By Khalid Collier / Staff Writer

Ruben Valentino was crowned the Missouri Valley College Connect 4 champion after winning a tournament held by the college. 

The Missouri Valley Student Activities team put together the Connect 4 tournament and 11 people entered. The tournament was single elimination, but you had to win best two out of three to move on and eliminate your opponent. Some games ended fast and some games drew long, but soon only two contestants were remaining. 

Valentino and Keenan Jones were the finalists, Valentino having played one more game than Jones, because of his first-round bye. Their series was long, both winning one and losing one, and playing slowly to avoid pivotal mistakes. In the end, Valentino set up a perfect two-way that rendered Jones unable to block, bringing the game to a close, and leaving Valentino as the undisputed winner. 

“I was getting scared towards the end, he almost had me,” Valentino said. 

After the match was over, Jones took the defeat in stride.

“He was really good,” Jones said. “I just play for fun I think he had a strategy or something.”

James Rowlett, director of Student Activities, said students should watch their emails for information on upcoming events.

“This was the biggest turnout for a game night all semester, but we would love to have more,” he said.