TheBearsFist
Smash Cadet
Its a summer November day in Perth, Western Australia 2014.
Its 30 degrees outside and my friend just bailed on me. I am standing a small cafe that is so full people are spilling into the park out the front. The chatter, clacking of buttons and occasional yell are deafening.
These people are all here for the same reason as me. To play Super Smash Brothers. My name is Byron "BearFist" Evans and I am a scrub.
As I stand, Gamecube controller in hand, I look around the room. There are so many people and I know that I am going to get destroyed. I hear my name being bellowed from across the room "BearFist to Setup 1!". It's time. I gulp and walk to my setup. My first opponent is a dark haired guy around my age, we shake hands and he introduces himself as Sam aka Corpsecreate. We sit down and he explains banning. We choose Yoshi's Story. 3, 2, 1, GO!. I went 2-0 that tournament but the damage was done. Smash had caught my attention and I was hooked.
The Perth Smash scene was a small but close knit community that thrived off Project M (Melee being played but much less than PM at that time) after evolving from its brawl roots. All tournaments were run out of a small cafe in the city called Myriade. This cafe was the heart and soul of our growing community but we would soon outgrow it.
The Age of Myriade
Myriade days were good days. We revolved between Project M and Melee as well as singles and doubles. Essentially we had a monthly tournament each week.
Perth really came into it's own after Showdown Shadowloo V (SSV) and was (and still is) regarded as the strongest Project M scene in Australia. Our ranks included Corpsecreate and his Toon Link as the undisputed kings of the PM, Hobobloke, a Bowser main with a background in traditional fighting games, Vlade, a pikachu main with an entire roster of pocket characters, Karu a Peruvian Fox player who could not be matched in mastery of spacey tech and Sundowns + Chappos, two brawl boys maining Mario and Metaknight respectively, who took Armada and Dreadtech to last game with Sundowns clutching out a 1v1 against Armada's Pit at SSV.
The Rise of Melee.
This is where my role in the Perth Smash community came about. I started Curtin Smash in Febuary 2015 for the sole purpose of playing more PM. The first tournament went well with 11 entrants. Our second tournament was Melee with 22 entrants. The change had begun.
To give some background I had never run a event in my life or been in charge of people. I didn't understand seeding or the game rules yet and barely knew how to use challonge correctly. I was basically totally unqualified to be running tournaments. The early days were rough but I learnt from my mistakes and with the help of more experienced players started to improve not only as a player but a TO as well. I remember that at my first hosted Melee tournament I seeded Karu (2nd best in WA in Melee) 5th. embarrassment aside I learnt from that event to always ask a 2nd opinion. Our first Melee tournament also marked the first time Quetz had lost a Melee tournament in 8+ months after he was upset by Karu.
For me personally this early changeover period was the hardest. My events grew to running Melee and PM once a week on seperate days and this cause many players to have to choose a "main" game. PM attendance dwindled and Melee skyrocketed. There was one day where I showed up for PM and setup. That day only 6 people showed up. My favourite game and the reason I started running tournaments was dying, my uni grades had fallen and many of my friendships were failing dude to the time it took for me to run tournaments. I wonder why I was running these tournaments. I didn't get paid and it took away from every other aspect of my life but i felt like by pulling out now I would be letting the entire community down.
A man by the name of Bradley Williams aka BDawg selflessly offered to help transport the CRTs which I had been previously taking to the venue at my university from my house twice a week. You can still see the effect that 7 CRTS had on my suspension to this day. Brad would go on to optimise our stream and create the highest quality layouts Perth Smash had ever seen. In my opinion Brad is the reason Curtin Smash didn't crash and burn. If your reading this Brad then thank you.
The Dawn of Smash 4
The next big change was the rise of Smash 4. Smash 4 exploded onto the scene and ripped its way to biggest game in Perth in a matter of months. Myriade had dropped Melee and PM due to a drop in numbers focused on Biweekly Smash 4 tournaments. The highest entrant tournament bar DI Another Day was held at Myriade Smash 4 Singles with 84 total entrants beating the second biggest tournament that was a 54 entrant Melee Singles. This was unbelievable for a scene that averaged 20-30 entrants and sent a statement. Smash 4 was here to stay.
I am standing in a large class room bellowing out names and setups at the top of my voice, raspy and dry from hours of trying to beatdown the noise of the room. Tables with setups line the wall of the room. Melee on one side and Smash 4 on the other. I can hear the sounds of clacking triggers, excited yells and exclamations of frustration at mistakes.There are 70~ crammed into a room together to play video games and it brings me back to that first tournament I attended. Now I was on the other side of the curtain.
Curtin Smash's first Smash 4 was started by the efforts of 2 Melee plays who contacted me and organised Montiors and setups for the day. These two were Matt Bennet aka KIC and Gabriel Flynn aka Lemonpot. Ironically the only reason Smash 4 got a weekly was because 2 Melee players pulled out the stops and organised setups.
After the first tournament we switched Smash 4 to Thursdays. This led to the semi revival of PM. To this day I am thankful to the smash 4 community for saving my main game from certain death.
DIAD and BAM7
I was one of the players who made the trip to BAM7. This changed the game for everyone who attended. Having the opportunity to player international level players and national ranked players helped us all expand our knowledge and really see what was possible. The trip was for me personally about getting to know members of the community who have now become some of my closest friends. Timothy "Bieltanman" Haley aka my now roomate, KIC, Josh "Quetzacoatl" Madden and Jason "Ace" Ly were some of these people. If your reading this tahnk you guys. You really made that trip amazing. I also got to meet many people that I had only seen online. Dreadtech, Redact, DonB, SD and Adam Patterson aka CubT a New Zealander who was also the first person to challenge me to a Money Match.
The whole weekend wasn't really about winning for me (even though I came 3rd in my Smash 4 pool mainly thanks to the awesome power of DQs), it was about the experience. Seeing Corpse clutch a comeback over Olli in Melee Pools was hands down one of the hypest things I have ever experienced. No matter how many streams you watch nothing will beat that.
Di Another Day: Perth's (kinda) First Major.
After BAM7 I had new drive. I wanted to make Curtin the best it could be, acceptable was just not good enough. I had drive to improve our events again. I then got involved in organising our major, "DI Another Day".
Organising a major is very different from weeklies. Venue, equipment, setups, layout, staff and even seeding become tasks that must be handled well and Luckily for myself Sundowns and Chappos did most of the work and I most did logistical + people organisation tasks.
DIAD went better than any of us thought it would go. We had to cut of signups 9 hours early at 153 entrants becuase we hit capacity. DIAD Smash 4 is still the 2nd biggest Smash 4 tournament in Australia at the time of writing with 114 entrants. Once again Smash 4 made history in Perth.
An New South Wales player called Kira took out first in Smash 4 over M another NSW player. In Melee Karu took 1st for both Melee and PM taking out Corpse in PM for Corpse's first tournament loss in 8 months and taking out Quetz in Melee cementing his placing at 1st on the PR to come out several months after.
EDIT: I just wanted to put in a small piece regarding KIC. It was around this point that KIC really started helping the scene. His input to PRIME and Curtin events helped are a core reason these events went so well and continue to do so.
He took time out of his life, staying late at almost every event, commentating, TOing, Setting up, cleaning the venue after events and even looking after equipment when I was busy. He is at the current point one of the most influential members of Perth Smash and I am so thankful for all the work he does and has done. If you ever see him at an event please say thank you or give him a hug. He is a top bloke and seriously dedicated to the scene. Thanks Matt <3
PRIME: Our first monthly
After DIAD people were hooked. They wanted more than just weeklies and PRIME was born. Held in the same venue as DIAD it was originally planned to be bimonthly but we have yet to 100% set an amount of PRIMEs a year. I am still learning to TO after all.
The last day disappointing. Many of the players that got knocked out in Day 1 did not come back for Day 2 opting simply to watch the stream. While top 8 was amazing it was sad that there was almost no players not in Top 8. It felt as though our community simply didn't care enough. To them it was just game, to me it was friends and family, a community of people that can bond and get excited together over a game many have long since forgotten. I couldn't understand this view on a 2 day tournament. I resolved to ensure that next time there would be a reason for knocked out players to attend.
Barring this PRIME went off with only minor issues. Quetz took 1st in Melee over Karu and Karu brought it back from Losers in PM over Chappos. Exor took out Smash 4 winning a massive $204. Compared to a weekly PRIME winnings were serious cash.
The End Of 2015: Where to from here?
Next year has the potential to be an even bigger year of Perth Smash and myself personally. I failed my entire year to support the Smash Community + my events and I want to pass everything in 2016 meaning less time for me to spend improving my events.
BAM8 is around the corner and is another chance for Perth to prove that we are on an equal level to the rest of Australia. We have rising stars that have yet to break cloud cover and I look forward to them showing the world what they have got.
DIAD2 is shaping up to be massive. I can't say much but suffice to say that if we can pull it off Perth will never forget it. With funding from PRIMEs and Curtin weeklies anything is possible.
Curtin Weeklies will be seeing growth and I am looking forward to stepping back a little and letting others step up to the block and develop. There are many people who I know can achieve anything they set their mind to and I look forward to the next generation of Commentators, TOs and Superstar players.
Final Thoughts
My first year in the smash scene has been crazy. I have gone from knowing nothing and just being a nervous scrub to a commentator, TO and Top 20 player in my region. I have made friends, learnt lessons and grown as a person. I traveled to the other side of Australia, gang mobbed Corpse when he made the King's comeback and played against Mang0 for 20 minutes without realising until after I asked him who he was and how he did in locals (Seriously. This happened. Redact actually came up behind me and told me it was Mang0 as the other member of our setup stared at me. I am not very proud of that moment).
I never believed that something I started would grow into something as big as this or that I would get the support that everyone has given me. Thanks for being there for me, a random stranger, though those hard times and the good ones. I never could have done it without you all.
Shoutouts
@Quetzalcoatl and @Niven for mentoring me though scrubland. Thanks for being so patient and just being really awesome guys. I have a great amount of respect for you both and I am honored call you my friends.
@Noied for being the first person to talk to me at a tournament. Thanks for being one of the reasons I came back.
@Corpsecreate for teaching me PM and taking the time out to play games with me at almost every tournament. Thanks for all the feedback too.
BDawG for helping me though the hard times and the good ones. Come back to tourneys soon dude.
@smesty for really stepping up to the plate for Smash 4. Theres honestly no one in this community bar myself who puts in as much work as you do. Thank you for all your hard work.
@KIC for Melbourne hangs and for being a general dude. Discord with the boiz has made the move so much easier and thanks for the cheeky training days.
@CubT for being the first person to challenge me to a MM. You're an awesome guy and I am so happy we still keep in touch. Looking forward to bopping you at PRIME2 and BAM8.
@cheesepizza for being a rad guy. Late night HJs never tastes as good when you arn't there with us.
@JonCheee and @Paper Maribro for being the first people to put your hand up to help. You guys have carried me so hard with Jon showing up for games he doesn't even play just so that my life was a little easier.
@bieltanman for being the first player I met and hung out with at a tourney. Crazy to think that when I met you it was our first tournament and you were kinda drunk. Now we are living togeather. Weird how things turnout.
@avocadobride for being an awesome doubles partner. You may be inconsistent some days but I have some of the most fun ever hanging out with you. Stay chill.
@Hagrid for being an awesome guy to hang out with and fantastic commentator. It's just so much fun to hang out with you and talk about random stuff.
@Beanss for being my first rival despite if you knew or not. Looking forward to bodying you when you get back from England.
@Lemonpot_19XX for teaching me how much I hate fox. Fox sux. Blip Blip.
The Meme Gang @20PK @RosalinaSama @MoonUps @DKPro for having the dankest chat in Perth Smash. RIP. Shoutouts to DKPRO
@CC_orion for teaching me Smash 4 doubles can be fun. See you at PRIME II, sad we can't team
@merdy for helping me out when I came to Melbourne and just being a great person all round.
Big thanks to anyone who has come down, watched a stream, told your mum about us or even just said hi. You are the reason I am still doing this and the reason events are still running. Keep playing and keep having fun.
See you all on the flip side of 2015.
Peace
BearFist
Its 30 degrees outside and my friend just bailed on me. I am standing a small cafe that is so full people are spilling into the park out the front. The chatter, clacking of buttons and occasional yell are deafening.
These people are all here for the same reason as me. To play Super Smash Brothers. My name is Byron "BearFist" Evans and I am a scrub.
As I stand, Gamecube controller in hand, I look around the room. There are so many people and I know that I am going to get destroyed. I hear my name being bellowed from across the room "BearFist to Setup 1!". It's time. I gulp and walk to my setup. My first opponent is a dark haired guy around my age, we shake hands and he introduces himself as Sam aka Corpsecreate. We sit down and he explains banning. We choose Yoshi's Story. 3, 2, 1, GO!. I went 2-0 that tournament but the damage was done. Smash had caught my attention and I was hooked.
The Perth Smash scene was a small but close knit community that thrived off Project M (Melee being played but much less than PM at that time) after evolving from its brawl roots. All tournaments were run out of a small cafe in the city called Myriade. This cafe was the heart and soul of our growing community but we would soon outgrow it.
The Age of Myriade
Myriade days were good days. We revolved between Project M and Melee as well as singles and doubles. Essentially we had a monthly tournament each week.
Perth really came into it's own after Showdown Shadowloo V (SSV) and was (and still is) regarded as the strongest Project M scene in Australia. Our ranks included Corpsecreate and his Toon Link as the undisputed kings of the PM, Hobobloke, a Bowser main with a background in traditional fighting games, Vlade, a pikachu main with an entire roster of pocket characters, Karu a Peruvian Fox player who could not be matched in mastery of spacey tech and Sundowns + Chappos, two brawl boys maining Mario and Metaknight respectively, who took Armada and Dreadtech to last game with Sundowns clutching out a 1v1 against Armada's Pit at SSV.
The Rise of Melee.
This is where my role in the Perth Smash community came about. I started Curtin Smash in Febuary 2015 for the sole purpose of playing more PM. The first tournament went well with 11 entrants. Our second tournament was Melee with 22 entrants. The change had begun.
To give some background I had never run a event in my life or been in charge of people. I didn't understand seeding or the game rules yet and barely knew how to use challonge correctly. I was basically totally unqualified to be running tournaments. The early days were rough but I learnt from my mistakes and with the help of more experienced players started to improve not only as a player but a TO as well. I remember that at my first hosted Melee tournament I seeded Karu (2nd best in WA in Melee) 5th. embarrassment aside I learnt from that event to always ask a 2nd opinion. Our first Melee tournament also marked the first time Quetz had lost a Melee tournament in 8+ months after he was upset by Karu.
For me personally this early changeover period was the hardest. My events grew to running Melee and PM once a week on seperate days and this cause many players to have to choose a "main" game. PM attendance dwindled and Melee skyrocketed. There was one day where I showed up for PM and setup. That day only 6 people showed up. My favourite game and the reason I started running tournaments was dying, my uni grades had fallen and many of my friendships were failing dude to the time it took for me to run tournaments. I wonder why I was running these tournaments. I didn't get paid and it took away from every other aspect of my life but i felt like by pulling out now I would be letting the entire community down.
A man by the name of Bradley Williams aka BDawg selflessly offered to help transport the CRTs which I had been previously taking to the venue at my university from my house twice a week. You can still see the effect that 7 CRTS had on my suspension to this day. Brad would go on to optimise our stream and create the highest quality layouts Perth Smash had ever seen. In my opinion Brad is the reason Curtin Smash didn't crash and burn. If your reading this Brad then thank you.
The Dawn of Smash 4
The next big change was the rise of Smash 4. Smash 4 exploded onto the scene and ripped its way to biggest game in Perth in a matter of months. Myriade had dropped Melee and PM due to a drop in numbers focused on Biweekly Smash 4 tournaments. The highest entrant tournament bar DI Another Day was held at Myriade Smash 4 Singles with 84 total entrants beating the second biggest tournament that was a 54 entrant Melee Singles. This was unbelievable for a scene that averaged 20-30 entrants and sent a statement. Smash 4 was here to stay.
I am standing in a large class room bellowing out names and setups at the top of my voice, raspy and dry from hours of trying to beatdown the noise of the room. Tables with setups line the wall of the room. Melee on one side and Smash 4 on the other. I can hear the sounds of clacking triggers, excited yells and exclamations of frustration at mistakes.There are 70~ crammed into a room together to play video games and it brings me back to that first tournament I attended. Now I was on the other side of the curtain.
Curtin Smash's first Smash 4 was started by the efforts of 2 Melee plays who contacted me and organised Montiors and setups for the day. These two were Matt Bennet aka KIC and Gabriel Flynn aka Lemonpot. Ironically the only reason Smash 4 got a weekly was because 2 Melee players pulled out the stops and organised setups.
After the first tournament we switched Smash 4 to Thursdays. This led to the semi revival of PM. To this day I am thankful to the smash 4 community for saving my main game from certain death.
DIAD and BAM7
I was one of the players who made the trip to BAM7. This changed the game for everyone who attended. Having the opportunity to player international level players and national ranked players helped us all expand our knowledge and really see what was possible. The trip was for me personally about getting to know members of the community who have now become some of my closest friends. Timothy "Bieltanman" Haley aka my now roomate, KIC, Josh "Quetzacoatl" Madden and Jason "Ace" Ly were some of these people. If your reading this tahnk you guys. You really made that trip amazing. I also got to meet many people that I had only seen online. Dreadtech, Redact, DonB, SD and Adam Patterson aka CubT a New Zealander who was also the first person to challenge me to a Money Match.
The whole weekend wasn't really about winning for me (even though I came 3rd in my Smash 4 pool mainly thanks to the awesome power of DQs), it was about the experience. Seeing Corpse clutch a comeback over Olli in Melee Pools was hands down one of the hypest things I have ever experienced. No matter how many streams you watch nothing will beat that.
Di Another Day: Perth's (kinda) First Major.
After BAM7 I had new drive. I wanted to make Curtin the best it could be, acceptable was just not good enough. I had drive to improve our events again. I then got involved in organising our major, "DI Another Day".
Organising a major is very different from weeklies. Venue, equipment, setups, layout, staff and even seeding become tasks that must be handled well and Luckily for myself Sundowns and Chappos did most of the work and I most did logistical + people organisation tasks.
DIAD went better than any of us thought it would go. We had to cut of signups 9 hours early at 153 entrants becuase we hit capacity. DIAD Smash 4 is still the 2nd biggest Smash 4 tournament in Australia at the time of writing with 114 entrants. Once again Smash 4 made history in Perth.
An New South Wales player called Kira took out first in Smash 4 over M another NSW player. In Melee Karu took 1st for both Melee and PM taking out Corpse in PM for Corpse's first tournament loss in 8 months and taking out Quetz in Melee cementing his placing at 1st on the PR to come out several months after.
EDIT: I just wanted to put in a small piece regarding KIC. It was around this point that KIC really started helping the scene. His input to PRIME and Curtin events helped are a core reason these events went so well and continue to do so.
He took time out of his life, staying late at almost every event, commentating, TOing, Setting up, cleaning the venue after events and even looking after equipment when I was busy. He is at the current point one of the most influential members of Perth Smash and I am so thankful for all the work he does and has done. If you ever see him at an event please say thank you or give him a hug. He is a top bloke and seriously dedicated to the scene. Thanks Matt <3
PRIME: Our first monthly
After DIAD people were hooked. They wanted more than just weeklies and PRIME was born. Held in the same venue as DIAD it was originally planned to be bimonthly but we have yet to 100% set an amount of PRIMEs a year. I am still learning to TO after all.
The last day disappointing. Many of the players that got knocked out in Day 1 did not come back for Day 2 opting simply to watch the stream. While top 8 was amazing it was sad that there was almost no players not in Top 8. It felt as though our community simply didn't care enough. To them it was just game, to me it was friends and family, a community of people that can bond and get excited together over a game many have long since forgotten. I couldn't understand this view on a 2 day tournament. I resolved to ensure that next time there would be a reason for knocked out players to attend.
Barring this PRIME went off with only minor issues. Quetz took 1st in Melee over Karu and Karu brought it back from Losers in PM over Chappos. Exor took out Smash 4 winning a massive $204. Compared to a weekly PRIME winnings were serious cash.
The End Of 2015: Where to from here?
Next year has the potential to be an even bigger year of Perth Smash and myself personally. I failed my entire year to support the Smash Community + my events and I want to pass everything in 2016 meaning less time for me to spend improving my events.
BAM8 is around the corner and is another chance for Perth to prove that we are on an equal level to the rest of Australia. We have rising stars that have yet to break cloud cover and I look forward to them showing the world what they have got.
DIAD2 is shaping up to be massive. I can't say much but suffice to say that if we can pull it off Perth will never forget it. With funding from PRIMEs and Curtin weeklies anything is possible.
Curtin Weeklies will be seeing growth and I am looking forward to stepping back a little and letting others step up to the block and develop. There are many people who I know can achieve anything they set their mind to and I look forward to the next generation of Commentators, TOs and Superstar players.
Final Thoughts
My first year in the smash scene has been crazy. I have gone from knowing nothing and just being a nervous scrub to a commentator, TO and Top 20 player in my region. I have made friends, learnt lessons and grown as a person. I traveled to the other side of Australia, gang mobbed Corpse when he made the King's comeback and played against Mang0 for 20 minutes without realising until after I asked him who he was and how he did in locals (Seriously. This happened. Redact actually came up behind me and told me it was Mang0 as the other member of our setup stared at me. I am not very proud of that moment).
I never believed that something I started would grow into something as big as this or that I would get the support that everyone has given me. Thanks for being there for me, a random stranger, though those hard times and the good ones. I never could have done it without you all.
Shoutouts
@Quetzalcoatl and @Niven for mentoring me though scrubland. Thanks for being so patient and just being really awesome guys. I have a great amount of respect for you both and I am honored call you my friends.
@Noied for being the first person to talk to me at a tournament. Thanks for being one of the reasons I came back.
@Corpsecreate for teaching me PM and taking the time out to play games with me at almost every tournament. Thanks for all the feedback too.
BDawG for helping me though the hard times and the good ones. Come back to tourneys soon dude.
@smesty for really stepping up to the plate for Smash 4. Theres honestly no one in this community bar myself who puts in as much work as you do. Thank you for all your hard work.
@KIC for Melbourne hangs and for being a general dude. Discord with the boiz has made the move so much easier and thanks for the cheeky training days.
@CubT for being the first person to challenge me to a MM. You're an awesome guy and I am so happy we still keep in touch. Looking forward to bopping you at PRIME2 and BAM8.
@cheesepizza for being a rad guy. Late night HJs never tastes as good when you arn't there with us.
@JonCheee and @Paper Maribro for being the first people to put your hand up to help. You guys have carried me so hard with Jon showing up for games he doesn't even play just so that my life was a little easier.
@bieltanman for being the first player I met and hung out with at a tourney. Crazy to think that when I met you it was our first tournament and you were kinda drunk. Now we are living togeather. Weird how things turnout.
@avocadobride for being an awesome doubles partner. You may be inconsistent some days but I have some of the most fun ever hanging out with you. Stay chill.
@Hagrid for being an awesome guy to hang out with and fantastic commentator. It's just so much fun to hang out with you and talk about random stuff.
@Beanss for being my first rival despite if you knew or not. Looking forward to bodying you when you get back from England.
@Lemonpot_19XX for teaching me how much I hate fox. Fox sux. Blip Blip.
The Meme Gang @20PK @RosalinaSama @MoonUps @DKPro for having the dankest chat in Perth Smash. RIP. Shoutouts to DKPRO
@CC_orion for teaching me Smash 4 doubles can be fun. See you at PRIME II, sad we can't team
@merdy for helping me out when I came to Melbourne and just being a great person all round.
Big thanks to anyone who has come down, watched a stream, told your mum about us or even just said hi. You are the reason I am still doing this and the reason events are still running. Keep playing and keep having fun.
See you all on the flip side of 2015.
Peace
BearFist
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