Imagine showing up to a small Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament and seeing NY Jets superstar Le’Veon Bell competing alongside you. This was the scene in Colombus, Ohio where Bell entered the Ultimate Pizza 30 Tournament.
Bell, whose hometown of Reynoldsburg is just 20-minutes from Columbus, entered the tournament with a GameCube controller and competed under the gamer tag, “Juic326,” a mixture of his college and NFL numbers along with his nickname, Juice. Although this was his first tournament, Bell did quite well, much to the surprise of those in attendance.
Though none of his gameplay was actually recorded, the bracket showed that the NFL star got through the first round with a 2-0 victory before being knocked out by Rich “Wizard Guy” Phillips, a local player who generally competed in Smash 4 tournaments. Even still, Bell took Phillips to three games, proving that football is not his only forte.
The New York Jets had their season end just a few weeks ago, ranking third in the AFC with 7 wins and 9 losses under their belt this year. It would seem that Bell has not been sitting idly by during his break, but rather taking the time to travel to compete in one of his other passions. Bell posted about the tournament on his Instagram, which was later picked up by users on the r/smashbros subreddit.
This is not the first instance where we have seen famous superstar athletes competing in eSports tournaments. Many like Justin Jones, Josh Hart, and Marshawn Lynch have competed in tournaments, though unlike Le’Veon Bell, they were partnered with professional gamers during the 2019 Fortnite Pro-Am. Another difference was that these players competed for charities during those events.
It is very exciting to see professional athletes like Le’Veon Bell playing in these local tournaments where there is much less publicity on them. They go there because they have a real love for the game and want to see how well they match up to others. With any luck, we might see more from Bell, either on stream or on LAN.
We just wonder if the NFL superstar will be traded Mega Man for Blythe as his main when that character is added to the roster.
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