Vinnie
Smash Master
Otori(大鳥)
APEX2012 champion. At the age of 20 years old, this man flew across the entire world to take the crown as "best in the world", beating everyone in his path at APEX2012 (in both singles and doubles). He beat DEHF, 2-0'd ESAM, 3-0'd Ally, and then proceeded to beat Nairo and Nietono to secure his international win. He's widely seen as top 3 in the world currently, and some people still think he is the best. He is still constantly dominating Japan, placing top 3 very consistently in these past months. He needs to be at APEX2013 to defend his title.
9B
9B has been one of the strongest players in the world for the past 2-3 years. He lost to MK for the first time in 2012. He had a reign of being unbeatable for a long time (over a year), and had only dropped sets to very few players in his career. When the Japanese players came to America for 2013, they said that 9B was considered a god, and 9B/Nietono were considered the best in Japan at that time. When I went to SRT, they still all referred to 9B as a god.
Although he really wanted to attend APEX2012, his job prevented that from happening. However, he is extremely interested in going this year and got permission from his job to go. He has dedicated a lot to Brawl. He hosts tournaments in west Japan constantly, and is the best player in west Japan as well. He even took a whole year off of work, just to improve at Brawl. He is indefinitely one of the strongest players in the world, and his presence is needed at an event of APEX's calibur. On top of all that, he's a really cool/happy/nice guy and it would be awesome for everyone to meet him.
RAIN
RAIN is an amazing top player in Japan that has been dominating since the release of Brawl, in February 2008. He started off as a Falco player, but switched to MK 100% in 2011 after Genesis 2. Many Japanese players consider him to be the best in Japan. He dominates Japan harder than any other person there, and he won (and hosted!) SRT (Japan's largest tournament ever). In his interview after winning SRT, he explained how he was really happy that he won SRT, since he did not do very well in America when he came here for APEX2010, Genesis 2, and APEX2012. He is very passionate about the Brawl, and the growth of it. Since he's been on an improvement curve since APEX2012, and he was the only Japanese player that beat me at SRT, I would hope that people would realize that he's much more of a threat than he used to be; I honestly think he is a contender for winning APEX2013.
There you have it. By donating towards this fund, you are helping those three players attend APEX2013. If we want an accurate representation of America vs Japan, we need their top 3 there. All three are willing to go, so they need support. Donate if you can! apex.series@Gmail.com
Also, I will soon be doing another critique stream to help raise funds for these players. If you donate a considerable amount, you'll be added to a pre-made list for my critique stream that will take place on every Wednesday starting on 9/19/12 at 5:00-7:00pm.
