Part XIII – MELEE-FC and MLG Beginnings
Within a few weeks of Smash 4 Cash, the Kishes from the midwest held the first ever MELEE-FC, a 3-day long Smash tournament which was the first tourney to have a 24 hour venue as well as have housing inside the venue, giving it a leg up on any normal tournament; this was a Smash experience. Needless to say, Mild and I, having snuck to New York City without our parents knowledge a few weeks earlier, were getting updates about the tourney from home. From the updates we did get, we felt we made a huge mistake in sneaking to S4C instead of FC.
FC was a huge success and I believe displaced Game Over as the biggest Smash tourney to date. It also featured the biggest name players from around the country, including Ken and Isai from West Coast as well as Azen, Wes and Dave from the East Coast. Other players who were beginning to establish themselves as national threats such as Caveman, Rob$, and Midwest Eddie were also present. I’d love to describe the tourney in detail but since I didn’t attend I have very limited knowledge.
The most surprising thing about the weekend ended up being the top 3 of the tournament. It wasn’t full of unexpected names but it was the exact same top 3 as Game Over and in the same order: Ken winning followed by Azen in second place and Isai in 3rd. This time finals went down to the wire, with Azen and Ken having their first epic set of Marth dittos the whole way through. In the 5th match of the first set of finals (Azen needed to win two) with both players on their last stock, Azen accidentally airdodged off Yoshi’s Story and missed both the cloud and the edge, inventing the famous “Azendash”. Regardless, these 3 players had already made a name for themselves as the top 3 Melee players nationwide with consistent placings over two major nationwide tourneys. They were now focused on the next big event: TG6.
Personally I was still curious about whether I’d ever attend a tourney again. Following my Game Over performance with an awful one at S4C, I was determined to redeem myself but I wasn’t sure if I’d get the chance. A new organization ended up being just what I needed: Major League Gaming.
MLG had just kicked off and its main game was Halo, although it had flirted with titles like Tekken. In 2004, MLG decided to add Melee to its lineup, and at first this barely caused a ripple throughout Smashboards. It was just another tournament, and the MLG Smash debut on the West Coast shortly after FC was a less than stellar turnout compared to Halo, but still very good for 2004 Melee. Ken and Isai cleaned house at that event, but it didn’t feature any big name players from other regions so it was pretty much a local.
MLG announced another event for July 2004: MLG Atlanta. Mild and I were still grounded so initially we paid no thought to this. However when Azen informed us his mom was driving him down for the event, I started to toy with the possibility of going to Atlanta in my head. It was a 10 hour trip one way, but the thought of getting back into the tourney scene was too tempting for me to ignore.
So it was settled: I was going to go to MLG Atlanta. Mild also wanted to go but seemed less intent on it than me, so I had to figure out a plan. It had been over a month since our NYC disaster, so our parents’ burning flame of anger had cooled a little bit and they were at least on speaking terms with us again although they had never even considered ungrounding us.
My idea was pretty simple. I told Mild we could clean the entire house, mow the lawn and do whatever other chores we could find. We could make the house spotless in one day and absolutely blow our parents’ minds with the amount of work we did, and then go in for the kill when they’re still in awe about how clean the house is. A simple plan, but not simple in its execution; I still don’t know if I’ve ever done that much work in one day. We worked our ***** off for over six hours, making the house look cleaner than it had in months if not years, and to our relief our parents’ reaction was exactly how we expected it.
They were overjoyed, but my dad immediately knew we wanted something, so after they thanked us on a job well done my dad wasted no time getting to the point. “So what do you want from us?” Mild and I exchanged nervous looks and I decided to answer him directly. I apologized again about sneaking to New York, described how I’d never do anything along those lines, then brought up the trip to Atlanta and asked if we could go.
It was funny seeing how torn my parents were. They clearly were astounded by the work we’d done around the house and wanted to reward us, yet going from grounding us to allowing us to go to Atlanta was a big transition. After a bit more convincing, they reluctantly agreed.
I was ecstatic. My Smash career was back in action. Strangely, Mild wasn’t very enthusiastic and as we learned of more details, such as the 10-hour minimum drive, Mild eventually decided not to go. It was very curious to me at the time, but looking back it showed that Mild’s interest in Smash was declining, and indeed it was the beginning of the end of his days as a Smasher.
I got my stuff together and reported to Azen’s house as soon as possible. Azen’s mom was making something of a vacation of the trip and invited his grandma along as well. We left Friday afternoon, with no plans of spending the night; we were just going to arrive and start playing. With the lack of tournament experience I had at the time, I assumed I’d be fine without sleep.
We’d heard rumors of Isai attending, and figured they might be true since he had done well at MLG’s initial Smash event in Cali. As such we spent a lot of the time discussing how we’d fare against Isai in singles, and also against the potential team of Isai and Mike G. Mike G was easily the next biggest name rumored to be attending, but his attendance was more definite since he had moved to the Atlanta area since Smash 4 Cash. I was eager to play Mike G as well as Isai in singles since I’d yet to face either of them.
As we neared Atlanta, we were all tired but I found it really hard to sleep in the car. Finally around 5 am, over 11 hours after we’d left, we arrived at the Hyatt hotel which would be the venue for MLG Atlanta. Azen’s mom dropped us off to go check in at a much cheaper hotel we’d be staying at, while Azen and I decided to just wait it out at the venue.
We spent the morning trying to figure out how to cope with the fact that we hadn’t slept at all; well at least I did, since Azen’s motto in those days was always “smash is my coffee.” I tried a more literal approach, taking advantage of some free coffee in the hotel, but it didn’t do much and I’d end up relying on adrenaline to get through the day.
Another mistake we made was getting to the venue so early; there were no signs of gamers until 10 am or so, and we had already been there for at least 4 hours, just lounging around in the lobby. The venue wasn’t open to players yet so we had no choice. When they opened the downstairs area, the gamers in the lobby headed downstairs including us, but we didn’t see a single person with a Gamecube controller. It seemed like everyone was there for Halo, and as we waited in the downstairs lobby right outside the venue, we wondered if we were the only Smashers there.
Evntually two guys approached us with GameCube controllers and introduced themselves. By this point it was around 11 am and the venue was about to open so plenty of people were crowding the lobby. The Smashers told us their Smashboards name and asked us ours. I responded first, “Chillindude829,” and he said maybe he’d seen a few of my posts. Then Azen introduced himself, and the dude’s eyes went wide, like he just realized he was in the presence of a celebrity. He immediately started talking about how big a fan he is of Azen’s and how he’d seen his videos, then he gave his friend a camera and asked for a picture. He sat between Azen and I so I leaned in for the pic, to which he said: “Oh, sorry man, I was kinda hoping for a pic of just me and Azen…”
Finally the venue opened and we could use Smash for our coffee, so we got down to business. Other than Mike G. who we saw soon after getting in, there were very few recognizable players. A few Floridians were in attendance but in 2004, Florida was considered one of the worst Smash states on the East Coast, so they didn’t concern us.
Teams started first, and I got my first chance to team with Azen in a tournament. It worked out excellently, and we didn’t drop a single match on the way to winning the tournament. Afterward, we got treated like princes by MLG, way beyond anything we’d experienced after winning a tournament. We each got a pair of brand new Converse sneakers, jerseys indicating we were the champions, and had our pictures taken with the beautiful MLG babes. It was a big turning point for me as a Smasher; MLG took it way beyond just a group of gamers competing, and it made me want to be the best even more.
I tried to take a nap in the venue between teams and singles but found it impossible. The lack of sleep was really starting to take a toll on me and my play, but I had no choice but to start my singles bracket. The bracket seemed fairly easy; unfortunately, I had Azen on my half of the bracket and had to fight him in semi-finals of winner’s. It was maybe our first tourney set that was all Marth vs Fox since Azen had only recently been focusing on Marth as his main. I won the first match surprisingly and took the last 2 down to the wire but Azen continued his tourney dominance over me.
Azen took Mike G out in winner’s finals fairly easily; going all Marth was proving to be an effective strategy for him. As for myself, I had two straight Florida players in loser’s bracket to get to Mike G.: Delaini, a Falco, and Derigo, a Fox. They were the team we demolished in teams finals, and they were fairly technical for the time but nothing impressive. However with lack of sleep affecting my play and the loss to Azen affecting my mood, nothing was guaranteed.
I took Delaini out without much trouble, despite his counterpick of Jungle Japes (I think the Klaptrap killed him multiple times). Next was Derigo, or as Mild would later dub him, “Dodge Durango.” He was a decent Fox and good at the ditto matchup, but I had beaten him pretty soundly in friendlies earlier and figured I’d have no problem. The first match pretty much started out that way, but he kept it close, and when he got me to my last stock he surprised me – he shined me out of my side+B as I tried to Fox Illusion through him, something that was extremely rare in those days. I was at much lower damage than him and we were both on our last stock so this made my confidence take a huge hit. At that point it was just too much to recover from, and despite winning the second match he ended up taking the 3rd one – on Peach’s castle no less.
Derigo aka Durango ended up 3rd, and Mike G advanced to lose to Azen in finals. Azen got another fat payout and I got a decent amount for 4th, but needless to say I was disappointed with my singles performance. Nevertheless, the MLG experience was something I’d never imagined at a Smash tournament, and in just two years since my first tournament I could already envision the scene getting much bigger.
And slowly but surely, it was. Tourneys were popping up more and more around the country, and people began to take the game more seriously than they used to. MLG was a big part, but it was also influenced by international competition; Japanese videos led many to believe that Japan would outclass the US in Melee. Captain Jack, a top Japanese player, was travelling to the US soon, giving us the chance to test that theory, and with Ken, Azen, and Isai also in attendance, this tourney was sure to be an instant classic. A tournament I’ll always regret not being able to attend and still one of the most significant tourneys in Smash history: TG6.
