In 2019, Axosoft hosted two #AXOSMASH video game tournaments for the local Phoenix tech community featuring Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. All proceeds from the tournaments, one held in March and one in September, went to benefit our #ItWasNeverADress nonprofit which funds scholarships for women to enter the tech industry. 

Checkout the highlights from our March tournament!

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WARNING: video may cause FOMO

The Story Begins… 

We hear you guys play Smash. Let us know if you ever want to battle.

This was the ending to a note our Krakenites received from a fellow software development team at American Express. Our dev team plays Super Smash Bros. every day during lunch. They love it.

So we thought hmmmm 🤔Our developers play Smash, the American Express developers play Smash…is this a trend?! Sure enough, it is. 

We first took the Amex team up on their challenge, and then got straight to work sourcing more development teams from around the Phoenix Valley who would make worthy foes. 

A Tournament of Champions 

Between the two #AXOSMASH tournaments, we hosted a total of 20 teams and 87 players from the Valley’s top tech companies. 

Worthy competitors from Amazon, American Express, Nextiva, McKesson, GitKraken, Charles Schwab, Allstate, DriveTime, General Dynamics, Pagely, and more tried their hand in a double-elimination, 1v1 tournament for a chance to earn fame and glory. 

Trust us …things got intense. Don’t be fooled by the fist bump. 

Of course there were prizes! And funny enough…we had the exact same final three, in the same order, in both tournaments. In total, the first place winner, from OSIsoft, took home $300; 2nd place, from Pagely, took home $150; and 3rd place, from GitKraken, took home $75 in cash.

All Proceeds Support Women in Tech 

All proceeds raised from #AXOSMASH went to Axosoft’s #ItWasNeverADress nonprofit which provides tech scholarships for women. In August 2019, we graduated our first three scholarship recipients from computer science bootcamps and hope to fund many more scholarships in the years to come. 

Learn more about why we decided to host a charity video game tournament benefiting women in tech in this article in Scottsdale Airpark News.

Read the Article

#AXOSMASH In the News 

The local community was a buzz about #AXOSMASH; we even had a few news stations come out and learn more about what we had up our sleeves. 📹🤩

Fox 10 visited the Axosoft offices to get a taste of what the tournament atmosphere would be like and discover how important the #ItWasNeverADress mission is to our organization.

Channel 3 News & reporter Kylee Cruz also stopped by – she even jumps in to compete against our players!

Checkout more photos from the March 2019 #AXOSMASH and September 2019 #AXOSMASH on the Axosoft Facebook page.