Briian Bynum has a passion for video games.

That passion earned him a college scholarship to play for Moberly Area Community College and become Mexico’s first esports signee. Bynum, who will study education and biology to become a science teacher, made it official in a ceremony that happened in May at Hart Career Center before graduating later in the month.

“I feel good about it because now that I’m a first I can open the door for other people that pursue it after me,” Bynum said. “I never figured it would be such a big thing because I naturally assumed there were people that did it before me. After finding out I was the first, I was surprised.”

Bynum has played video games for much of his life but didn’t start playing competitively until middle school. He said he was introduced to esports when he was in sixth grade and ended up playing for five or six years.

His first competitive game, and one he still considers his specialty, is Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. The popular Nintendo fighting game franchise has never gone stale for Bynum.

“I mainly focused on Smash because I found it really fun,” Bynum said. “I like meeting all these different people who play in their own way.”

Bynum was part of Mexico’s first middle school Smash team and was the team captain this season. He was also the captain for Pokemon UNITE — a Pokemon universe game similar to and simpler than multiplayer online battle arena franchise League of Legends — in the school’s first such team.

It took many hours for Bynum to gain valuable experience, and that doesn’t just include playing the games. He said he does play for about an hour every day but also tries to learn by watching other competitive players through videos online.

Smash has always been a franchise, including the most recent installment Ultimate, which is easy to play but hard to master. A match involves a handful of fighters who are trying to knock opponents off the stage. Bynum’s training methods have made him a smarter player.

“I like to watch some of my favorite people play and learn tricks that they use to get better,” Bynum said. “In Smash, there’s this effect where, whenever you get hit, you can hold your movement stick in a direction to change the direction you’re launched. Some people, when they’re hit by a combo, they’ll switch up their directional inputs to fall out of the combo. I kept hitting these combos and people kept falling out of it. I had to keep trying and get used to how people would try to get out of it.”

Bynum said learning a character’s combos, or unique string of attacks, is obviously important, but defense is also a necessary component and it keeps people in matches. 

The previously unaware Bynum has tried his best making others aware of esports and its opportunities. For example, he was a summer camp counselor to help younger players at the middle school grow their skills. Bynum said it is possible to “make something out of it” like he did, but he mainly wants to convey to others how esports at its core is fun and allows people to join a community. 

Bynum said there is plenty of “learning off of each other,” especially since esports players are part of a team. 

“You play against each other, and you can get feedback on what you could improve on and keep getting better,” Bynum said. 

There was a teammate who graduated last year with the Smash username Bob Ross, whom Bynum describes as “one of the best players” who usually played “one-sided” matches against Bynum. However, Bynum said it was enjoyable playing with him.

“After getting probably bullied many matches in a row, he gave me a bunch of really nice feedback that I learned off of,” Bynum said. “Try not to be as predictable. Just running up and going in doesn’t really work so I mixed up my options and approaches.”

“A game is just a game” and “a bunch of ones and zeroes put together,” Bynum said, so he doesn’t get discouraged, or “rage quit.” As has always been the case with him, it is an opportunity to learn and improve. 

“It’s a bunch of people coming together and doing something they love in a competitive way,” Bynum said. “Helping everyone grow and learn together is really fun.”