Showdown Tournament

     

The Showdown Tournament

    A Saturday morning for someone could be the day to stay home and rest. To others, Saturday can be a day for procrastination, but for a group of South Korean visually impaired individuals, it was a day to challenge themselves through the sport Showdown. Showdown is a specialized game that was made specifically for the visually impaired. 

    After months of hard training, around 60 visually impaired individuals gathered to claim first place. Interestingly enough various players were coming from unique backgrounds. One highly anticipated player had a background of winning the World Showdown Championship in 2022. Some players had just begun their career as a part-time showdown player. 

    The Seesaw group was also present throughout the entirety of this grand, and prestigious tournament. The non-visually impaired volunteering group was invited to help run the tournament by distributing food during lunch and throughout the day to the players. We were also requested to help the players locate themselves in the correct showdown room. The group was divided into two. One group was there to facilitate the actions that took place inside the room such as scorekeeping. Another group was outside to help players submit scores. 

    As a member of the Seesaw group, I was shocked by the impressive skills the players had. The pure level they were playing made me think of the amount of adversity and toil they faced getting up to this level of play. I thought about the countless times they were frustrated in not being able to see the ball, but solely have to rely on their hearing. It lastly inspiring to see not one participant give up no matter how behind they were. This event taught me compassion and perseverance. 





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