Cumbria's esports scene is on the up after a successful first regional tournament was held by a local group.

Cumbria Smash held its first Super Smash Bros tournament, called Blossom, at Carlisle's Station Hotel on October 19, bringing in plenty of competitors looking to claim a win and improve their skills. 

Super Smash Bros is a fighting game by gaming giant Nintendo which pitches popular characters such as Mario, Link, Minecraft Steve, Pikachu, Sonic, and the Wii Fit Trainer against each other. 

Cumbria Smash organiser Joshua Pattison said: "I think people's expectations were exceeded a little bit from what I gathered.

"So, I was really happy with the response and it's something that we're considering maybe running as a yearly event."

Joshua first set up Cumbria Smash last year, bringing together friends from the wider UK Smash scene into one place.

They host regular local tournaments both online and in person which are streamed on live streaming platform Twitch. The recording of the Blossom tournament has been viewed more than 600 times.

For Joshua, Smash is about the community it fosters amongst players whether they're top of the league or enjoying a casual game with friends, it's accessible to everybody regardless of skill level. 

"It brings a lot of people from different corners of gaming together," he said.

"You have those people at the top end who are really good, who really try to push the skill level of the game and try to be the best.

"But, you've also got the people around the mid and lower levels who are there for the community vibe, they offer value in other ways.

"It's a positive community."

esports is in its infancy in Cumbria but it's slowly growing through groups such as Cumbria Smash and the University of Cumbria's esports team which mostly plays Overwatch 2.

A digital and gaming hub that is currently in development in Whitehaven will also provide a boost to the scene with the county's first esports arenas. 

The Cumbria Smash Blossom tournament helps with this by showing Cumbria as a great place to bring players from across the region together. 

Joshua added: "It was to prove that Cumbria would be a good place to run these events.

"We believe that because when you look at how people can travel to Cumbria, it's pretty good, actually, and you get a nice mixture of Scottish, north west, and north east players, who might not necessarily see each other in brackets a lot of the time."

You can find out more about Cumbria Smash by following them on Twitter (@CumbriaSmash) or on Facebook.