How did your first tournament go? What were your thoughts after?

[StarlightRequiem]

We've all had our first tournaments. Everyone, at one point, was that scared little newcomer, knowing there was a complete beat-down headed their way. I remember that I was cocky. I'd been virtually undefeatable in my school's Video Game Club. I thought I would sweep the competition away at a local tournament, but at the same time, I was absolutely terrified.

I sat down for my first match, shaking in my boots. I was so hyped but so scared. I was going to face the unknown! It was exciting and scary! I fought that first fight...and it was exhilarating. The rush I got was so awesome! I wanted more. I kept battling my hardest until finally being eliminated in the semifinals. I went home that day full of pride and craving more.

Thus, I became determined to become the best of the best. And I've never stopped trying since.

 

[mythbust4000]

I was at a dubbles for kids emementry-high school (1-12 I believe)and me and my brother though we would win but we got 2nt

 

[Frizz]

Hmm... I'm wondering—do online tournaments count? I really haven't had the chance to have gone to a local, but instead I take part in a chatroom group mainly dedicated to Smash, which also includes other games like Splatoon and Mario Kart 8.
...Oh boy. I was advertising there, wasn't I? Apologies.
Ahem. Point being, if online tournaments DO count, then my first tournament was a unique experience for me. I'll even admit that I was nervous. It certainly is much different than from playing friendlies with others. I could even recall my hands being a bit sweaty, heh heh. As for locals? I would probably be a bit more nervous and sweaty. I don't think I've won an online tournament before, but that's quite all right with me. That just tells me that I need to improve my strengths and cover my weaknesses. I've gotten used to participating in tournaments, or at least online ones. In the end, they're very helpful. I'll be sure to enter in some more later on in the future.

 

[StarlightRequiem]

Hmm... I'm wondering—do online tournaments count? I really haven't had the chance to have gone to a local, but instead I take part in a chatroom group mainly dedicated to Smash, which also includes other games like Splatoon and Mario Kart 8.
...Oh boy. I was advertising there, wasn't I? Apologies.
Ahem. Point being, if online tournaments DO count, then my first tournament was a unique experience for me. I'll even admit that I was nervous. It certainly is much different than from playing friendlies with others. I could even recall my hands being a bit sweaty, heh heh. As for locals? I would probably be a bit more nervous and sweaty. I don't think I've won an online tournament before, but that's quite all right with me. That just tells me that I need to improve my strengths and cover my weaknesses. I've gotten used to participating in tournaments, or at least online ones. In the end, they're very helpful. I'll be sure to enter in some more later on in the future.

I'm quite the opposite. I've done a lot of local, but no online.

 

[Spennicus]

I've only been to one tournament so far since where I live, the nearest ones are about a three hour drive away and I just can't afford to travel like that all the time. I've been wanting to host some locals in my area but there isn't really enough interest. Anyway, when I went to my first tournament, I got totally bodied. I never got four stocked or JV'd, but I got wrecked pretty hard. Despite that, I still had a lot of fun. I met some fellow smashers, watched some awesome matches, and had some great friendlies. I saw a Ganondorf get beat by a Pichu. That was pretty hype.

 

[Smashing Turnips]

My first tournament was Tipped Off 9, a regional in GA. I registered and the guy at the desk gave me a thumbs up and said my tag was rad and that he was a big fan of Smashing Pumpkins. I played a few friendlies, became friends with Wizzrobe who played for an hour or so with my double's partner, teaching him Falcon. We watched someone lose in teams, ran out of the venue in tears and anger. Played more friendlies in an isolated hallway in the hotel we dubbed "The Secret Smash Society" and eventually got kicked out of our little area.
We walked about forty minutes in the wrong direction to get food before we got back and someone offered to drive us to Arby's. Played my pools, got absolutely destroyed. Learned that Marth was super cool, and switched characters after the tournament. I even got PPMD and Hungrybox (tons others) to sign a Melee box that I made.

 

[Nixon Corral]

My first tourney was some PM tourney in Lilburn, GA. I cracked top 25 out of ~75, so that was pretty good. Went straight to bracket, though, no pools. I had a lot of fun, though, and it sold me on competitive Smash. That was a year ago this month, and since then I've only really made it out to Tipped Off 10 and another smaller regional in Alabama, where I arguably fared worse. I'm hoping I've gotten better since then, though, as I've spent a lot of time labbing and playing friendlies. Plus, I haven't really played Smash 4 in a tourney setting. Would love to see how I fare.

 

[bbng_]

My first tournament was the last Mayhem. Got rekt in pools, hung out with the Norwalk crew and played a bunch of friendlies. It was a blast.

 

[Iceweasel]

My first in-person tournament (I'd done a few online in the latter Brawl days and got tyrannosaurus shrekt) was kind of a mixed bag, because I was sick at the time. I went to Kings of the South last February and entered in Brawl and Sm4sh. My Brawl went terribly, but I managed to beat a few people in Smash 4 pools. In fact, I almost made it out of pools, but I kept making tech errors and I was tired as crap from whatever I had, so I couldn't think straight.

Aside from feeling like crap because sick, I had an excellent time. Even though I couldn't play for crap, the other players were funny and interesting to talk to and the matches were a lot of fun to watch.

 

[Sari]

Only one I've been to was a Sm4sh tournament at my high school a few months ago. I was incredibly nervous but overall I did alright. In the end I lost to a good Mario player though I placed 2nd. I might enter some online tournaments soon but I doubt that those will end as well.

 

[Mr Snakey]

I entered a casual tournament in my local library, and I brought my little sister along with me who was also entering. I taught her the basics of competitive smash and such, and now she knows how to recover safetly, tech and other stuff. She beat people twice her age and the crowd was going wild. The final battle was between me and her, she lost, but she put up a great fight.

 

[the.tok]

Ha brings back memories... Tournaments are always memorable.

My very first VG competition was the Nintendo tour 92. I was so scared but so excited of seeing all those players around ^^
Was on SMB3, Dr Mario and Pinball on NES IIRC. Won a label pin that I still hold to this day

First smash tournaments... well, I organized them at my engineering school for charity (SSB64, melee, soulcalibur2, mario kart, DD R among others). Won all the smash games but was kind of the only serious player there anyway. Infact for each game, there was one or two serious players that would win the tournament every time, but as we all played in all games, I would body them in smash, they would make fun of me in all the other games. That was great fun

Then I started going to more serious tournaments, where I got wrecked every single time ^^
Brawl time, I kept entering team tournies... only to lose everytime in the first or second round. In singles, I kept getting wrecked by MKs

First smash 4 was the stunfest recently. Only won one game
I did much better on USF4 though

 

[Yashichi]

my first tournament match ever was against darkatma. the match left me with severe brain damage, the likes of which the doctors had never seen before. they gave me two weeks to li

 

[zero sum]

It was a Melee local at our school. I think there were about forty people there. I did terribly in pools (0-2 0-2 0-2 2-0, if I remember correctly), but we had an “amateur” bracket of sorts so everyone else didn't have to either go home or awkwardly spectate the matches. I got knocked out of winners in R2 of bracket by some Falco player (whom I'm confident I should have beaten, but I just played far worse than usual). After that, I went on a pretty deep losers run (2-0 2-0 2-1 2-0) before finally losing 3-1 in LF, netting me third in the amateur bracket. Even though I know I didn't play well, I had fun. I'm hoping to enter a lot more locals or even regionals/majors after September if I go back to Chicago. I think I'm seeing a lot of improvement in the way I move and navigate the neutral game. Unfortunately I can't go to TBH5 and I don't know what the next national after that is, but if it's not incredibly far away from me I think I might head off to it.

 

[Squigglydot]

The closest thing I've done to a tourney is a casual-tourney thing that was at AlmaCon, this little convention in Michigan. It was Sm4sh, and there was like, 36 people or so? It was super fun, but I wasn't that good at the time, so I was destroyed.

I would love to go to another tourney though, if I could find one around

 

[AZ_Spellbound]

My first Sm4sh tournamet was at EVO last weekend. i got bodied in pools, but had alot of fun in casuals and made new friends. im looking forward to going again next summer.

 

[Nexus| Taka]

We've all had our first tournaments. Everyone, at one point, was that scared little newcomer, knowing there was a complete beat-down headed their way. I remember that I was cocky. I'd been virtually undefeatable in my school's Video Game Club. I thought I would sweep the competition away at a local tournament, but at the same time, I was absolutely terrified.

I sat down for my first match, shaking in my boots. I was so hyped but so scared. I was going to face the unknown! It was exciting and scary! I fought that first fight...and it was exhilarating. The rush I got was so awesome! I wanted more. I kept battling my hardest until finally being eliminated in the semifinals. I went home that day full of pride and craving more.

Thus, I became determined to become the best of the best. And I've never stopped trying since.

My first tournament was in 2005, it was located at a restaurant in Florham, NJ. My thought process going in was that I was going to get bopped lol, since I only played with my crew OMFG in jsersey city and played doctor mario lol. Also I was considered the worse person in my crew.

Low and behold out of like 30 something people I got 9th, I lost to HBK and I can't remember the other person. I felt like I did pretty well and was the first time I got to see the awesomeness of the smash community, BTW I was 15 and took 4 buses to get there and to get back which took around 2 hours, it was an amazing journey xD

 

[lolazerz]

Technically I first hosted/competed in my high school's smash club maylay tourney (we're gonna get WiiU in there next semester). I ended up in grand Finals by using just my Ganon but in the final game I was down 2-1 and after I pulled out my Marth I was able to bring it back. Later I went to an actual weekly tourney and got bodied had too much fun though and got hooked.

 

[ThirdDay]

I was really excited. I had to wait for doubles because I only signed up for singles. It went really long and I made a friend while waiting. Then singles came and I got bopped. Even though I got bopped in singles, I still had a really fun time playing friendlies with everyone. I got to watch my friend play on stream which was fun too. The experience was great. I haven't gone to a tournament since then, but I'm sure I will some time.

 

[lolazerz]

I was really excited. I had to wait for doubles because I only signed up for singles. It went really long and I made a friend while waiting. Then singles came and I got bopped. Even though I got bopped in singles, I still had a really fun time playing friendlies with everyone. I got to watch my friend play on stream which was fun too. The experience was great. I haven't gone to a tournament since then, but I'm sure I will some time.

You should try going to as many as possible. It's always a fun time!

 

[ThirdDay]

You should try going to as many as possible. It's always a fun time!

Yes it is! I'll try! :D

 

[AudioSilver]

I got 2-0ed by some guys that I would usually beat, after I destroyed a bit in friendlies. I just let my nerves get to me.

Other than that, I felt disappointed after. Mainly because I didn't make it as far as I know I could've, if I was on my game.

I at least lost to respectable people though.

 

[Nooph]

went to a local here in GA where the venue had a swimming pool. i regretted not bringing my pool clothes. i quickly got 2-0'd twice. wasn't the greatest feeling, but after i got knocked out, me and a couple of the guys i met got on our own little setup in the corner and started playing 4-way ganon matches. we got everyone so hype, we started a free ganon only doubles side tourney. i made a sick 2v1 comeback in that one. tourneys are so fun. if you haven't gone to one, you really should.

 

[Omar_25]

My first tournament? Well It was about two or three years ago when I was pretty terrible. It was a PM tourney organized by a friend of mine which was being held in a church that we go to. First off, the bracket was completely unbalanced. It had the three best people (which was me, my bro, and my friend) on the top of it, and the worst people on the bottom so they at least could have a chance to make it far in the bracket. Now that isn't really that bad of a thing, but it made it so we would be eliminated by each other making it so whoever wins the first few matches on the top of the bracket wins. Oh, did I mention that the bracket was single elimination? Yeah, it didn't end so well. The end was a three player free-for-all since there wasn't an even number of people. I got second, my friend got first, and some Ness got third. My brother was eliminated in the first round by my friend, and for some reason after I got eliminated I was reentered into the bracket to take someone's spot (the guy left in the middle of the tournament to go get food with friends and didn't return until the end).

Now my second tournament was a much better experience. It was a brawl tournament at the same church and organized by the same people, but this time there was actually a set ruleset and much more people (since it was actually advertised at the youth group that I go to). Even the youth pastor entered. Everything went pretty smoothly (other than my bro accidentally messing up the bracket making it a single elimination except for the first people that played), I bombed through the winners bracket beating everyone that I played including the two best people that I know of (who I've mentioned before). And since there wasn't really a losers bracket, whenever I beat someone they were out of the tournament permanently. I may have played MK whenever I couldn't win (which I now regret). But fast forward. We ran out of time so we couldn't do grand finals. But since the guy that I was playing in grand finals was my neighbor, we did grand finals like a week later. Somehow he was able to beat my MK (he was a zelda main!) so I ended up switching to lucas. Game five I ended up getting a free down-smash after he accidentally hit down-b. It was pretty great.

So yeah, that's my tourney experience. Hopefully my friend will organize another tourney at some point.

 

[Lazerith]

My first tournament ever was the midnight release tournament for Brawl. I had spent about 10 hours beforehand practicing with friends on Melee and we were all going to go compete in the midnight release tournament.

I completely forgot to preorder Brawl. My gamestop had about 100 copies total, 90 people preordered the game, and about 30 people in front of me didnt preorder the game.

I ended up taking 1st in the tournament somehow, which got me a few prizes: First in line to pick up game (If it weren't for this, I wouldn't have been able to get the game), a wrestling trophy from my high school with the plaque inscribed to say "Master of Smash," and a giant gamestop poster for Brawl.

I felt really excited, as I had never really been good at anything prior to this. I was really happy about it.

The next round of the tournament was a week later, and they didn't allow gamecube controllers. So I absolutely had to learn to play with a wiimote and nunchuck. I had to master a new control scheme and a new game in a week... So I went to the next round, and I took 3rd place. Both 1st and 2nd place were people who had imported a japanese wii and a japanese copy of the game when it came out, which was several months prior.

 

[Mightymitchell99]

my first tournament match ever was against darkatma. the match left me with severe brain damage, the likes of which the doctors had never seen before. they gave me two weeks to li

I guess his 2 weeks were up

 

[Nona]

My first tournament was an UMvC3 few years ago @ Box Arena.
Pretty sure my first match was on stream. Used Ammy/V.Joe/R.Raccoon. Made a darn fool of myself; dropping combos, getting nervous.

I lost. lol but it was fun. Would do it again, but with a different game. Have yet to join a Smash tournament, not even the online ones

 

[brokr]

my first BIG tournament was APEX 2014. i had been to a couple local events prior to that, but nothing really notable. this was the event that made me fall in love with the smash scene, honestly. the stuff that happened there was pretty intense; it really sparked my interest in following smash and investing time into the community back at home. even though i got dumpstered in my pool, playing melee and PM with everyone there was an awesome time too. watching the crew battle was awesome, and grand finals were a blast. met plenty of really cool people as well, several of whom i still keep in touch with.

also, hungrybox sang while i played my ukelele for him.
and i saw him in his underwear while he was on the second floor balcony.

those two things did not happen at the same time.

 

[Flareon]

I entered a Smash Wii U tournament at my local GameStop a few months ago. I ended up getting a first round bye due to the fact that there were an odd number of players. I somehow manage to win the tournament and was given a 50$ GameStop gift card as a prize. Overall I had a lot of fun and I hope I get to compete in another one soon.

 

[TSJ | Strat]

I entered my first PM tourney at a local retro games store with my mate. I dominated during friendlies and also the first couple rounds. Then came winner's quarters were I went against a veteran fox straight out of 20xx. I Lost my focus when I was sent to loser's bracket and Self Destructed a ton against what should have been a easy win. Being super nervous before probably had a big part in it. The people at the tourney were very nice though.

All in all, I had a blast and learned a lot. Can't wait to get back out there.

 

[Bairbie]

There was one held by a game store in my area, and I was pretty nervous since I was going completely by myself. I thought I would get at least top three (lol) because I was under the assumption that it would pretty much be a casual tourney. I ended up facing off against someone who played Project M competitively but had only played Smash 4 once. I ended up getting pretty wrecked by him, and I felt bad about it until I found out that he won the whole thing, haha.

 

[Yashichi]

There was one held by a game store in my area, and I was pretty nervous since I was going completely by myself. I thought I would get at least top three (lol) because I was under the assumption that it would pretty much be a casual tourney. I ended up facing off against someone who played Project M competitively but had only played Smash 4 once. I ended up getting pretty wrecked by him, and I felt about it until I found out that he won the whole thing, haha.

the best losses are against the people who end up in grand finals

 

[Plunder]

My first tourney was actually at a smash fest. I have picked up Melee only 4 months prior, hadn't played it since 2003 when I was a kid.

I had to re-learn even the most casual stuff like what each characters moves were, what each stage was, and how to use a Gamecube controller again.....basically started from scratch.

During this time I had only played against CPUs but had been studying footage of high level competitive play, basically just focused on 3 simple things. 1) What approaches and moves can beat human reaction time 2) how to combo as far as possible on any confirm 3) the most brutal optimal punishes for each common opening. I also tried to recreate some of the top players movement for their combos or KO set ups in actual matches, but did it all solo in Melee mode. I didn't even practice teching or ledge mechanics (Just roll up and ledge jump), but I knew how to wavedash/land and OoS stuff.

I ended up going Ganondorf, since I believed him to be one of the easiest of all the characters to be successful with considering the small window of time I had to practice... I practiced him exclusively for about 1 month.

Took a game off the best local Fox, destroyed the best local Puff, and beat the 2nd best Falco. Got 5th out of 17 people. Most people didn't believe that was my first tourney let alone my first time playing against non-CPUs, a lot were salty because they felt that Ganon was jank and garbage in Melee.

 

[Teran]

I made it out of pools!

Was pretty happy about that. Wow that was forever ago, good times.

 

[Hunybear]

I played two of the best players in the state and got bodied twice. I thought they were just some random guys too but when i asked about it people told me who they were lol! The funny part was the next time we played they said i was pretty good and invited me to play with their crew every Friday. Even tho i got four stoked twice :T

 

[Cd-blade]

My first tournament I went to was a pm one any I played doubles with my friend. I didn't know too much about competitive smash at the time and played as ness. It was fun the first match, but then we went against the best young ganondorf and his partner. It was still really fun even tho we were out so quick, hopefully I could go to some more.

 

[Mc.Rad]

Even though my first tournament I went to was an unoffical Sm4sh tournament at a con, I actually one my first set with Shulk. I had to leave though because it was getting late