Welcome to our Project: M interview series. In the leadup to Blacklisted 3, we sat down with several members of the Smash community to discuss the past, present, and future of Smash’s most prominent spinoff. This time we’re talking with Bigger Balc TO and ZSS main, Jason Waterfalls. Jason is a seasoned commentator, and currently ranked #38 in PM.
When streamers like VG Boot Camp began cutting ties with Project: M, it felt like a death sentence to many in the community. It felt to some like their place in the Smash community was no longer relevant, like they’d been blacklisted. Smashers in CT put together the Blacklisted event to both celebrate their game, and remind the community what makes PM so uniquely special.
Smashboards: When did you first get connected with Project: M?
Jason Waterfalls: I got involved with PM back in 1.0 when it was first released. I used to play a lot of Brawl casually and got into the Brawl modding scene very early with texture hacks and Brawl+. When I heard about Project: M, I was excited to play the Brawl characters with Melee physics and I kept up with the game’s development ever since.
SB: What made a Smash mod so appealing?
JW: There are a couple things that make this game so much more meaningful to me than any other Smash title. This game flawlessly recreates the fluid movement and control that made Melee such a satisfying experience. In addition to capturing that spirit, PM remixes and improves upon all of its predecessors. Melee, Brawl, and Smash 64 are all sampled in this mod. Coupled with a dev team that injected so much love in every update and edit, Project M is a huge celebration of Smash, its mechanics, and its history. It is the embodiment of the competitive Smash community’s grassroots nature in every fiber of its being.
SB: As PM was growing, what were your hopes for its future?
JW: It’s almost poetic that PM’s community is embarking on the same arduous journey that Melee had to when its community was learning and growing. Many people forget because of Melee’s meteoric rise after the Smash Doc and Evo 2013, but the Melee scene before that boom was very similar to where PM is right now. We carry with us the torch of [a] grassroots community organizing that was sadly deemphasized as Smash 4 and Melee soared to new heights. My hopes for PM are that we continue to push forward and continue loving the game that we play. To love organizing events. To love pushing the meta. To love the community. That was what powered Melee for so many years and that is what is going to power us.
SB: What did it mean to you when VGBC announced they were cutting ties with PM?
JW: When VGBC made the announcement, I was made very aware that Melee had transitioned into a very different, very new territory in the context of smash history. Never before had the scene been given the opportunities that VGBC was given. Never before had our community been able to make waves into the larger world of esports. But also never before had anyone left a piece of the community behind in pursuit of its ambitions. I am deeply saddened that our community was unable to continue to rise as one unit, but when those ties were cut, PM was also forced to face some hard truths about itself. We were no longer able to ride the coattails of Melee’s success. And from that turbulence have risen many community leaders in PM to pick up the slack. PM-centric events such as Smash n’ Splash, Super Nova Blacklisted, Low Tier City, and The Bigger Balc would not have been able to exist if these leaders were not motivated to fill the void that VGBC left behind. It’s been a bittersweet feeling, but thankfully the bitter part is over and we’ve reached that sweet spot after a lot of self-reflection and growing up.
SB: With 64 on the rise and Smash 4 in full swing, what do you think about PMs place in the Smash community?
JW: PM occupies a unique spot in the [Smash] landscape. A lot of our major tournaments have begun establishing themselves and our young leadership has been learning at an incredible rate. Just this year we have the 3rd biggest PM tournament of all time coming up with 374 entrants in The Bigger Balc and THE VERY NEXT WEEK we have another tournament with over 300 entrants in Smash N Splash. These tournaments rival the sizes of the largest Melee tournaments before Evo 2013. Legendary tournaments like Pound 3 and Genesis were put on by small teams like ours and got numbers similar to ours. Our community is growing every year and it is only a matter of time before we hit our stride. We’re just getting started.
Thanks again to Jason for his time. Be sure to sign up for Blacklisted 3 on Smash.gg!
