Before all of our efforts at OU started to gain formalized energy in 2017, the "Sooner Smash Bros" student org at OU had been hosting weekly events at various locations across the university campus since 2011. We worked to unify our efforts and integrated them into the new OU Esports Association at OU which is the originating name for everything you see on this site today.
To be respectful and to not allow that legacy of OU and Oklahoma history alike to be lost, the state's longest running Smash weekly dubbed "Sooner Smash Dojo", or "Sooners" for short, is forever immortalized as we evolve the naming and intention to blanket all communities and efforts that are public facing that have proven to be mature and have established consistency for further elevation.
The Sooner Dojo Series, or SDS, events are OU ECCI's push to stabilize and elevate public facing programming for revenue generation to support student payroll and development. Many view the topic of gaming culture and esports as purely playing games at varying skill tiers. However, the actual industry requires resources and champions to facilitate everything from events, production, and logistics management.
These leaders are referred to as T.O.'s, or tournament organizers. In a very basic definition, organizations like the NBA, NFL, and NCAA are governing bodies that facilitate leagues/tournament play and the skillsets are exactly the same. The only variance between this and them is sheer scale of intent.
To put this more in academic terms this is akin to administration, sports business, retail chain management, business, and organizational leadership degrees as a few example of organic curricular alignments and career fields.
SDS Events are granted this elevation and disctinction based on continuity over time and potential opportunity to draw revenue. All venue fee revenue generation is exclusively used to pay staff, purchase game licenses as needed, and refresh any hardware needed to provide easy to participate attendance. Because of this the following criteria are required to operate a Sooner Dojo Series event and enablement for public audience engagement:
The venerable golden arches need no introduction here! However, it is the intentional scope of their "McDonald's Gaming" initiative that focuses on reaching the gaming and esports demographics which compromise our soul purpose. While we continue to focus on the growth and stabilization of all things gaming and esports, our partnership with McDonald's signifies the intensity and resolve we aim to achieve through bolstering business while developing desirable programming for everyone.
Rulebooks are meant to be dynamic, wordy, and thorough, but when we talk about Sooner Dojo Series, Sooner Rivals Series, In-Houses, One-off Events, and more we could have varying documents with different formats scattered everywhere. Instead as we execute new events over time we will add and evolve this singular document and it's table of contents to only have one source to reference for all event types under the OU Gaming Club banner regardless of their classification.
The Sooner Dojo Series events are all about celebrating competition and will often have a diverse range of ages backgrounds and audiences depending on the time of year. However, that does not mean we will tolerate any toxicity, excessive use of profanity or any discriminatory and/or hateful verbiage.
If we feel you are in violation of our community standards and expectations you will be advised to adjust your behavior. If you continue to behave in a negative way you will be asked to leave and if necessary will escalate to the authorities. You are on a state public university campus and expected to respect and help us make sure these events continue on forever.
With over 80% of the worlds formal Chess matches now happening on Chess.com there has been a massive resurgence around Chess as a pastime and competitive topic alike. SDS Chess events will happening only monthly cycles and in-house casuals all of which is open to the public happen in between. Reference our top level events page calendar to find those dates and times.
LOCATION: Cross A - Black Box Theater
DATES: Monthly on Wednesdays (When school is in session)
TIMES: 7PM-10PM
FEES: $5 Venue + $5 Pot
PRIZING: Top 3 pot split (Occasional sponsored pot bonuses)
FORMAT: This runs one of the following formats based on attendance. For bullet tournaments will be double elimination, for blitz tournaments it’s a quad system with 4 people playing a double round robin. For all other tournaments it’s a Swiss system where winners play winners and losers play losers
We have all been waiting since NCAA '14 for a new opportunity to have pride fights reppin' our college football teams. That time is now. WIth the OU birth in the SEC and EA's College Football all at the same time this is a perfect time for us to create programming around it.
In the first couple weeks these will not be marketed heavily to allow us to refine processes and workflows, but start with Tenneessee on the 14th of September expect full marketing campaigns as these are geared toward fan base brackets. Meaning OU fans versus visiting team fans to find out who has the best fanbase in CFB before the game the next day. However, with our venue facing 50K foot traffic every home game, we dont't think this will be too much of a challenge. Help us prove it right!
LOCATION: Cross B - Esports & Gaming Venue
DATES: Every Friday before an OU home football game
TIMES: 6PM Doors + 7PM-11PM Bracket
FEES: $5 Venue + $5 Pot
PRIZING: Top 3 pot split (Occasional sponsored pot bonuses)
FORMAT: This series will start as a double elimination format. While we build our community we want players to have value so choosing this format allows players that get eliminated early in the winners bracket to have a chance to fight back into the championships. All games will be played on 3 minute quarters, heisman difficulty, fatigue off, injuries off, accelerated clock off, weather off, and all games will be played on a neutral field.
FGC Titles Currently: Guilty Gear: Strive, Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8
Our FGC events are new as of Spring 2024 and thanks to an amazing year in FGC related game releases were are stoked to start stabilizing weeklies and monthlies around some of the most iconic video games of all times and what many can attribute to much of the stability of "esports" today from the coin operated arcades of the 90s with the birth of games like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Tekken.
LOCATION: Cross B - Esports & Gaming Venue
DATES: Most Fridays (Average 40wks/yr)
TIMES: 6PM Doors + 7PM-11PM Bracket
FEES: $5 Venue
PRIZING: Venue Fee Refunded (Occasional sponsored pot bonuses)
*Notes: During OU home football weeks this event may be faciliated in Cross A - Black Box Theater
FORMAT: This series runs as a double elimination bracket as long as there are 8 or more players. If less it runs round robin.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (MK8D) traces its roots to Camp Crimson’s Freshman MK8D tournament, which served as the catalyst for uniting the founding members of the University of Oklahoma’s Mario Kart team. Unwavering community enthusiasm and support expanded the MK8D scene at OU to Back to School tournaments and weekly in-houses for casual play. Inspired by the growing competitive MK8D Lounge scene, Collegiate Karting League, and state-wide interest, Sooner DOJO MK8D is thrilled to stabilize public monthlies to further grow the community! We welcome all Mario Kart enthusiasts to join us in Sooner DOJO MK8D!
LOCATION: Cross B - Esports & Gaming Venue
DATES: Monthly (When school is in session)
TIMES: 6PM Doors + 7PM-11PM Bracket
FEES: $5 Venue + $5 Bracket
PRIZING: Top 3 Pot Split (Occasional sponsored pot bonuses)
FORMAT: This series runs specific brackets based off the FFA format in competitive Mario Kart Lounge. Brackets are dependent on the number of participating players, with a minimum of 12 and maximum of 72 players.
Make sure to read our reference to the "DOJO" name because this specific event predates everything at OU that has been formalized elevation. There are very few communities that can rival the physical and consistant attendance of the Smash community. Being extremely approachable thanks to it's cast of extremely iconic Nintendo catalog of characters and the mostly consistent style of gameplay since it's original version release in 1999, Smash continues to be one of the most active communities with weeklies happening all over Oklahoma and the globe.
LOCATION: Cross B - Esports & Gaming Venue
DATES: Most Fridays (Average 40wks/yr)
TIMES: 6PM Doors + 7PM-11PM Bracket
FEES: $5 Venue + $5 Bracket
PRIZING: Top 3 Pot Split (Occasional sponsored pot bonuses)
*Notes: During OU home football weeks this event may be faciliated in Cross A - Black Box Theater
FORMAT: This series runs as a double elimination bracket as long as there are 8 or more players. If less it runs round robin.
Hosting single day bigger event tournaments, leagues, and LANs do happen throughout the year and meet the critera of a Sooner Dojo Series of events. These could be sponsored one-off events or elevated test events that still have entry and venue fees but don't necessarily have an established reoccurence, but they are on their way. Make sure you check our calendar to stay on top of these.
Venue fees go to pay the staff that run these events and any excess pays for game licenses and any maintenance needed to due to worn out devices, damages, and pot bonuses.
These communities spawn from student passion to stabilize and meet the criteria for sustatinable programming. Past that titles like CFB are worthwhile experiments to attempt due to the virality of the game and its moment in tandem with OU culture.
OUGC accepts cash and all major credit cards including the use of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay. We leverage Clover as our university sanctioned transactional backend.
You must be 13 years of age or higher. This is due to payout rules and protections imposed.
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