The first thing I want to say is thanks for all of those that put this on -
official Tournament Organizers and those that assisted. It could not have
been done without you and as such, you deserve the most. Sheridan, Nealdt,
Germ, SideFX, Zoap, and I know I'm forgetting people but those just come to
mind. But especially the likes of Nealdt, Sheridan, and Zoap - those guys
have been organizing for years. Thanks. I really don't care about much
anything else if you guys are having a hard time running the tournament.
Thanks. Sorry if you guys got stressed out at any time (securing the venue,
if you guys had financial setbacks of any kind, if it took a lot of your
time and physical/mental resources, if you just wanted to give up,
etc.). That was the best tournament I've ever been to. That made my
summer.
The tournament was of great quality. I have no complaints - there were
enough setups to get our freak on, the venue was spacious, places to hang
out, restaurants all over the place (you hit the spot with In-N-Out), just..
no complaints.
The best part about the tournament was simply watching other pros play. It
was really great to see Taj, Mew2King, Mango, HugS, Germ, Zelgadis,
SilentSpectre, Lunin, Bob$, Armada.. (you know I could just go on and on)..
ALL IN THE SAME PLACE, fighting eachother. It's sooo not important for me
to be playing if I could be watching them play - that's rare. I mean,
EVERYONE was there! haha. I was really glad to see everyone. It was really
good just to see the faces of what the players looked like, ya know? I
mean, I never knew what Scar looked like, but now I do! Thanks Genesis.
I like how the room was divided into 2 for brawl and melee haha - the only
time I spent on the brawl side was to get water from the DBR ladies : ) -
thank you very much - water was important.
Love of the game
I don't know what it is about this game guys : ) - you all know what I'm
talking about. I ran into Dark Mike in the bathroom sometime during the
tournament and we chatted a bit about the love of the game. Something about
melee is different than other games. You have to understand that I don't
play other games in this way haha - there's nothing that comes close. I'm
still playing this game after so many years (at least 5) and.. the craziest
part of it all.. it keeps getting better! Me and Mike nearly said it at the
same time.. "it gets better!".
You all have to understand how much of an impact that last statement has.
Other games (at least with me) have almost the exact opposite effect - you
get bored and stop playing over time. With Melee.. for me.. it's been
strictly incremental - I love the game more today than I did years ago. <--
this is so crazy : ). I love the game more today than I did yesterday.. but
the point is that has always been true, regardless of what day/year it is.
Over the years new strategies arise and takeover old ones. I'm amazed at
the standard skill level these days - it makes it so that you can't really
call anyone a noob anymore. Everyone knows standard tactics/strategies - no
one's THAT bad. Of course people are better than others (NO ****), but my
point is that 09 smash is way different than 05 smash : ), and if you're
still playing 05 smash you're gonna get *****.
It really brings back memories to think of those oldass videos haha - those
were the very first smash videos that I downloaded and really studied and
looked at, and it's what really got me into smash. Before you knew it I had
gigabytes of videos saved to my computer, and yes I did watch every last
one. Andy's PuffStuff combo video hahaha ooold ****. I just watched a few
old matches from the Andy and Grid days haha.. so slow and boring and NOT
SMART compared to today's standard Falcos
. But good ****. Remember your
first videos guys? Good ****!
As a side note, I feel honored to have played that role in some people's
lives - "the guy that got you to play smash" haha. I must say, Andy and
Grid's videos are THE reason why I started playing smash. I can say that I
have played this role to two other smashers - Mike666 and TT. I doubt
anyone who hasn't been to the NorCal biweeklies has even heard of them. I
remember my first day of school walking into the Computer Science club at
San Jose State, and ****** Mike666 hardcore. He was like, "oh you play
smash too?" haha. I was like, "**** yeah!".. guy didn't even know what a
jab reset was at the time - 4-stocked over and over. I told him there were
all kinds of videos on the net that I watch, and sure enough, he picked that
**** up, and he picked it up quick. Nowadays, I have to struggle to beat
him! haha. Til this day he keeps telling me "I never would have started
playing this game if it weren't for you - I waste so many hours now watching
videos!". hahaha don't we all? : )
I really love the culture I got to experience there too - makes us all feel
at home : ). The nerds, geeks, video game players. I LOVE how that one
trend caught on - the way people ended their matches.. resetting the game
when you KNOW that that knee is gonna end it! That happened all throughout the tournament with the pros - classic. Voluntarily resetting/ending the
game because you know you lost (be it because of an edgehog, or a strong
knee at high percent, etc.). ****in awesome.
