Out of curiosity, where do you live? (Just like city-wise, don't need an address lol).
Best advice I can give is to come to learn and have fun, don't come to win. I mean, if you do win then that's awesome lol but don't let losses bring you down, just focus on how you're playing and what you could be doing better and learn from it. And most importantly have fun. Everyone in KY is super chill so don't be intimidated by asking anyone to play a friendly. Just walk up and say "Hey, you wanna play a friendly?", then off you go. Ask who they are, ask where they're from, get to know them a little bit, break out of your shell a bit, and you'll for sure enjoy your experience.
Now in terms of this tournament, no disrespect towards the organizers, but I wouldn't recommend this as your first tournament for a number of reasons lol.
1. Brawl is going to have a very small turnout, so there will likely be less than half a dozen setups and not a lot of people to meet/play. This is partially due to it being Melee-focused, but that alone isnt't hurting it (my first Brawl tourney was hosted by a Melee guy lol).
2. I assume you're coming alone, which is often something you can't do anything about. But if you're coming to such a small turnout, you might not have as good a time as you would with a bigger turnout.
3. A 3 hour drive for such a small tournament is not something I would want to do myself lol. I've done 3 hour drives by myself before for 20-30 man brackets and those drives are the worst, especially if you don't have someone's house to spend the night at near the venue. (Nearly passed out driving back home more than once). Another reason driving alone isn't fun.
I'm not saying this trying to dampen your spirits or discourage you from coming (I love me some new Brawlers :B), but I just want you to know all of the possible complications of coming to this tournament and whether they'd hinder you having a good time. I don't know if you live in the middle of nowhere and this is the only tournament that's ever been hosted even remotely close to you, or if you've just started and have never even played another human being in Brawl before, but I just am hoping that your first tourney experience will be good to remember. If you've already set your heart on coming, then more power to you lol.
tl;dr melee sucks
Edit: Also, for smaller tournaments like this, it's usually sign-up the day-of, no pre-registration required. Bigger tournaments (like Apex 2014) usually require preregistration, but those are big investments anyway lol.
