University of Central Florida 2007 Alumnus Fernando Terracuso had no idea what was in store for him when he walked through the doors of the Nintendo World Championship 2015 qualifier in Miami.
Terracuso first found out about the qualifier, which took place May 30, on Twitter. The grad decided to go for a couple of hours and “nerd out a bit.”
His tie with Nintendo actually began at the age of 4 playing Super Mario Bros. Terracuso would watch his dad and brother play but did not pick up the controller for the first six months. When he finally started playing, he said he quickly became better than both of them.
“Hey, I’ve got nothing to lose. Let’s see how I do,” was his original attitude about competing. He had the highest score in the morning, but with many hours left to go in the competition he decided to go home and thought “if I won, I won. If I didn’t, it wasn’t meant to be.”
There were eight qualifiers in total. The competition included a mash up of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dr. Mario.
“At 7 p.m. when it was over, I got the call from Nintendo saying that my high score was still up there so I ended up winning the qualifier in South Florida.”
Shocked with the call, Terracuso first thought he was being pranked.
He said it didn’t really hit him until Nintendo called him a couple of days later to confirm and get his information to send him to Los Angeles.
The win had taken Terracuso by surprise.
“I’m not a really big gamer, I’m more casual. Unfortunately there’s not enough hours in a day to do all that,” he explained.
After the shock of unexpectedly winning passed, Terracuso and his girlfriend were flown out to L.A as he prepared to compete for the title of the Nintendo World Champion 2015.
The morning of the competition rolled in with lunch, playing an exclusive game and shooting for Disney XD.
Once it was time to begin the competition, Terracuso said it was very nerve-wracking at the beginning because “you just don’t want to be the first one eliminated.”
The nerves eventually passed when the adrenaline kicked in. “You don’t even realize there’s thousands of people in the audience and hundreds of thousands of people watching online.”
Terracuso was eliminated in the second group. However, he expressed that Nintendo made the event very fun for them all and that he was not upset.
“I wasn’t going to have just because I was eliminated ruin my day because the guys who competed still are all very good at what they do,” he said.
“I got a brand new kind of respect for a lot of these guys who, not just take video games seriously, but it’s a part of their life and video games have always been a part of my life but it was kind of refreshing to really see some of these guys who are big gamers in the video game world.”
Terracuso explained that it was refreshing to see that part of the gaming world.
“You’re so humbled by all these people who are so good at video games that you’re just like,’Man, how am I here? How did I get so lucky that I got here?’ ”
Admitting to being the underdog, Terracuso said he was “just happy” that he did not come in last or was one of the first people eliminated.
“Just the opportunity to go was very humbling because like I said; when I got to the qualifier I did not expect to win.”
Terracuso described this experience by saying he just lived in the moment.
“Everything that happened was fantastic and I was completely just caught off guard and humbled by the situation; being able to go I met so many awesome people.”
The qualifiers now follow each other on Twitter and keep up with each other’s gaming, including on the popular streaming website Twitch.
He also explained that being able to represent his friends, family and Florida in general was one of the main reasons he decided to wear his UCF hat for the competition.
Nintendo originally did not want the competitors to wear any brands or logos for the competition. However, Terracuso was determined to represent his alma mater and called UCF for permission to wear his hat on screen.
Terracuso was also able to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which was not open to the general public.
Not putting down the gaming controller just yet, Terracuso admitted that he wants to get involved in the gaming scene a little more and is in the process of establishing his Twitch account.
While at UCF, Terracuso received a degree in criminal justice and was a brother of Sigma Chi. This Knight is still proud and visits UCF often as he is a football season ticket holder.
To keep up with Terracuso, his game tag/Twitch account is @fernsig01, as well as his Twitter and Instagram.
