RIPON, Wis. -- The Ripon College Esports programs scored their best win of the season in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate (SSBU), taking down UW-Green Bay in Wisconsin Esports Conference (WEC) play 2-0. Played as a team event where four players per team divide 12 stocks (lives) per set in a best-of-three match, Ripon looked to improve their conference position in conference SSBU standings with a win over an institution enrolling over 10,000 more students than the Red Hawks. 

Freshman Ethan Arts (Suamico, Wis., Bay Port HS), playing as Steve, opened the match for Ripon, scoring a win in the first game against Falco with two stocks remaining. Arts kept the momentum going into game two, downing a Samus main without dropping a stock, giving the Red Hawks an 11-6 lead. While Arts would be taken out by a Terry main in the next game, he was able to claim two more stocks before giving up his own, putting Ripon in strong position with a 9-4 lead. 

Following Arts was junior Sam Waring (Franklin, Wis., Franklin HS), playing as Min Min, looking to close out the opening set for the Red Hawks. Waring would trade stocks with UW-Green Bay's Terry, pushing the Phoenix onto their final player down 8-3. The final game of the set saw close contest between Waring's Min Min and UW-GB's Wolf, but with both players on their final stocks, Waring put together strong edge guards to claim the first set for the Red Hawks with 7 stocks still remaining.

UW-GB shifted lineups in the second set, opening with their Terry player, but Arts was able to repeat his strong opening from the first, taking out the Phoneix's first competitor while only dropping a single stock. His second game was no less impressive, downing UW-GB's Samus while again dropping only a single stock, putting the Red Hawks up 10-6.  

Arts's dominance only continued against the opposing Falco, with Arts dispatching the player without dropping a single stock, taking less than 60% damage. Facing a 3-10 stock deficit, UW-GB switched to Bowser for their final game, finally taking out Arts. The Steve main took down 17 stocks from the Phoenix across the match, by far the dominant performance of the day. 

Again Waring had the opportunity to close out the set, and again he would make good on the chance, taking down the Bowser while dropping just a single stock, confirming the match win for the Red Hawks over the Division I opponent. With the win, Ripon improves to #4 in WEC SSBU standings. 

Ripon Esports SSBU returns for another WEC match on Wednesday, April 8th, against WEC #3 UW-Stout.