Vector Writer Levels Up With Prestigious Award for Video Game Review

Sabastian Fernandes, a writer for NJIT's Vector student newspaper, is the winner of a prestigious Society of Professional Journalists award for his Oct. 10, 2020 review of video games as a means of maintaining human bonds during the COVID pandemic.

Fernandes won the organization's Mark of Excellence award for Region 1, which includes New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, meaning it was open to heavyweights student newspapers from the Ivy League along with Rutgers and University of Connecticut. He came in ahead of second-place winner Columbia University, which has the nation's most-honored journalism school, and which won the national-level SPJ award this year for best student newspaper.

The second-year applied physics major from Saddle Brook said he wrote the review, Online Party Games Provide Protection During Quarantine, just for fun. The award, Fernandes said, "Was a little out of left field. I was aware that Vector was submitting our articles into these award ceremonies, but I had no idea it was even selected. I had been writing much more serious articles covering campus news and current events."

"This story does a good job of showing how students stayed together through games, even when they were physically apart," officials from the 112-year-old journalism organization stated. They praised the article's explanation of how gamers maintain personal bonds over chat servers while playing, despite the pandemic.

Video games became popular almost a half-century ago. Magnavox Odyssey was the original home console, released in September 1972, and game journalism followed soon after. The Society had separate awards for game writing, known as the Kunkel Awards, until this year when they decided to experiment with moving the category onto equal ground with standard reporting on news, sports, the arts and a special category for COVID.

I love writing for the Vector ... I'm very honored to receive this award.

Looking to the future of game reporting, "It took 39 years for a sportswriter to win a Pulitzer Prize. Those most prestigious journalism awards began in 1917. But it wasn’t till 1956 that a sports columnist won. I hope it doesn’t take four decades for a video game journalist to win a Pulitzer," Kunkel Awards organizer Michael Koretzky wrote in his blog.

"I love writing for the Vector," said Fernandes, who added that his favorite game is Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo 3DS handheld console. He joined the paper because he did well in advanced placement literature classes in high school and wanted to keep reading and writing even as a STEM major. "The people who have been writing video game journalism for such a long time, props to them for doing such long-term research and committing their careers to this. I'm very honored to receive this award."

Competitive esports, the Global Game Jam, and game development on the coding and design sides are other ways NJIT students can pursue their passion for gaming.

"It was very exciting and empowering for the whole staff and executive board that Sabastian won this award because it meant that despite the challenges of conducting meetings, creating content and publishing within a virtual environment, we as a team were still able to publish valuable content," said Vector Editor-in-Chief Sandra Raju, who was executive editor last fall when Fernandes wrote the winning review. "I am proud of Sabastian and the rest of the staff for being able to see a new angle in creating a story through the changes brought about by the pandemic."

The newspaper was also awarded by the New Jersey Press Association this year. They received first place in column/opinion writing, first in layout/design and second in arts/entertainment criticism.