Club allows San Benito High School students to chat about – and
play – everything video game after school
Gamers Underground, established more than five years ago, offers
San Benito High School students a chance to enjoy the wonders of
games.
Club allows San Benito High School students to chat about – and play – everything video game after school
Gamers Underground, established more than five years ago, offers San Benito High School students a chance to enjoy the wonders of games.
Gamers Underground got its name because it lacked in popularity when it first started. The club was so unknown that it was literally an underground club. A little more than five years since it started, the popularity of the club has increased, but the name has stuck.
“I started out with just going to the meeting and hanging out with the club because I was interested in the fact that there was a club for videogames,” said Josh Radon, an English teacher, who joined Gamers Underground his first year of teaching at SBHS.
Radon took over the position of club advisor after the original club advisor had to step down due to other responsibilities. From then on, all club activity has been in Radon’s classroom on Wednesdays after school.
Bryan Cisneros, a junior at SBHS and president of Gamers Underground, said the goal is to make sure that people had fun and to keep the club going.
“I wanted to be president to keep the club going,” he said. “Each meeting I make sure people are doing what they are supposed to be doing and plan what is going on for the next week.”
Just as the name declares, the club is made up of gamers and anyone who is a fan of games. Not only videogames – but trading cards and card games are played. One popular game they play is “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” for the Wii, which allows four students to play at a time. Most of the games brought in are multiplayer, which allows two or more people to play at a time, and the students will sit and wait for their turn.
“It started with trading card games like ‘Yu-Gi-Oh’ but that kind of died out more this year,” Radon said. “Instead, we’ve been more focused on videogames. Although we do encourage students to play card games as they wait, they seem to be bringing DSs and PSPs instead.”
Every couple weeks, Gamers Underground hosts a game tournament for its members. These tournaments are determined by the club members based on which game they want to battle it out on. The game chosen is decided by the students and by what is available to then, considering the students are the ones who bring in the game systems.
“First we pick a game, and then we have sub categories,” Cisneros said, of the way in which they group up for matches in the tournament. “The tournaments are normally picked based on who wants to bring what in. Whatever is provided…we will play.”
Students can come and play videogames, or chat with others about videogames; anyone is welcome to join. Meetings are Wednesdays after school at San Benito High School in Mr. Radon’s room, Room 268.
