In just about a week, May 22 to be exact, the Philippines' Iloilo region will be having its latest tournament: Summertime Showdown. Happening at the SM City Mall, almost every local threat for both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Wii U are coming out; this includes a large amount of out-of-town guests.
Not only is the event going to be big, it's also going to be a pivotal point in the community's history in firsts, lasts and whatever may come in-between. Thanks to the collaboration of local businesses such as Concept Computer, Acclaim, Sarabia Manor Hotel and Hi-Gear, we're finally able to run an event of this scale.
For the first time in Philippine history, players from the former as well as the relatively new Cebu region will be travelling to Iloilo for this event. For others on the other hand, this might just be their last tournament due to the the nature of our scene mostly being comprised of Filipino-American students.
The Format
Iloilo has been experimenting with new and liberal formats for the longest amount of time. 3 stock and 2 stock, customs on and off, the list goes on. If it's feasible, the region has tried it. Summertime Showdown, in a stark contrast to other Filipino events, will be running a 3 stock, 7 minute format.
In addition, in order to get more people into the game, 4 "Open Bracket" pools will be ran in the morning at 11AM, followed by the top 2 of each pool proceeding to the "Showdown Bracket" with 16 players. With 8 seeded in from the previous event and another 8 coming from the "Open Brackets", beginners will be able to benefit from not having to run into a heavily stacked bracket from the get go.
There'll also be a crew battle happening in the afternoon while the cosplay competition held by the overall event we are part of is going on. Featuring 5 of Iloilo's best versus 5 of our guests in both Wii U and Melee, it'll be great fun for everyone involved.
The Challengers
Adrian "TSF | Enigwa" Marin (
)
The current champion of the Philippines. There isn't much to say about Enigwa except that for the short amount of time that he's been active in the community, he's been dominant.Adrian "TSF | Enigwa" Marin (
)
Taking multiple majors such as ESGS, Smash Fort Cup 2 and the like, Enigwa has his eyes set on his first out-of-region title. Will he be able to get past the local defense effort?
Arion "TSF | Arihead" Marin ()
Alongside his brother, Arihead is coming to Summertime Showdown too, bringing his brand of Villager and Link.)
Known as the head TO of the Central Manila scene, the older Marin is just as much of a threat as his brother. If the stars align, a double Marin grand final might even happen.
Cebuanos ()
Coming in a drove, the Cebu region is bringing their best to the fray. They're a newer scene however, so not much data is available about them.)
The Eight
Justin "/r/smashbros | Popi" Banusing ()
Justin "/r/smashbros | Popi" Banusing (
)Popi plays pretty much every top tier character and like to counter-pick based on the situation at hand. His play-style is commonly referred to as either "boring" or "methodical" as he prefer slower-paced matches, timeouts and assured followups.
He has been plagued by a string of second and third place finishes, which was remedied by beating Meatbeak to take Point Blank 2. Despite this, he has a huge stock finishing issue, which leads me to having problems against the Luigi and Wario matchups.
Erik "Meatbeak" Benjamin ()
)An FGC player through and through, the region's second best Wii U player is also the region's second best Marvel vs Capcom 3 player.
Meatbeak takes his Marvel expertise over to Smash where he consistently finds the right follow-ups to form long strings. He's also has an excellent spacing game, which when combined with his patience, allows him to land hard airdodge reads and gimps.
With the coming of Summertime Showdown, will Meatbeak finally overcome his "final boss" status and ascend to first?
Dominic "Dropkix" Noche ()
)Dropkix is another serial counterpicker, plus a solid Wario to boot. Being the region's champion for the earlier half of 2015, he's still placing within the top 3 consistently all the while playing half the roster.
Versatile, adaptive and slippery are the first three things that come to mind when thinking about Dropkix. If you hit him once, he'll counter it back twofold with a new trick or tech from the lab.
Enigwa coming means that a player with an almost exact set of mains as him is arriving. If the two ever do come to blows, will Dropkix's counterpicking skills be enough to beat him?
Justine "MRP | Juz" de Jesus ()
)One of the two solo mainers within the "Eight", Juz is a proud Mega Man loyalist and it's paid off at times. Utilizing his mastery of the character's zoning abilities, he shook the scene up by taking first at BURST, his second ever tournament.
Juz loves his specials and often times, the map turns into a Mega Man 2 speedrun with all the projectiles flying around.
Regardless, match-up familiarity has hindered his recent results. With more practice of Mega Man's close-range tools, he might just be able to break the mold again.
Kyle "KG" Geonzon ()
If you've heard of KG, chances are that you're more familiar with the California-native's exploits as the second placer during the country's largest Melee tournament. With all the buffs to Marth, he's had some respectable placings and set wins over the likes of Uhhmm and Juz.)
He carries his Melee style of play over to Wii U with a tipper heavy playstyle that catches many opponents off-guard thanks to some immaculate spacing. He even took the first Wii U tournament in the region.
Given that this is his last tournament in Iloilo, it'll be huge if KG reclaims the title of best player in either game.
Marc "Shades" Elizalde ()
Self-titled the "Generic Swordsmaster", Shades loves his swords... and shades. Despite starting out as a player who placed dead last at events, he's managed to climb up and claim a top spot in the region.)
With a play-style that can only be described as "fearless", he focuses a ton on hard reads, off-stage play and suicide specials.
Will it be enough to carry him to an even higher placing?
Kristoff "Flux" Noche ()
The Aniolas to Dropkix's Armada, Flux has seen a relative success in the region given his focus on Project M.)
Ground-game focused, he's the on-stage version of Shades in some respects. If he and Shades run into each other in the bracket, expect to see a ton of Flying Claws around.
Sj "Uhhmm" Bentain ()
Although known primarily as Meatbeak's static doubles partner, Uhhmm is one of the region's rising stars and has actually outplaced his partner at most events.)
Given his early elimination at Point Blank 2 by KG, his drive has only been boosted since. A grab-heavy player, he's not afraid of going in to get the follow-ups that he wants.
As long as he doesn't run into a rival early on in the bracket, he's set to place well.
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Thanks for reading! If you want to support our event, you can watch our livestream at twitch.tv/admiralpopi. The stream will start 11AM with the Open Bracket followed by Top 16 and the exhibitions. All the times are in Singaporean General Time.
Another storyline companion will be available on SmashAsia soon too.
Again, we would like to give a huge shoutout to our sponsors. Without Concept Computer, Acclaim, Sarabia Manor Hotel, Hi-Gear, ABS-CBN and Panay News, we would never have been able to run this event.
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