in normalization of women leading broadcasts in sports, something that seemed to be a pipe dream in the early 2000s.
The presence of women in sports is ever-growing. For example, Doris Burke, a National Basketball Association analyst, is heralded as one of the best broadcasters in the sport of basketball and the NBA is set to see an increasing number of women in positions of power.
Masai Ujiri, the president of basketball operations for the Toronto Raptors, has hired over 14 women to be on staff, ranging from coaching to marketing within the organization, more than any other team in the league. And he credits a good portion of the Raptors’ success to the diversity within his staff.
Not only are teams and broadcast networks hiring more females, but the NBA is rumoured to soon be the first organization to ever have a female head coach within the four majors: football, basketball, hockey and baseball. Becky Hammon has already coached a summer league team, being the first female summer league head coach in the NBA in 2015. Hammon seems to be on the path to take over a regular-season team of her own, with analysts and journalists speculating she could end up as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
“As women, we’ve definitely come a long way. But we can’t be complacent. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Try new things, seek a mentor. Know that there is such a great community of women who are willing to support you,” Hamilton remarked at the Women in Sport Leadership panel discussion.
“As women, we’ve definitely come a long way. But we can’t be complacent. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Try new things, seek a mentor. Know that there is such a great community of women who are willing to support you,” Hamilton remarked at the Women in Sport Leadership panel discussion.
The importance of a mentor was another point which Hamilton emphasized. Building networks and having figures you look up to can benefit anyone. She suggested taking five figures who you admire for different reasons and emulating those traits.
She says the experience she was able to gather at McMaster was a major factor in perfecting her craft. The shows she produced for MacTV, 93.3 CFMU and her experience at local radio stations through her work study class were crucial in her development as a broadcaster. She could not stress enough how students should take advantage of all the opportunities that are provided on campus.
She says the experience she was able to gather at McMaster was a major factor in perfecting her craft. The shows she produced for MacTV, 93.3 CFMU and her experience at local radio stations through her work study class were crucial in her development as a broadcaster. She could not stress enough how students should take advantage of all the opportunities that are provided on campus.
“I think for me, and this is advice I often give to students these days, is that there are so many resources available to you in university to take advantage of. Don't wait until you've graduated to get work experience,” Hamilton remarked.
Hamilton is a prime example of a new wave in sports, where womens’ presence is long overdue. She worked hard and aimed for the stars, and now she is one. Being a McMaster grad myself, this definitely hit home. Speaking with her was like looking into the pool of potential that the university population has. There are so many talented individuals at 1280 Main St. W. and speaking to an extremely well established graduate was not only inspirational for myself, but I hope for you as well.
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After four years of late evening button mashing, tournaments and gaming community events, Super 1UP Games closed their doors on Nov. 8.
The retro game sister store to the original 1UP Games was founded as a hub for the local competitive gaming community. It was the host of a weekly series of fighting game tournaments “Super Steel City Fight Nights” for the entirety of the store’s lifetime, cultivating a close knit community of Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, King of Fighters, and Smash Bros players.
The community hub will be officially moving this community of fighters to the downtown core, to 1UP Game’s King St. E. location. The new location offers 5,000 square feet for games, comic books, a recently opened arcade and a new escape room.
1UP Games owner Marc Nascimento explained that the time to close their secondary location came from diminishing foot traffic in that neighborhood and a greater amount of traffic and retail space in their downtown location.
The local tournament series originally founded by Canadian fighting game community veteran Vince Hui was in fact the primary reason that Super 1UP Games was maintained until this point.
“The whole reason that [Super 1UP Games] came about was because it was so big we could actually start doing tournaments. [Hui] came to me while [1UP Games] was in Westdale, and we were talking about doing a tournament, so we did one at Staircase Theatre. That lead up to everything at Super,” explained Nascimento.
While the fighting game community’s move to the downtown location is a more accessible and convenient venue, Nascimento, and many other weekly patrons of Super 1Up Games have fond memories in that location.
“I’m excited for it, it’s just that there are a lot of memories in Super since it’s been four years of a great community… There’s definitely been a need for it in Hamilton ever since Pownz closed down,” said Nascimento, referring to the downtown gaming centre that closed in 2010.
“I always wanted to have a videogame community. Fighters, shooters or whatever, as long as people can get together and play.”
The community is primarily focused on Street Fighter, what can historically be considered to be one of the most important competitive gaming franchises in arcade history. Without arcades, local casual and tournament playing spaces are what carry on the legacy of the original social gaming experience.
In Hamilton’s community, there is a diverse cast of old arcade veterans, growing up and leading a now thriving competitive fighting game community, and younger faces that have more recently latched onto the tail end of the Street Fighter IV franchise, and this year’s latest entry, Street Fighter V.
While still a relatively new face to e-sports, the largest Street Fighter V tournament “EVO” was held in the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and broadcasted live on ESPN2. The broadcast reached 1,946,000 unique viewers.
What often goes unmentioned in lieu of this mainstream growth is the small, local communities that foster the hobbyists that participate in these games in the first place. The Super 1UP community actually helped produce a sponsored, travelling Street Fighter V player.
Local champion Van Nguyen scored a sponsorship with Toronto e-sports team Set to Destroy. Nguyen was previously sponsored by 1UP Games, and has since gone on to win first place at Red Bull Proving Grounds: Fight for the 6ix qualifying him for the main Red Bull Proving Grounds Finals in Santa Monica, California, where he finished in fifth place.
“Going to 1UP has been a highlight of my week for the past few years. If I could, I would always try to make time for it every week, so it's a bit sad that the store itself is closing down… but I'm hopeful the new location will draw a larger crowd,” said Nguyen.
The fighting game community is one of the few grassroots competitive communities. International spectators and sponsors increase, but it is in these local centres that the love for the game begins to flourish. More importantly, the love of the game quickly becomes of love for social experience that is often left out of the e-sports story.
“Super 1UP will always be the place where I came from and represent. It's in my roots as a player and there's no removing that. Some veteran players tell stories of arcades where they first got their start and in time I'll look back with nostalgia and say I got my start as a player here,” explained Nguyen.
As the group of gamers and hobbyists bid farewell to their to their communities old home, they, along with the rest of the community, can look forward to a new finding new life for their passions in their new downtown home.
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This past weekend, I spent time with some of the world’s most talented, intelligent and fierce fighters at Canada Cup. Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, Daryl “SnakeEyez” Lewis and Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang duked it out for a $15,000 pot bonus. Fierce punches, swift roundhouses and fireballs were perfectly executed until one competitor was left standing. It was an unforgettable show for the 600 attendees at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel and Conference Center.
Canada Cup 2015 has become the largest Canadian fighting video game tournament in history. This weekend was a spectacle for competitors and fans alike, but for a small Hamiltonian group of gamers, Canada Cup saw the birth of a local champion, and solidified the importance of the gaming community as an outlet for individual passion.
Street Fighter and the Capcom Pro Tour
Street Fighter is the 28-year-old series that took arcades by storm, and created the foundation for one of the first genres in competitive gaming. The franchise has been the game of choice for the majority of the fighting game community’s history, largely because of how it has stayed relatively true to the fundamentals that hooked so many young arcade enthusiasts back in the day.
Despite the relatively small size of the community built around these games, the competitive scene is experiencing a period of phenomenal growth. The Capcom Pro Tour, a Japanese video game company, and Sony, have greatly contributed to this growth. The total prize bonuses to win in Ultra Street Fighter IV total $500,000 throughout the year. A large number of tournaments throughout the year provide opportunities for players, amateur and professional alike to accumulate ranking points and automatic qualification opportunities.
Canada Cup was the final North American premiere event before the final 32 players were to be fully qualified to enter the Pro Tour Finals in December. It comes as no surprise then that both professionally sponsored and independent players flew from over ten different countries to try and compete for the automatic qualification spot and prize money.
The international FGC
By some unexpected series of events, I somehow find myself in the infamous “Salty Suite.” A post-tournament hotel room hosts a party with the who’s who of the fighting game community. These rooms are regularly hosted and streamed on Twitch TV, and feature high-stakes money matches between high-profile players. The big names of the international fighting game community were all partying in the same room, and I was there, completely star struck.
I took pictures, had actual conversations with the same people that I loved supporting and watching from home, many of whom can be considered legends within the community. They were all extremely approachable and relaxed despite the crowd of locals that found their way in the room despite a long day of tournament matches.
This was the personal equivalent of partying with some famous Hollywood celebrities after sneaking into an exclusive Hollywood nightclub, with the addition of a not-so-PG live stream, Chun-Li cosplay and an abrupt police shutdown due to the room being over capacity.
The next morning revealed some of the more “exciting” antics that occurred that evening, but nonetheless transitioned into top eight action in the hotel ballroom. The final match that day, between two Japanese arcade legends, Tokido and Fuudo provided a thrilling, and fitting close to the end of the day, but the fun I had with fellow players, both international and local, will remain with me the longest.
Hamilton’s journey
The local fighting game community has been cultivated in the weekly Super Steel City Fight Nights (SSCFN), hosted by Super 1UP Games and tournament organizer Vince “RXS” Hui. The series of tournaments has run for over three years, and has built up a group of friends just as much as it has built up a safe, competitive environment. The Hamilton fighting game community traveled to Canada Cup as a unit, under the SSCFN moniker.
The level of dedication that players and other professionals have for a very specific genre of video games can be difficult to understand. Countless debates about whether or not “e-sports” count as “real” sports indicate that there are enough people who do not understand. Competitive gaming, particularly in the case of fighting games, is simply breaking down mechanics, and the carefully crafted rules laid out by game developers, who are now very conscious of the potential competitive communities that can be built around their games.
Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Under Night In-Birth, Mortal Kombat X and Smash Bros. all share the fundamental concepts of controlling space with punches, kicks and fireballs of various ranges and speeds. The one-on-one nature of these games also stresses anticipation and predicting your opponent’s next move.
What makes these games suitable for competition is one thing, but more importantly, committing to a single game is just plain fun. Critically thinking and practicing these games is just a satisfying and enjoyable way to approach them.
Some are more driven by the way in which testing, trial and error and the general search for understanding and knowledge within a game can translate directly to results. Others are motivated by self-improvement. When wins and losses are attributed to your ability to make critical decisions, and the dexterity and awareness needed to execute those decisions, victory comes with a real sense of accomplishment.
A victory for Hamilton
These are the elements that attracted local players such as Van Nguyen to take part in competitive Street Fighter IV. Nguyen traveled along with over thirty local players, representing the city of Hamilton, and more specifically, the local independent game shop that hosts this small community of competitors, 1UP Games.
Nguyen is Hamilton’s best player, but with minimal experience against international competition, there was really no telling how well he would perform this weekend. Then Nguyen beat Evil Genius’ sponsored player Kenneth “KBrad” Bradley, and ultimately finished his run in the top 32 out of about 300 players.
“I was just elated. I was having such an adrenaline rush. Everyone came up and congratulated me, and I want to say that I didn’t feel deflated from it, cause I achieved something so great,” said Nguyen.
Despite his relatively short history with the franchise, the local player was able to level up his game relatively quickly. “In the recent year, what I think I’ve improved the most; I would do things like… a lot of introspection, a lot of watching my own replays, asking for advice, and a lot of thinking about my own game,” described Nguyen.
The level of competition is what has attracted Nguyen and many others like him to the scene, “I guess just competing in general, competing to try to win it’s something I wasn’t used to as a kid,” explained Nguyen.
A final thank you
I didn’t think I’d be affected by what professional Street Fighter commentator James Chen, aptly called “Post FGC Major Depression.” I was quickly proven wrong. After the half hour set between Tokido and Fuudo concluded, tears started welling up in the legendary commentator over the live broadcast. As people began pouring out of the ballroom, one last family picture of the Hamilton crew before they departed triggered some similar sentimentality.
A quiet ride home let me reflect on how significant and how necessary these events are, not just for the fighting game community, but for any group of like-minded individuals who need to express their passions with others like them.
That Canada Cup was a success is undeniable. The tournament will once gain return to Toronto next year, but attendance numbers and a plethora of exciting matches are not the only reason this event was one to remember. The feeling of community and a shared passion is really what makes these events so successful.
It’s all too easy to feel alone when you have a niche interest. Yes, the scale of the Capcom Pro Tour, and the general growth in online viewers and e-sports in general has made huge leaps in growing this niche. But even still, my excitement about our local hero’s run in Ultra Street Fighter IV will generally be met with polite disinterest. Canada Cup was a place to be loud and proud of the games that I love.
So thank you to the organizers of Canada Cup for providing a phenomenal tournament, an even greater outlet for so many people. Thank you to every single professional player who let me take pictures, and who tolerated my gushing. Thank you to the energetic crowd of spectators during grand finals, and all the players for giving it their very best.
Hamilton can truly count itself among the lucky cities in this international community. Super Steel City Fight Nights has shown no signs of slowing down, and it has successfully fostered a welcoming community that actively seeks to develop local players and build many friendships along the way.
Playing games online and watching Twitch streams is valuable, but it fails to incite those strong feelings of unity. Don’t keep your passion, whatever that might be, to yourself. It is something significant and real, and it demands to be shared and expressed.
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