Melee History Lesson 2002-Brawl or GET OFF MY LAWN YOU KIDS

[KishPrime]

Now that I’ve been out of Melee for a few years, I spend a lot of time thinking back through my Smash years and really enjoying the memories. Sorting out everything after having some separation from the experience helps give some perspective.

I just wanted to really think back on my career and all of the highlights and lowlights, and I just thought I’d toss out some thoughts on my Smashing years, 2002-2008ish. I’m going to start by counting up the most impactful events of pre-Brawl Melee, and I’ll post some per day for the entirety of this week. I hope that these are enjoyable recollections for many of you as well, and perhaps you post-Brawl n00bs can enjoy a little history lesson. I'm sure I've forgotten some critical events, but I'm old and lived through this and this is my list. In other words, GET OFF MY LAWN YOU KIDS. Feel free to discuss, predict, and/or add to it as we go.

I’ll hold some spaces after this post to make sure I have room for it all.

Here’s a teaser:
The Captain Falcon Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zueu0b69RQ) – Joshu’s Captain Falcon song remains online after years with seven ten-thousands of views across multiple postings. Crowds would regularly gather to watch his performances at the end of every tournament he attended, and it was a Midwest tradition for several years. Joshu regrets that the version currently posted on youtube is not his best rendition, as someone else initially recorded and posted it from a live tournament performance.

 

[KishPrime]

Let's start the countdown of the 25 most influential events in Melee history!

25. V-Games Crashes (2004) – After touring the country for many months and promising their weekly tournament winners a trip to the finals, V-Games shut down without ever awarding any kind of significant prize. The reason given was some type of copyright dispute over their name, but it led to a substantial amount of mistrust from the community toward outside operations and a reenergizing of the independent scene. This mistrust recurred when MLG was initially late on sending out prize checks for the first year, and many feared that MLG would also shut down without issuing their promised prizes. Eventually, though, MLG would catch up on the prize checks, regaining the trust of the community and driving forward, though it was not without competition.
24. Splitsies (2005-2006) – Possibly the worst thing to happen to competitive Smash. The Splitsies group of Smashers formed an alliance that would actively share tournament revenue, not just to cover costs but to avoid competing with each other. In multiple events it became obvious that players were screwing around in tournament finals. The splitting became so egregious that MLG found out, and threatened both bans towards the players involved and concern that Smash would no longer be viable for continuation in MLG. That drove the practice deeper underground, but no one is still quite sure how long it lasted and how many events were affected.
23. Ken’s loss to Chillindude at Game Over (2004) – Ken’s losses were so rare for the first couple of years that every loss sent waves across the country. Chillin’s victory at Game Over was the first time Ken had lost to someone from the East Coast, and gave those players the hope that they finally had surpassed the WC (there was an unquantifiable amount of generic EC vs. WC debate at this time, since crews were still few and far between). It was also a huge win for Fox, and gave tier proponents a considerable amount of leverage at the time for his status when Sheik was still considered the best in the game. Ken later blamed his loss on hunger, and after eating he indeed played much better. In the end, he went straight through loser’s bracket, defeated Chillin, and matched up with Azen for the finals. In the final set, Azen played 4 or 5 characters in attempt to use his knowledge as “Master of Diversity” to overcome Ken’s skill advantage, but it was for naught. Ken won the title, keeping the title of champion for another day.
22. Punch Crew/IHOP Videos (2002-2003) – In the early days before youtube, videos were extremely rare. If you could even create them, they were extremely large, you still had to have a place to share them and free webspace for downloads were rare. The Punch Crew’s videos of live gameplay became extremely popular for their live chatter during matches as much as for their skills, and they became extremely popular icons in the earliest days. They also were some of the first to travel long distances, as they made several trips to California and the Midwest long before such trips were common. Meanwhile, AOB and Grid (later branding themselves IHOP) were busy in Illinois creating some of the first direct-recorded videos from home and at tournaments and distributing them through their website, posting both full matches and music/combo videos. AOB's video PuffStuff was one of the first real sources of Jigglypuff inspiration for many players, as she was not used very often to that point.
21. Snexus 2 (2003) – The birth of Midwest smash occurred in the Summer of 2003. Snex, perhaps the most well known poster/troll on GameFAQs that trumpeted Smashboards superiority, had trash talked enough people into coming to create overflow conditions at a comic book store whose owners had clearly had gotten more than they bargained for. Part of Recipherus’ crew had made the journey out from California, and Jarrod and Mike from the Punch Crew made the trip from Canada. The tournament went late into the night, and by closing time the tournament was still far from over. Thus, the tournament was relocated to a nearby hotel where 4 rooms were rented. Because the brackets were poorly drawn, the winner's semis became a 3 person FFA to eliminate one person to losers. The comical part is that few people thought anything of it. Matches continued to occur among the top 8 players, and almost no one left. In the end, the Californians proved their dominance, as Recipherus and Isai secured the top 2 spots over Eddie and Eduardo, who would themselves continue to own the Midwest for the next 6 months. In all, 48 Smashers gathered from all around the Midwest, 20 of which would create the base of the community as it grew and developed. Other regional tournaments could probably also go into this spot, but I'm not sure any of them were as transformative for a region as Snexus 2 was. Fond memory sidenote: it was also the first tournament that the entire Ship of Fools attended together. We got our name because Joshu entered the teams tournament under the name Joshu and the Ship of Fools (Iggy).

 

[KishPrime]

20. DC++ Video Hub (2004-2005) – Created by Kubuu and passed to W.J., the DC++ Video Hub was the place to be on Smashboards for over a year. For the first time, Smashers had an open chat room in which to hang, and even more importantly, there was a central location for Smash Videos to be shared and posted (again, pre-YouTube), which did much to stoke inter-regional rivalries. It also was the beginning of a combined metagame for the country. I remember spending a lot of time analyzing the West Coast, East Coast, and Midwest styles for different characters, and as videos proliferated players continued to add pieces to their games from other regions. A lot of strong relationships were formed amongst future leaders of the community in this room that lasted well past its discontinuation.
19. The Re-emergence of Jigglypuff (2006-2008) – Following MELEE-FC3, when the highest placing Jigglypuffs were only able to manage 65th place, it was a bleak time for the character. Most Jigglypuff players started giving her up for good, including long time Jigglypuff mainstays KillaOR and AOB, and I myself put considerable effort into other characters again. Then, 9 months after FC3, King appeared on the scene and reinvigorated the character, defeating many top players at his first MLG event and making a giant splash. He advanced her from a character that could make the Top 10 at a major tournament to a character that could make the Top 3. A few months later, myself and KishSquared took our team to MLG Finals and stunned the field. We made a run to 4th place and were a powershielded rest away from knocking off Chillin and Azen, using Jigglypuff’s rests in high-level teams play effectively for the first time. Another factor that contributed to the rise was that many stages with low ceilings were banned around this time, which greatly increased Jigglypuff's survivability. From this point on, Jigglypuff became a mainstream character again. Of course we all know that Mango later surpassed all expectations again for the character, and now most people agree that she belongs in the top tier. No character has advanced as much in the metagame as Jigglypuff so late in the development of the scene.
18. TG6 (2004) – Ken had quickly established his dominance over the prior year and a half, winning every tournament in sight in every region. Still, TG6 was supposed to be the fulfillment of East Coast’s self-predicted rise to the top, after nearly two years of trash talk back and forth across the country. Finally, their treasured no-items ruleset was in place for a national event. Furthermore, the legendary Captain Jack had come from Japan to demonstrate that the Japanese could play as well. In the end, though, Ken didn’t even make it to the finals, losing to two West Coast players in the process (DieSuperFly and Sastopher)! The finals came down to Captain Jack (who split time between his Doc and Sheik) and Azen, but while the US did triumph, it was a rather unsatisfying conclusion for many. Since neither of the players who dispatched Ken had even made the finals, most were left to assume that Ken simply had an off-day that robbed us of a good show against Azen and CJ. Azen would have to wait for a direct victory over Ken until several years later, but in the meantime, the East Coast would celebrate their first major tournament title and their new hero.
Video links to come!
17. Regional Circuits (2007) – Following the loss of MLG support, events began to litter the country and create microfractures. For a region like the Midwest, this had the potential to be fatal to the effort to gather the best players on a regular basis because it was so large and spread out. Thus, AOB, Mathos, and KishSquared formed the first Regional Circuit. The Regional Circuits created a sequence of events that focused the region’s attendance and eventually led to a championship. I took the ball and ran with it, reaching out to tournament hosts around the country to create circuits in the South and Northeast, but I was unable to get them started successfully in the other regions, so I dropped the plans I had for a National Circuit. The Midwest Circuit was overall a great success, leading to many great tournaments with the best players, and culminating in a championship at SMYM in Champaign that still attracted over 100 people. Several circuits are still in operation for Brawl today.
16. Rise of KoreanDJ (2006) – KoreanDJ’s rise from n00b to star occurred within a year, and he became an elite member of the 2nd generation of top smashers within a year. I remember the first time I saw one of his posts – a list of moneymatches with practically every single top player at the event – and my initial reaction was laughter at how much money he would likely lose. Still, from that relentless attitude of self-improvement, he quickly rose to a money-winning player and one that could challenge for the top 3 spots nationwide. Mew2King’s rise came at almost the exact same time, and the two became competitive rivals very quickly, all the way up until KDJ stepped out on top of his game. While he never won a national tournament, his rise into the elite was confirmed beyond doubt when he eliminated Ken from the MLG Championships in 2006 and placed 2nd. He was another player who retired well before his ride was finished. Nevertheless, a lot of players took inspiration from his meteoric rise after several MLG articles featured him.
http://www.mlgpro.com/content/link/62727/Scratching-the-Record-The-KoreanDJ-Interview\
http://www.mlgpro.com/content/page/133904/In-Pursuit-of-a-Takeover-MLG-Interviews-KoreanDJ

 

[KishPrime]

15. National Power Rankings, Rise and Fall (2006) – Chillindude and Hugs decided in a private conversation that there should be an official poll rankings system for Smashboards, which had not been done to date. The began by posting their own list of the best Smashers in the country. Following that discussion, they gathered a large number of the best, well-traveled minds in the game to continue to build it. It was a very successful enterprise for several months, but eventually grumbling about the methodology from the community and within the committee itself doomed the effort. Still, it spun off the idea of Regional Power Rankings, which had previously been banned to avoid difficult-to-manage topics. These became a much easier and more manageable effort. The final iteration of the National Power Rankings are still occasionally referenced (http://super-smash-bros.wikia.com/wiki/Smash_Panel_Power_Rankings).
14. Azen’s Fulfillment (2006) – Ken and Azen were perhaps the greatest rivals in the history of the game. Nearly a full year of trash talk eventually gave way to a mutual respect as they continually clashed, with the edge always going to Ken. For almost four years, they played each other in extremely high-stakes matches while both remained elite. No one would ever dispute that Azen is one of the best Smashers of all time, but he had a hole on his resume. As he himself pointed out following his victory at MLG Atlanta, he regretted that he had never beaten Ken on his way to a tournament title. At the MLG Playoffs in 2006, Ken and Azen played in an extremely dramatic set during the winner's bracket. With Ken one win away from taking the set, Azen was down 3 stock to 1, yet was able to pull out the comeback win for the game and eventually walked away as the victor of the set. He cruised through the rest of the tournament and put a much-deserved crown on top of an amazing career.
MLG Summary - http://www.mlgpro.com/content/news/65272/Climbing-the-Ladder-Azen-Takes-1v1-Playoff-Title/2
The Comeback - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWKx_e1M7fs&feature=fvw
13. Greatest Comeback Ever? (2006) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lIcE_-tWv8) – Let's travel to Europe for a moment. Ek and Amsah were considered the Top 2 Smashers in Europe at the time, so it was no surprise that they were playing against each other in the winner’s bracket finals at the Renaissance of Smash 3, one of the largest tournaments in Europe to date. The match came down to a final round on Fountain of Dreams. The match quickly turned into a blowout. 2.5 minutes in, Marth held a 4 stocks to 1 advantage, and even managed to land another 63% in damage on Amsah’s Sheik before dying for the first time. The next two and a half minutes were among the most dramatic I have ever had the pleasure of watching. Amsah took only 100% damage over the next three stocks, and without the benefit of a true low% gimp made the comeback, driving the European crowd into a frenzy. If not the greatest comeback ever, the stakes and size of the comeback were so large that it'd be hard to knock this one down too many pegs.
12. Ken goes to Japan, BOMBSOLDIER (2006) – For years, the debate was held over whether or not Japanese players could beat Americans. I can’t count how many times the Japanese were cited in support of an argument. “In Japan, Yoshi is top tier, so it must be true!” Near the end of the prime of his career, Ken planned a trip to settle the question of Japanese skill once and for all. Taking Isai and BACH with him (http://www.youtube.com/user/MLGBACH#p/u/5/uY1xSAFMmEs), they participated in a Japanese tournament and brought back an treasure-trove of film footage for American players to study. While Ken walked away with the title, his opponent in the finals, Bombsoldier, became a Smashboards sensation after the release of the combo video "Soldier of Fortune," and even more so when Ken noted that he was a very young kid. The end result? Millions of “Could ________ beat Bombsoldier?” topics that grew entirely ridiculous in nature. The question of Japanese skill was never entirely settled because there was not a large crossover tournament, but the closest Japanese players came to winning an American national tournament was Captain Jack at TG6, though he did go on to win a smaller MLG San Francisco shortly thereafter. Since then, though, the placing gap continued to widen, with Japanese players placing well in American tournaments but never threatening the elite players. Bombsoldier was funded by Ken to attend OC3, where he took 17th place, losing to Drephen and Forward.
11. MELEE-FC/0C Split (2006) – Following disputes between Ken and the Ship of Fools over the operation of the FC tournaments, Ken decided to create his own tournament series, 0C. This, combined with the lack of interest from Smashboards at establishing any official national championship series, essentially doomed any chance at repeating the depth of the field from MELEE-FC3 (I'll mention this later, but by M3D and my estimates at the time, 47 of the top 50 players in the country were there), since all MLG Championship events were limited to a smaller subset of players. While both tournaments were effective in their own ways, an open championship tournament that drew in the whole nation would never exist again during this time frame.

 

[KishPrime]

10. Tournament Go Goes National (2002-2003) – MattDeezie’s group’s travels, followed by his invitations to the community to travel to California, created the first national tournament. Eddie, hailing from Chicago, was one of the first to buy his plane ticket to another region for TG4. During its fifth iteration, the tournament became truly national, attracting players from Texas, the East Coast, and the Midwest. However, just as soon as Deezie’s brainchild became the de-facto Melee Championship, it disappeared as he moved on to life pursuits. While he would announce TG6 late in the process of planning for the next summer, The Ship of Fools stepped up and began the MELEE-FC series of events, which would take over for TG as the most regionally diverse independent tournament for the next 3 years.
9. Creation of the Crew Battle (2003) – I can still remember the first conversation. KishSquared and I were still staying in the same room over the summers during our college years. One night, he kicked off a discussion by saying that he wanted to set up a team competition like the ones found in animes like Yu Yu Hakusho and Flame of Recca. After a brief discussion about how it would work, I asked incredulously “Wait, you want people to throw themselves off the edge at the start of each match?” I ridiculed him thoroughly.
Yet, we continued to tinker with the rules at our next few tournaments and in a private Smash session with the Chicago crew. Indeed, by the time we debuted the crew tournament rules for the first time, players were throwing themselves off the edge and loving it. The joke was on me. The “crew” concept spread like wildfire throughout the nation as players in different areas teamed up, and the crew battle was named the event that would decide the regional rivalries once and for all at FC3. It also became a popular side event at countless tournaments thereafter.
8. The Rivalry of East Coast vs West Coast (2002-2005) – For the first few years of competitive Smash, every debate revolved around this subject. Conversation on the boards was mostly of the “my group of friends is better than your group of friends” variety. Even rule choices on Team Attack and Items were used as leverage in the argument over which coast had more skill. East Coast favored TA Off, while West Coast favored Items On. During the early years, players rarely traveled out-of-region, and so there was really not any kind of settled history to fall back on. Even for matches that did occur, massive numbers of excuses were sure to follow upon defeat. In the end, a polarized community created one climactic event at MELEE-FC3 to resolve the tensions, and the East Coast emerged triumphant. The FC3 crew battle was so decisive that I don’t recall ever seeing this debate again following that event from serious players, though as a formality, regional crew battles continued to occur at every FC thereafter and have occasionally been held elsewhere since. After the regional rivalries had been settled once and for all, the permanent rivalry between each region’s star (Azen and Ken) would continue to dominate Smash for years.
7. The Back Room Created (2002?) – The old topics in the SBR are interesting reads. Hardly a wealth of important information, it was mostly a place for the long-term members to hang out and shoot the breeze. When I asked what went on back there, I was often told “nothing.” M3D took on the task of enhancing discussion by adding knowledgeable players and tournament operators into the secret video game club. From this effort, it became a union of TOs that shared stories and discussed their perspectives on rules, tournament results, and characters which periodically produced and updated a tier list. The secrecy was kept intact so TOs could discuss specific issues that they had at tournaments without worrying about it coming out.
For many years, formal releases from the Back Room were rare, and indeed there were stretches where there was no activity at all because the leaders spent most of their time arguing in the public areas. The Back Room tag was more about lending credence to one’s argument than providing any kind of authority. The Back Room did not become a governing body or make decisions for Smash until much later, when the National Ruleset project was organized by AlphaZealot about a year before the release of Brawl (around 2007). Since then, the community has looked to the Back Room exclusively for judgments about controversial issues, whether is support or ridicule. Since it's my list, I'll include that I opposed the National Ruleset project, and I'm not a fan of closed-door decision-making in the way that it has occured since.
6. BACH (2005) – Despite not even playing competitively, Bach singlehandedly took over the tournament scene for a year by filming all of Team Ben’s travels and producing high-quality music videos to go along with his footage. New players were more likely to know the name of Bach than of Ken. His videos were life-giving to the community. They highlighted people as much as they featured elite gameplay. The Team Ben members became characters in his show, having larger than life personalities and throwing states into oceans. Watching his videos now is practically a year-in-review of one of the best years of Smash history.
MLG DC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnjcXjuvix0 (no sound)
BOMB3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbaUArbhBQ4&feature=related
MLG Orlando - http://www.youtube.com/user/MLGBACH#p/u/20/vwk6L4-brZA
SMYM3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l57oMeclM4&feature=related
Smash Aid V - http://www.youtube.com/user/MLGBACH#p/u/18/oBuWX_vUIfU
Gettin’ Schooled 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-JW43e1jY4

 

[KishPrime]

5. The PC Chris Revolution (2006) (http://www.mlgpro.com/content/link/44007/PC-Chris-Stages-One-Man-Coup-D-etat\) – MLG was back and better than ever, fully committed to Smash and offering larger prizes than had ever been seen before for the 2006 season. With Ken having captured practically every major title for two years, save for TG6, most expected him to continue his dominance in New York for the season-opening event. PC Chris, on the other hand, had been on the rise for some time. At MELEE-FC3, he placed a modest 13th, certainly a skilled player but not one expected to challenge for tournament titles. Still, his following on the East Coast was significant and many predicted good things for him.
His impactful victory in the New York season opener was more than just an indicator that he had fulfilled his talent – it was also the first time that “new blood” had taken a major title. PC Chris was not one of the first-generation Smashers that had dominated from the early days, and his victory was a sign that KAI (an acronym often used on the forums to describe the Top 3 players from 2004: Ken/Azen/Isai) and Chu Dat would no longer rule the tournament scene exclusively. KoreanDJ and Mew2King would begin their challenge to the Top 3 shortly thereafter, and from then on the second generation of smashers were regularly in the mix for titles. By the end of the 2006 MLG Season, the torch had officially been passed, with KoreanDJ and PC Chris playing for the championship.
Interview - http://www.mlgpro.com/content/link/44032/PC-Chris-The-East-Coast-s-Golden-Boy\
4. Shined Blind (2004) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLz_eeQ_xms&feature=fvst) – The DBR combo videos were transformative for an audience that was not composed of many players who had previously played competitive fighting games. It expanded minds and gave inspiration to players all over the country to join the tournament community. Shined Blind was the highlight of these videos, with DBR Smasher Zelgadis demonstrating Fox techniques that appeared stunningly powerful alongside a catchy custom tune. For those of us that had been around for longer, the video helped to elevate Fox’s character profile significantly at a time when Sheik was largely considered the best character in the game and Ken was making the case for Marth (believe it or not, we used to all joke about the game coming down to Sheik vs. Sheik on FD, as opposed to the now popular Fox vs. Fox on FD). Of course, there were detractors, mostly those who were offended or worried that Zelgadis might be considered better than them simply because of the fancy video. Nevertheless, this is likely the most influential Smash video in the history of the game, with the only competition being Soldier of Fortune.
The Ship of Fools parody, Shineanigans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4_aWl5E7_Q), did not get nearly so much attention.
3. Regional Crew Battle and MELEE-FC3 (2005) – The biggest showdown of East vs. West ever held. You who came later have to understand. There were, by my and M3D’s estimates, three players missing from the Top 50 in the entire country at MELEE-FC3. EVERYONE was there. There was never another tournament like it with a field as deep or as strong. By the third round of pools (Top 64), every single player was a known “name” player. Because of this, the Regional Crew Battle also lived up to the hype in every way. BACH exquisitely documented the entire event and posted it online, later summing up the event with one of his best montages. The East Coast-West Coast rivalry was finally settled. The tragic part of the story is that it occurred so early in the life of the game. Thanks to the 0C split the following year (already mentioned), there would never be another event with so thick of a field from the top of the Smash world. MELEE-FC tournaments would continue to be held for the next two years with a tremendous out-of-state attendance.
MELEE-FC3 Montage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZfTHTee3a4
MELEE-FC stands for Misunderstood Enthusiasts Living an Extraordinary Existence - For Cash
2. MLG Adds Smash (2004) – The addition of Smash to the MLG lineup occurred in June 2004, just prior to both MELEE-FC in July and TG6 in August. This was the summer that Smash became a national franchise and tournament attendance skyrocketed. M3D was awarded the position with MLG to coordinate the efforts for the game, and he promptly adopted the MELEE-FC ruleset, which at the time was considered a major compromise between the East and West Coast rulesets, for all MLG events. This, in effect, standardized that ruleset over the years to come, ensuring that the more open stagelist would rule the game during the height of the game. MLG continued to hype Smash and provided both prizes and exposure, while the independent scene became abundantly full of Smashers and TOs trying to develop their own region into players on the national scene.
While they mostly dabbled during their first season, by the second season MLG had fully committed to the game and each event had national reach, leading to the largest prize pools the game had ever seen. The final season for Melee in MLG, MLG 2006, featured the strongest lineup of Smash players in history. Combined with the independent tournaments, prizes for the year well exceeded $100,000. MLG, of course, eventually purchased Smashboards, and now operates Brawl tournaments.
1. Ken and Isai Rule Teams (2003-2006) – Take two of the best players in the game, put them together, and they’ll win every tournament for years, right? Seems like a simple formula, but in sports from football and basketball to Halo, it is rarely that simple. The dynamics of teamwork were so amazingly perfect between these two that they went years without losing a single set, in pools, in brackets, anywhere, long past Isai's prime as a singles player.
At MELEE-FC3, KishSquared and I had actually taken them to the last game and had the counterpick. It was not one of Ken’s better matches, as suicides and sloppy play had dogged him through the first two games. We took them to Mute City for the final round (of course). What resulted was one of the most intense matches of our entire careers. We were playing out of our minds, working together to land rests and edgeguards like crazy. It may well have been one of the best-played rounds of our career. But for every time we scored a kill, Ken would land a tipper, or Isai a knee off of a Marth-throw or car. They continually elevated their game and kept pace until the end, when Jeff and I ended up 2v1 against Isai’s Falcon. From there, Isai went into an absolute frenzy, killing Jeff within seconds, and then returning to finish me off in a 1v1, barely getting touched in the process.
So fell everyone who played against Ken and Isai for over three years. They had another gear waiting for every opponent’s challenge. I don’t think anyone can even imagine what it must have been like to have never made a fatal mistake for that long. When one was weak, the other would make up for it. Most players weren’t even allowed the opportunity to get close due to their exceptional teamwork. To get through FC3, they had to play 20 matches. All perfect. They dominated MLG in similar fashion. It was the perfect team. Their first loss marked the end of an era for Melee. As someone who values teams as much as singles, I say this was the single greatest achievement in the history of Melee and worthy of the top spot on this list.
The end of the streak that had no beginning - http://www.mlgpro.com/content/link/44040/MLG-Chicago-Smash-Wrap-Up\

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Sixth Hold

Looking forward to this.

 

[KirbyKaze]

combo breaker

 

[TheManaLord]

Mmmm dat old school

 

[MooseEatsBear]

You'd better put some good effort into this. Sounds promising.

 

[Strong Badam]

I read all of the Midwest history on Smash Wiki. Crew battles being made, Ken & Isai traveling to the MW to play Eddie, all dat ****. Mmhmm, I can't wait to read this when you're done Kish.

 

[ETWIST51294]

^^I'm with you with that, SB. I didn't even post until I knew what was up with OS smash.

This **** is gonna be tight.

 

[KishSquared]

Look at all these kids with their 2008 join dates. What a bunch of ragamuffins.

Capt. Falcon song brings back many, many memories. Good times!!

 

[KishPrime]

You'd better put some good effort into this. Sounds promising.

I'll put in whatever effort I feel like putting in. And GET OFF MY LAWN.

First hold updated.

Also, if people share anecdotes worth adding/incorporating into these, then I reserve the right to add to them and edit them as we go. I'm trying to include links where possible.

 

[Moooose]

good read, i want more!

 

[Rubyiris]

Pretty cool. I've been lurking since 05, but I never really followed much until late 08.

 

[KishPrime]

I added dates where appropriate, though to be honest I didn't double-check those so I could be slightly off.

 

[Lordydennek]

This is amazing. i had no idea about the Splitsies. wow. history 101.

 

[Skler]

The 2003s make me feel young, but the 2008s make me feel old.

Here I am, stuck in the middle with ManaLord.

 

[MooseEatsBear]

Look at all these kids with their 2008 join dates. What a bunch of ragamuffins.!

I'll put in whatever effort I feel like putting in. And GET OFF MY LAWN.

I've been lurking smashboards since 2006, lol I'm sorry I didn't join earlier.

 

[Ignatius]

Hurray, been excited for this Tim.

 

[Mike G]

Great read, Prime! haha Vgames. Crazy times! oh lawd...

 

[KishPrime]

Did you win one of the VGames? Cubed won ours.

 

[Mike G]

DA Dave, Wes and I decided to split up and win the Vgames in our areas so we didn't conflict with each other. Dave won Vgames NJ, Wes won Vgames NYC and I won Vgames east NY. We had everything planned for the finals too....

It took a year and a half for my check to come in for 2nd place at MLG altanta 2004 when I first moved down here. Azen got first, Derigo 3rd and Chillin 4th =D

"Chillin lost to a Dodge Durango" If Chillin and Azen reads this thread, they'll know all about that one LOL

 

[KishPrime]

I thought you guys split them up, but I didn't remember when you moved.

 

[Smash G 0 D]

Subscribing for the epic-ness.

I remember watching FC6 EC vs WC crews OVER AND OVER again. That was the basis of my entire Melee career.

 

[john!]

subscribed. midwest has a lot of smash history :D

 

[JPOBS]

funny that midwest has so much history, but are almsot non-existant in the current community.
great thread

 

[KAOSTAR]

lol its nice to read some smash history. I love this game

*subs*

 

[KirbyKaze]

I hate everything.

 

[lemonlau36]

Look at all these kids with their 2008 join dates. What a bunch of ragamuffins.

Pretty much.

My very first tournament was with the Punch Crew in Edmonton in 2003 before their trip to Snexus. This was while items were still being contested!!

 

[Melomaniacal]

Subscribing for epicness.

My first account here ("Its-ah-me") was from 2006. I've been lurking since 2005. I've been around to see some important stuff, but everything before the 2004ish era is a mystery to me. I vaguely know the stories of things like the discovery of wavedashing and the classic days of item tournaments vs. 5 stock FD tournaments.

I can't wait for this to be updated. I love learning more about the history of this community.

 

[KishSquared]

Pretty much.

My very first tournament was with the Punch Crew in Edmonton in 2003 before their trip to Snexus. This was while items were still being contested!!

Contested? Shoot, they were on and few people complained. At Snexus 2, Recipherus got a starman when playing me.

 

[KishPrime]

No one knows who Recipherus is, Jeff. At least not yet. I won my match against Iggy at Snexus 2 with the help of 2 timely mushrooms.

I'm shocked we dug up someone else that old. Wow. Pretty cool, lemon.

Shoot, I don't even know how wavedashing was "discovered." I'm not certain it was any one person. If it was, I don't see how it couldn't make the list.

Anyway, second part up!

 

[AOB]

At Snexus 1, which was only given that name retroactively (before your time, Tim and Jeff! And you guys think you're old...), I remember snex talking about the way Superpichu had removed his L/R springs and would wavedash all over the place with Samus. In those days, you saw a wavedash and you would gasp OHMYGOSH A WAVEDASH.

Of course, that was the same controller mod I later performed myself and brought to lots of tournaments where controller mods were disallowed.

I believe there was also a 3-person match there because no one knew how to draw up a bracket.

Was TG6 really in 2004? I can't believe it was that long ago.

 

[KishPrime]

Yeah, there was a 3 person FFA in the winners semis, I think. Wow I forgot about that....how terrible.

I think part of that was even my fault. It was my first tournament, so I don't think I thought twice about it being a problem...haha. At Midwest Challenge, the next tournament after Snexus 2, I made three pools, and thus learned the consequences of that decision when I tried to seed the bracket.

I'm a quick learner though. From there on, I was perfect and hand-drew brackets for 256 people.

 

[KishSquared]

Tim, you should add controller-mod bans to your list!

For those not in the know, I created a short-hop mod using a resistor/capacitor parallel connection across one of the jump buttons. Problem is that I could never bind them properly (or more to the point, never put forth the effort to try it), but I still posted it in the back room. The results were hilarious - people swore up and down they should be banned and so they banned it...

...even though it never existed. The end.

 

[KishPrime]

I came up with probably a million humorous sidenotes of that variety, which I greatly encourage people to post.

That probably isn't going to be on the list of 25 most impactful events in Melee history, but hey, you tried.

 

[AOB]

No Tim, Snexus 1. You weren't there.

So it happened again at Snexus 2, huh? Still had much to learn.

 

[KishPrime]

In that case, I blame Snex. I probably only nodded my approval for Snexus 2. It did indeed happen. I'm pretty sure that's how Iggy went to loser's bracket, where he ran into my mushroomed Jigglypuff.