Part XII - Smash 4 Cash
Mild and I had gone from two average players who simply played the game for fun to two high-level players who were competitive on a national level, as evidenced by both of us placing top 10 at Game Over. Despite this, we had still never gone further than an hour or so north to Maryland for a tournament because our parents disapproved.
They didn’t like the idea of tournaments in general at first and while they didn’t actively discourage us from going, they were anything but helpful. Almost every tournament we’d been to, we had gotten a ride from Azen’s mom, with the exception of BOMB1 which our parents actually drove us to. Other than that they would allow us to tag along with Azen to local tournaments but they wouldn’t drive us themselves.
A few big tournaments were looming in the summer of 2004, including TG6 and the first-ever MELEE-FC, now simply known as FC. There was however also a DA-run tournament in NYC known as Smash 4 Cash with Isai and MattDeezie coming from the West Coast. This being the first of the major summer tournies, Mild and I decided it would be the perfect place to make our out-of-state debut.
Azen wasn’t going to this particular tournament due to prior obligations, so we had to arrange other plans to get there. We met a player who had just started playing competitively, g-regulate, and he told us he’d be going to S4C and we could ride along if we wanted. We decided to do it, and we came up with an incredibly short-sighted plan to get to NYC without our parents' knowledge: we’d tell them we were going to an amusement park with Azen for the weekend. Of course, most people only go to amusement parks for a day, and Azen’s house was less than 2 minutes driving away from ours; and yes, our parents knew exactly where Azen lived. So this plan was stupid on several levels, but Mild and I were determined to finally attend a tournament out-of-state and show what we could do on someone else’s turf.
We arrived at Azen’s house where we were meeting g-reg and his friend MEGA. The two of them had barely played in any tournaments so they were just getting started, and so in friendlies at Azen’s house Mild and I beat them pretty badly. Sometime on Friday evening we set out for New York City.
No more than two minutes after we left Azen’s house, to the horror of my brother and I, our dad’s car pulled directly next to g-reg’s while we sat in the backseat. A couple things to keep in mind: g-reg and MEGA had no idea we were basically sneaking with them to New York, another stupid aspect of our plan, and our dad who was calmly driving the car next to us thought we were at Azen’s house for the weekend; he certainly didn’t know who g-reg and MEGA were.
Mild and I just slumped down in our seats as low as possible and stayed quiet. For seemingly the longest two miles of my life, our dad’s car was directly next to ours and we couldn’t tell g-reg to slow down or speed up because he had no idea we weren’t supposed to be going to S4C. We just sat there, hoping badly that our dad didn’t happen to glance over and see us sitting in a car with two strangers.
Finally he pulled into a gas station and we continued on. Mild and I knew we had just dodged a bullet, but didn’t say anything. That would’ve been a good time to come clean and let our drivers know what was going on, but we didn’t want to jeopardize our chances of making it to the tourney, so we kept our mouths shut.
The drive was long and relatively quiet. We didn’t know g-reg and MEGA very well and they were each a few years older than Mild who was a few years older than me, so we didn’t talk all that much. Mild and I were also just quiet because we were scared – our plan was crappy and we knew it, and we both had a bad feeling we’d get found out sooner or later.
As we got to New Jersey and neared the house we’d be staying for the night, g-reg got a call on his phone. Judging by the confusion in his voice as well as the voice on the other end, I had an extremely bad feeling about the call. Shortly thereafter, g-reg handed us the phone, told us our parents had gone to Azen’s to check on us and we knew the half-baked plan was unsurprisingly foiled. We talked to our oldest brother at first, who reminded us of how stupid we were before giving the phone to our parents. They were angry, but also really worried about us.
Mild and I knew it would be ridiculously unreasonable to ask g-reg to take us back to VA when we were already in NJ, so we told our parents we really had no choice but to stay for the tournament. We knew we’d be in huge trouble when we got back, since we had just tried to sneak to NYC behind our parents’ back, but at least we’d get to enjoy the tourney before returning to meet our fate.
Unfortunately this kind of cast a cloud over the weekend; it was hard to focus on smash knowing how mad our parents were going to be when we got back. Nevertheless, we got to the house we’d be staying at, a New Jersey smasher by the name of Feyd.
Feyd was a very strange guy. I’d feel bad saying this if he was still active but I never heard of him before this tourney and I never heard of him again afterward so whatever. Just the way he looked was reminiscent of a serial rapist, and his house was seemingly falling apart with chipped paint everywhere and a musky smell throughout.
Team Ben (Wife, Husband and Oro) were also staying there, and they shared our sentiments on our housing. Feyd’s dad was the only other person living there, and he woke us up at 3 or 4 am by yelling at his son about how he didn’t want random people staying in his house. This obviously made us feel really uncomfortable, but we didn’t really seem to have a choice so we just went to sleep after a few hours of Smash practice.
The next morning we got up quickly and set out for the tournament as fast as possible. It was about a forty minute drive from Feyd’s house, and the fact that it was in the middle of Manhattan made it a difficult task to find parking nearby but after nearly an hour we were at the tourney.
We were some of the first people there and immediately we felt like we would end up regretting our decision to come here. The venue was half the size of the Game Over venue, and based on the number of people that were there within the first hour, the number of entrants was also going to be less than half as many as Game Over had. Nevertheless we started playing friendlies and Mild started playing money matches – Mild had to money match to enter the tournament because he only brought ten dollars for the weekend. I wasn’t much better – I brought $20, and barely had enough to enter myself.
About an hour after signups were supposed to finish, a good amount of people were showing up and teams got underway. I was teaming with Maverick, a player from FL who was relatively unknown because of his lack of major tournaments. He was a Mario main and wasn’t anything special, but we ended up getting 4th place and taking out a couple DA teams so I was pleased by our results. Teams was still much smaller and less important than singles though, and that’s where my focus truly was.
Mike G and DA Dave won teams, somewhat of an upset over MattDeezie and Isai since Isai was undoubtedly the best teams player of the time. DA defended their turf while also showing they could hang with the best in teams. Mattdeezie wasn't on the level of the other three players, though, and this tipped the scale in DA's favor despite Isai's unrivaled teams play.
Isai was also the favorite to win singles; I felt really good about my chances against him since I had beaten Ken, but I still didn’t expect to beat him. The bracket got underway and Mild and I both advanced easily for the first couple rounds. There were less than 64 total entrants so the bracket was relatively small. I would play Isai in semifinals if we both got there; Mild was on the other side with several members of DA.
Another crew also made a huge showing at this tourney – players from Fall River, MA, including Hayato and KrazyJones. They took out several members of DA, causing a commotion throughout the venue. Mild got to the winner’s semifinals and to both of our surprise, rather than playing Wes or Dave he had to fight KrazyJones’ Peach.
On my side, Isai advanced without dropping a game and it was my turn to get to semifinals. I had to beat a player who was known in NY but unknown to me – MoFo. I had heard he was a Ness player, but he used Falco against me. A few factors came into play here – I was inexperienced in the Falco match and he was a very technical player, but I was still better than him at the time. I simply couldn’t focus on the game, and tourney pressure got to me more than it ever had before; I barely lost game 3 and right before my golden chance to face Isai, I was in loser’s bracket and MoFo was advancing.
This was the first uncharacteristic loss of my career, and it wouldn’t be the last. Tourney pressure sometimes affects me positively, but clearly it also works the other way, especially out-of-state. I also notice that it has a much greater effect in singles play than in teams – with a teammate to rely on, I perform much better than on my own when the pressure is on.
I was upset, but at least consoled by the fact that Mild beat KrazyJones and advanced to Winner’s Finals. At least one member of H2YL was going to be top 3, a fact that we were very happy about – especially since both of us were flat broke and we literally needed money to eat and get back home. Isai dominated MoFo unsurprisingly, setting up Mild vs Isai as the last match of winner’s.
Mild and I had talked to Isai throughout the weekend and we were definitely cooler with him than any of DA was. We talked about it and we knew for a fact that Isai would demolish Mild. So he had an idea.
He went to Isai and asked if he’d throw the match to take out whoever comes out of losers, then Mild would give it to him in finals. Isai was tempted by the offer, but in the end he declined, probably because he flew out from Cali and needed all the money he could get. They played winner’s finals out and Isai won, 3-0.
My first match in loser’s bracket was Wes, and although I won a match on FD I never felt in control of the match and pretty much went in expecting to lose. Naturally, I lost. I ended up in 9th place, my lowest tourney placing thus far and an obvious disappointment given that my last major tourney had resulted in me giving the nation’s best player his first ever taste of loser’s bracket. My focus however shifted to Mild – he had one more match left, against whoever came out of loser’s, and I was hoping for the best.
NEO, who had come with Team Ben, had a good performance at this tourney as well and ended up 5th or 7th. The rest of loser’s turned into DA vs Fall River – Hayato, Wes, Dave, KrazyJones and Mike G were left. In the end, Mike G came out on top and rode his momentum into his loser’s finals match with Mild.
This loser’s finals set was my first real experience with real-life trash talk affecting people’s play in the game. Practically the entire venue was cheering for Mike G at first, countered only by me and occasional chimes from other MD/VA smashers. The first match started off extremely close, and when Mild’s Sheik downthrew Mike G’s Peach at over 100 on his last stock, I knew the match was over. Mild jumped up and told everyone to shut their mouth, and I was pumped as well. He won the next match as well, but DA’s trash talk was unrelenting even when Mike G was down 0-2 and they continued loudly rooting for him as Mild had to deal with the screaming a couple feet behind him.
Mike G ended up winning the last 3 straight and Mild disappointedly shook his hand and walked back to where the rest of MD/VA was waiting. We congratulated him anyway; he was really upset about the constant trashtalk but there was nothing we could do. He won about $100 at least which allowed us to pay for our trip.
The tourney was kind of Mike G's farewell, since he moved to Georgia shortly thereafter and couldn't play with NYC-based DA regularly anymore. He managed to take 2 games off Isai in finals, but despite being the overwhelming crowd favorite he still lost in the end. Still, 2nd place in singles and 1st in teams were a great way for Mike G to end his stay in NYC.
Mild and I were disappointed with our results, especially me, but we were relieved to finally be headed home. It was our first out-of-state tourney experience and it hadn’t been a good one. It was made worse by the fact that we were going home to certain punishment from our parents.
Finally we arrived, thanked g-reg for the ride and entered the house, half-expecting to be murdered by our bloodthirsty parents as soon as we walked through the door. This didn’t happen, but they did give us one of the longest lectures of our life as well as ground us unconditionally for the entire summer. While we expected harsh punishment, grounding us for the entire summer was even worse than we’d anticipated, and I was starting to wonder if my Smash career was over – right after the worst placing of my life.