Heh, this thread is looking quite a bit more active now. Great job!
Anyway, here's some news -- the Juneau Smash community is continuing to grow! ...Slowly.
So, here's the scoop. A friend of mine that's still in high school found a group of 3 other people that happen to play the game, and actually take it seriously. Our group of 4 or so played their group, and thoroughly swept them. HOWEVER, they seemed really enthusiastic about getting better, which is more than I can say about most of the people we tried playing against in the past. So, here's a short round-up of Juneau players, with short profiles:
Steve/Kenjiblade: That's me. I main Falco, with back-up characters Capt. Falcon, Luigi, Jigglypuff, and Bowser. I'm proficient at most advanced techniques, but I lack the consistency I need to win more often. *sadpandaface*
Matt: The jack-of-all-trades player of our group. He mains Peach mostly, but he frequently uses Mario, Yoshi, DK, Fox, Ness, ICs, Kirby, Zelda/Sheik, Young Link, and Mewtwo. But, due to being so spread out, his expertise in any individual character (except for Peach) isn't spectacular, but above average at the very least. Matt doesn't use advanced techniques very much (if at all), but that's my fault for not playing well enough to force him to do so.
Dean: His mains are Ganondorf and Link, although he's recently taken up Samus. Although the basis of his playing isn't advanced techniques, he does shorthop/l-cancel with some of his characters, which is definitely a great start.
Bryan: He hasn't played while he was away at college (5 months or so), but he's been picking the game back up again fairly easily. His preferred characters are Jiggs, Falco, Marth, and whoever else he decides to use as he becomes familiarized with the game again.
Jeremy/CJ/Charles: These are the high school kids that Dean "recruited". We had an impromptu "smashfest" with them over the weekend, but I'm still not sure what all their best characters are. They're not very good yet, but there is no doubt a lot of room for growth and potential (they
want to become better, which is always a plus).
K1ng Rat: I haven't asked him for his real name yet (oddly enough). While he isn't officially part of the Juneau smashing community yet, he'll be going to college here in the fall (and visiting next month), so I may as well include him in this list now. No idea what level of proficiency he has; he said he hasn't been to any tournaments, but on the other hand he also has played with many players, including some who have been to tournaments. So, he could be an even match for the existing Juneau 'crew', or completely obliterate us -- it remains to be seen. Personally, I'm hoping for the latter, because it's been a while since we've had a legitimate challenge (I'm still aware that Derek/Lunaris is likely still capable of dominating us; come to Juneau to prove it, though, Derek! hint hint, nudge nudge).
Well, that about sums it up. We managed to nearly double our player base in one weekend, which I find pretty exciting. Now, we just need to gather together a few more players, and we can maybe organize an actual tournament. Yay!
But, I'm sure all you interior/northern Alaskan players don't care about this. Make it more relevent and visit Juneau so we can play yas! =P