King Funk
Int. Croc. Alligator
Good bye Portugal!
Hey everyone,
As I told to many people, I am leaving Portugal for Denmark tomorrow. It has been the fourth country I ever lived in and I've had to great chance to enjoy it for five long years. It's difficult for me to express how much I will miss Portugal: the culture, the atmosphere, the people, and of course, the amazing weather! Growing up and doing my last few years of school here have been a fantastic experience.
But sometimes we all have to move on at some point. And strangely enough, I am the type of person who just "loves moving on". There's hardly anything more interesting to me than traveling. I find it amazing to be able to discover new places and new people. I often get confronted by the same questions on the subject: "But what about your friends? Don't you feel sad about leaving them? How can you have any long term relationships if you move every four or five years? Isn't it tiring?". Of course it's sad to have to leave to them behind. And you'll see that's pretty much the reason I'm writing up this blog. But let's remember one thing: for every end there's always a new beginning.
When you move, you know that you'll still keep contact with all your friends. Today's technology and web tools gives us almost all the means to do that. And if they're good friends and if they stay right where they are, you know you'll eventually find the time to see them again. But most importantly, when you move, you know that you'll have new friends. Nobody should ever be afraid to discover and love the unknown and share as much as he or she can with it.
What is my new beginning going to be like in Denmark? And beforehand, why Denmark? I'm half french and half danish, but I never lived in either country. Even though I've been there quite a few times, it will still be a whole new experience to live in one of my home countries. I'm going to start my first year of studies at Copenhagen Business School, with a first and preparatory year where I'll be learning exclusively Japanese.
Now I bet half of you guys reading this will be thinking like "who the heck is that weirdo?". But learning languages is one of those things that I started enjoying naturally from living in different countries and traveling a lot. It's like a gigantic and phenomenal puzzle where every little piece of it is an important step to communicating and sharing information with people and understanding their culture and lifestyle. And it's such a satisfying feeling when you start speaking well another language. I know lots of you are Americans and English makes a lot of this matter a lot more simple. Remember at Apex2 the translator for the Japanese players, who couldn't speak a word of English? He must have felt proud, acting like a bridge between Japan and the United States of America. As for myself, I speak French, English and Danish fluently, my German and Portuguese is pretty decent, I kind of forgot Russian (although I know that with a few months' practice it'd come back) and now I am going to learn Japanese, my 7th language. I feel great to have come all this way, and I really encourage people to try to learn other languages, because it's amazing.
Lets' talk about smash now, because one thing I am really gonna miss in Portugal was the Portuguese Smash Community. I am one of those people who entered the world of smash pretty late, as you can see in my registration date. Smash Brothers was one of those games I saw on window shelves of video game shops but could never get my hands on because I always ended up having the wrong console for it (PSX when I could have gotten a N64 and PS2 and when I could have gotten a GC). But when Brawl was announced. I knew I wouldn't let the opportunity pass so I worked on getting a Wii. I eventually bought a Wii with the game and immediately got addicted to it.
Like every game I play, I wanted to get good. So I immediately started looking for guides of Falco on YouTube and watching tons of videos. Shoutouts to SlashTalon and his cool combos videos and guides back in 2008, which inspired me a lot. YouTube also made me discover how amazing competitive Melee was, a game I would pick up later. Then I needed something else: opponents. I searched for a forum or site where I could find Portuguese players to play wifi with. And so I did. I quickly became the leader of a wifi clan, and got to know all of its players. That's where I met Flayl, NGFC, Some1, MaverickZ, BigLord and many other people. But one day when I discussed with Flayl, we decided to host for the first time in Portugal a real and offline Brawl tournament.
We did so in July 2009. We had around 25 entrants, which was pretty good for a country like Portugal and it was a great success overall. That's pretty much how Flayl and me founded the Portuguese Smash Community. In this tournament we also met other key players like NatP and Rick. After this, we started hosting some bi-weekly smashfests in Lisbon for everyone to be able to practice and have fun. And that's really how we all got to know each other better. The interest in smash slowly dropped in Portugal throughout the year because most people were studying and too busy to attend events, but we still kept on as hard as we could against the odds.
In March 2010, six of us went to our very first event out of country, which was a national spanish tournament. It was a great experience for everyone and I really hope they will keep on trying to go out of country. I went to Bushido Brawl Impact in Paris on the 23-25th of July and it was absolutely fantastic. I really wish anyone could have come with me.
Last weekend I went to my very last Portuguese tournament, which was a multi-game tournament featuring SSFIV, Tekken VI, Blazblue and Brawl. And we had surprisingly a lot more entrants than usual, many of them from the other communities. For me, here was the real future of the Portuguese Smash Community. By inserting Melee and Brawl into multi-game tournaments it would allow us to show off our games and get more people interested in it.
Since this is a goodbye thread to the Portuguese Smash Community. I will end this by posting my last shoutouts to everyone:
Flayl
I can't thank you enough for all you have done for the Portuguese Smash Community. I don't think anything would have ever worked in Portugal if it wasn't for your great dedication. You are a very strong and responsible person and did everything you could to keep everything alive and going, which deserves uttermost respect. I always know I can trust and believe in you in whatever you do, because you do everything right. I think we really got to know each other well throughout all those times. I loved the bi-weeklies at your house as well. As a player, you have a pretty mean Bowser. I know that it's hard playing Bowser in competition and I know that secondaries becomes necessary, but I think you should practice those secondaries more. Also, buy a new controller! =D Anyway, good stuff. I hope to see some day again.
NGFC
You are such... a sandbagger. Nah, just kidding. You are definitely one of the nicest people I've ever met. You were also amazingly helpful for everything we ever did in Portugal. Even though you lived in the North, you always came as often as you could to bi-weeklies (even more than some people who live in Lisbon!) and I could clearly see that you loved them. It really made me happy to see that. You play tons of characters pretty well, like an Azen of the portuguese community. xD You play really smart and I know that with more practice and dedication you will do wonders. It's been fantastic to know you. Until next time! ^^
MaverickZ
Mah boi MaverickZ. I remember when I first played you on wifi and I never knew you'd end up being who you are right now. You are one of the most talented players in Portugal, if not THE most, and also one of the most knowledgeable, but it's really too bad we didn't get to play each other more. But you are soon going to be 18 years old and hopefully be able to go to more tournaments not only in Portugal but maybe even out of country. You really have to represent that Sonic more, as I believe it is by far the best in Europe. When I'm gone, make sure you try to see the other players more because experience is an extremely important factor to improving. Also, keep ****** people on AiB, you're amazing. <3 See you some other day hopefully!
NatP
Man... You're such a cool guy and you've been a really good player from the very beginning. I remember the first time I ever played you, in the first portuguese Brawl tournament. I still can't believe I won that set, because you'd end up crossing the whole losers brackets easily and then finish 2nd whereas I finished 5th. You were pretty much one of my biggest inspirations to improve. Just like MaverickZ, you live in the North so it has difficult for us to see each other often, but just like him as well, I know you'll become more independent and will be able to travel more. But every time we met has been more than worth it. You did also great in Spain. Keep repping Portugal like that man, because you are the best and I really hope to see you soon. =D
Rick
"****! ****! **** IT! ARGHHH!" A powerhouse of the portuguese smash community right there! Man it was fantastic to get to know you and I have to thank you for how helpful it was having all those bi-weeklies at your house. I really hope it will continue so. You should really keep playing with everyone because I know that someday you'll improve quickly and people will go like "OH SHIIIII...!". You just have to keep finding out where you can improve and then put all your strength in those specific aspects. You're young and you can still go really far. You'll come to european tournaments with Flayl and NGFC, right? Right? If you do I'll meet ya there. Great meeting you man, you're awesome.
BigLord
Falcon powah! Man I remember seeing you for the first time and being like "THAT IS BIGLORD WTF?!". You turned out to be one of the coolest guys in our community. In the beginning I think you really had quite a bit of trouble in doing well in tournaments, mainly for the fact that you use Falcon. But all the bi-weeklies sure helped you improve. I remember there was really a time where your level just absolutely skyrocketed. And you're still on the right track to being a great player, so keep doing this. I really suggest you to follow more of the Brawl scene and watching more videos because there's so much you can learn from there. See ya, man! ^^
Blue Lightning
Hey man, it was great to meet you. You're really good at many fighting games and I was seriously impressed when I saw you play Tatsunoko vs Capcom the other day. I can see you like to play Brawl and I'm really enjoying the fact that you are seriously going to learn how to play Ice Climbers. But remember, you must never give up. No matter how hard it is to play them and how hard it is to play some matchups, never ever give up. It all comes naturally. I can't tell you how it felt to get 5-stocked by everyone at first in smash 64. But with time, I eventually learned how to beat them, and I'm sure you can too with Brawl. I always loved our SF3S games through the net they were so fantastic and random. I'll beat you every dai, darling. =D Bye and great meeting you dude.
GSM
Alright! Stop johning about UNIVERISITY WORK because you clearly have some WORK to do playing SMASH! Just kidding. It's been fun to meet and talk with you every once in a while. Your new flat is really mad cool. But yeah, you gotta keep training that Diddy because I really think you could be one of the best in Portugal if you just went to more events. Keep appearing on MSN, so we can talk about all sorts of subjects, manga, tennis and stuff. =D Bye man.
Psik0
Yo, when I first talked to you I never thought I'd ever find such a motivated player in Portugal at those times (which were hard times as we were trying to desperately to find more volunteers). You are a very nice guy and you are definitely going to improve quickly if you keeping playing more with everyone. That Marth of yours will be ****** status soon. I've always enjoyed our discussions about gaming, music and stuff, and I hope we'll keep contact on the internetz. See ya soon again. ^^
Amatsu and Otenka
You guys are like... too good. xD When someone told me there were like a bunch of twins playing Melee every day in their attic, I thought it was fictional stories of legend. But then I saw the two legends appear and I went like O_O. You guys are so funny and awesome, and you gotta keep contact with all the other smashers. We've been progressively adding more and more Melee to our smashfests and it's a great chance for you guys to play with other people more. =D You're a rare breed of smashers which haven't followed the scene since 2006, so even though you don't have the high standards of 2010 technique, you still have some amazing spacing. Get moar technique and you guys will **** everyone. Seriously. =D Really hope to see you guys again.
some1
Why? How is it possible? How can you just randomly appear in tournaments without practicing much and still place so high? You clearly have talent that needs to be EXPLOITED! GO TO MORE BI-WEEKLIES. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING MAN! xD It was fun meeting you in tournaments and stuff. Last weekend I finally got revenge on you that I wanted in a long time. =D But you're still great. Just play more. That's it. That's all you need. Bye. ^^
To anyone I may have missed
Good **** to everyone I got to meet and play with. =D
Good bye Portugal, it has been fantastic to know you all. I love you guys and I really look forward to see all of you guys again! <3
King Funk,
your favorite frenchie. <3
. 
(From what I hear dew won more than the other way around when they played anyway)
