Jordan Marelli always leaned toward the competitive aspect of videogaming. “I’d open the game and only fight the bosses,” he says. “I was never interested in progressing the story.”
But he never expected that penchant would catapult him as far as he’s gone now — not just the top Super Smash Bros. Ultimate brawler in North Carolina, but one of the Top 150 players in world. He hit that milestone as part of the UNC Greensboro Esports Smash team.
“I was eating dinner with friends, watching the rankings video,” says Marelli. “They start with the Top 50. I knew I was on the fringe, so I wasn’t 100% sure I’d make it.”
Ironically, he figured it out thanks to a loss. When the video announced a player who bested him in one tough round, it noted Marelli’s name among that gamer’s notable wins. He says, “I was like, ‘Wait a minute! If I’m on their notable wins, that’s got to mean I made it.’ And lo and behold, I open the list. I started at 100 and found my name at 140. I was pretty happy about it.”
An Underdog Story
Marelli’s love of video gaming began on the Nintendo DS. He started with his friend’s Batman games, but he was always drawn to the fights. His character choice in Smash is Hero from the popular series Dragon Quest. There are professional Smash players ranked below Marelli who base their whole careers around the game.
His personal success is one more notch in an incredible Year Zero for UNCG’s collegiate esports players. The Smash team won the Grand Finals in the NECC and Playfly, beating more than 300 colleges combined.
When Marelli talks about how it went down in the NECC, it sounds like a classic sports underdog movie. As they took down one higher-ranked team after another, the Spartans realized they had a fighting chance to win it all. “A lot was on my shoulders,” he says. “But my team backed me up. I thought, ‘Okay, maybe we can win this.’ Then game two, we got blown out. It was pretty bad.”
With gritted teeth, they went into game three. “My best buddy Rafael was fighting a Top 10 player in the world,” says Marelli. “He beat him 3-0, and we won the game.”
Smash is a 1v1 game. Nevertheless, Marelli says he feels the team effort each round. “I feel I should put in my full effort for the sake of the school,” he says. “I mean, I’m representing them; I need to try to be the best player I can be.”
Going Hard in the Paint
Marelli’s athletic experience goes beyond the keyboard and controller. He interns as a production assistant for the Greensboro Swarm. The professional basketball team has a partnership with esports, with season-long promotional spots, seatbacks, and a UNCG Night at the Swarm, which brings in hundreds of teachers and students from the community for a STEM gaming night.
“I love basketball,” he says. “I love being there, watching basketball for free, but also getting to be a part of the experience for the fans, making the experience as engaging as I can for them.”
That internship and his world ranking are just a taste of a potential future in athletics, which Marelli is unpacking now in the Bryan School of Business and Economics. He first considered UNCG for its proximity to his home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that the marketing, entrepreneurship, hospitality and tourism department had a new concentration in esports management.
“Honestly, I was a very big doubter of esports for a very long time,” he admits. “I didn’t see it becoming very big at all. I just played Smash for fun.”
The minor is one of several esports-related programs spread across UNCG preparing students to take part in this growing industry.
“The gaming and esports industries have seen tremendous growth over the last decade” says John Borchert, Ph.D., director of Applied Research in Computer Arts, Digitization, and Esports. “Not only did it generate approximately $184 billion in 2023—surpassing film ($34billion) and music ($26 billion) combined—the skills and technologies that our students learn around gaming, simulation, and real-time 3D translate easily into other sectors like health care, energy, and defense. Our interdisciplinary approach opens a world of possibilities for students invested in gaming and esports.”
New Skills Unlocked
“It’s a great opportunity for students who are contemplating going into the esports field,” says Tom Renedo, Jr., a lecturer who coordinates the Bryan School’s program. Before coming to UNCG, he worked for video game conglomerate Electronic Arts (EA SPORTS).
Renedo emphasizes that, while players make up the face of esports, “only a very small part of the population goes on to the professional level.”
Like any sport, there’s an enormous team working around each athlete, which makes the skills learned through the esports concentration transferable to the rest of the sports world. Gaming facilities need operations staff to run the tournaments, and hospitality management to support travelers. Players rely on marketing and public relations specialists. And just like other athletes, esports players benefit from fitness experts to keep them healthy.
“They learn about organizing the event, learning how to market it, soliciting sponsorships, and managing partnerships. And obviously, we all know how big social media is,” says Renedo.
UNCG backs this academic focus with strong infrastructure. “We probably have one of the best on-campus arenas I’ve seen,” said Renedo. “Recreation and Wellness does an unbelievable job of supporting the program.”
The opportunity means a lot for a player like Marelli who is always driven to get better. Ironically, he thought he was getting tired of Smash before he got to UNCG. When he discovered its esports community, he got all fired up again.
Whether playing for fun, studying for a grade, or working for a team, he’s in it to win it. And the skills he honed to become a Top 150 player can be applied to much more in his life.
“It just goes to show that the more effort you put in, the better results you get,” he says.
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications
