Official Nintendo Pre-Release Tournaments

[Axis]

*****WARNING THIS IS AN ANGRY RANT POSTED WHILE I HAVE BEEN DRINKING A LITTLE BIT****

/START RANT


My biggest problem with the event was how the staff handled it, I have never seen a more pathetic attempt at running any event ever...(and I run events myself so I understand how hard it is and have respect for the difficulty of the job, but it felt like they went across the street and asked the people working at Macdonald's of they wanted a job for the day.)

Aside from the fact that people blatantly cut in line and we had to wait an extra hour for them to tell us that we were not going to be in the tournament, which I would have been fine with if they just went and counted everyone and told us that we weren't getting in so we didnt have to stand in the rain... THEY ONLY HAD 4 KIOSKS AVAILABLE!

Nintendo AND Best Buy for some reason could only muster 4 Wii consoles for "casual play" which was just another way of saying "people who didnt get in because dozens and dozens of people cut and were given the waivers and paperwork out of order in line etc etc etc".
AND OUT OF ONLY 4 WII's ONLY 1 OF THEM HAD BRAWL ON IT!
wtf? I look and im pissed that there are only 4 consoles in the area, but then instantly wonder...why is that one station crowded with over 100 people while the other 3 are not even being played? Well its because 1 of them has wii sports running, the other has Mario Galaxy and the 3rd out of the 4 was running Metroid Prime 3. I ask one of the guys working there if they were going to put brawl on there and he just said no. OMGWTFBBQ

I got to the event at 10:30 and stood in line until after 3pm and didnt get in the tournament. I didnt really come to get into the tournament because I dont really care about tournaments at this point, I just wanted to play the game., and after about 6 total hours of waiting in the rain and driving (not including the trip back) we couldnt even do that.

Like I said, I run events and tournaments myself so I have the greatest empathy for the amount of work it takes to run an event like this and i am not in the least bit hard to please, but be forewarned if you are planning on going to one of these and the same people are running it, dont waste your time, ive seen better events put together with no money held at a random guys house. a few weeks ago I attended a spur of the moment guilty gear accent core (wii version) and there were about 15 wii's there, thats alot more than the PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE FREAKING THINGS COULD BRING!

In conclusion, next time they should hire a few chimps to throw poo around and make the big decisions about how they run the thing, it will be cheaper and will be more organized...


SORRY RANT OFF. THIS WILL PROLLY BE ALL GONE WHEN I EDIT IT OUT WHEN I SOBER UP TOMORROW!

 

[DarkSpidey13]

Ok, so the LA one did allow under 18 kids to play the game (only in the free play booth), while the SF one didnt allow under 18 kids to play at all?

that's not true. i was at the san francisco tourney and ended up doing most of my playing on the "casual" brawl kiosk. there were plenty of children playing there. honestly, i had more fun playing there than i did in the actual tourney, since i got to play more matches in the same amount of time. anyone who is complaining about not being able to play obviously didn't try very hard, because other than the extremely long (and cold) line outside, (which i stood in since 7:00 am), the line to play brawl once inside wasn't very long at all.

 

[Axis]

****MORE ANGER POSTING PLEASE IGNORE ME****

**my anger isnt directed at you Darkspidey, if you had fun thats awesome, but alot of people had an overall negative experience which was very easy to avoid if the staff had done anything to prevent or help it...***

that's not true. i was at the san francisco tourney and ended up doing most of my playing on the "casual" brawl kiosk. there were plenty of children playing there. honestly, i had more fun playing there than i did in the actual tourney, since i got to play more matches in the same amount of time. anyone who is complaining about not being able to play obviously didn't try very hard, because other than the extremely long (and cold) line outside, (which i stood in since 7:00 am), the line to play brawl once inside wasn't very long at all.

Apparently we have a different view on "trying hard", to me waiting in front of a building for about 6 or 7 hours in the cold, wind, and rain, qualifies as "trying hard" much less trying to get a game in on a single wii between all of us there.

And do you mean it wasnt very long at all before or after the tournament? because before and during the tournament the line was about another 100ish people, and nomatter how you slice it only having 4 wii's there is a joke and having only 1 of the 4 there with brawl on it was just a slap in the face...you host an event that has over 400 people in attendance waiting the same amount of time in the cold rain that most people spend during an entire work day and you give them 1 nintendo wii to play the game on between the 200 of them? Forget that...



***AGAIN THIS WILL PROLLY BE DELETED TOMMOROW! CUZ IM DRINKING AND MAD RAWR!****


edit: and Yes hes 100% right they let people who were under 18 play if they wanted, they just couldnt be in the tournament.

 

[DarkSpidey13]

wasnt very long at all before or after the tournament, because before and during the tournament the line was about another 100ish people, and nomatter how you slice it only having 4 wii's there is a joke and having only 1 of the 4 there with brawl on it was just a slap in the face...

the line in the lobby? i dunno, man. as soon as we lost the tourney, my friends and i just stood in the brawl line in the lobby, played brawl, and went back to the end of the line. we only waited 15-20 minutes between matches, tops.

 

[Axis]

the line in the lobby? i dunno, man. as soon as we lost the tourney, my friends and i just stood in the brawl line in the lobby, played brawl, and went back to the end of the line. we only waited 15-20 minutes between matches, tops.

what time did you lose the tourney and get to the casual area about?

 

[scottnak]

Ah yes. I totally forgot about the freeplay area in the middle. Anyone could play those (well, post-tourney casualties for Brawl...)
Didn't look too bad after bailing out after the 2nd round... 1 person on Galaxy, Metroid. Pretty sure there were 2 kids on Sports, a decent sized line tot he free Brawl play, nothing too ridic.

 

[Axis]

Ah yes. I totally forgot about the freeplay area in the middle. Anyone could play those (well, post-tourney casualties for Brawl...)
Didn't look too bad after bailing out after the 2nd round... 1 person on Galaxy, Metroid. Pretty sure there were 2 kids on Sports, a decent sized line tot he free Brawl play, nothing too ridic.

I guess thats the key difference in why i was so mad about it, we got shafted out of playing in the tourney, and then on top of it there was only 1 wii with brawl on it...kinda the straw that broke the camel's back..but again IGNORE ME IM IN ANGRY MODE!!! RAWR!

 

[batsman415]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! **** GUY IN LINE LIED TO ME!!!!!i could ve played brawl. sh**......................

 

[HowaitoKumaSan]

Well, coming from someone who's been to a couple of tournaments, I can say that even though the time limit and CC thing was a but much, it was still a pretty good tourney, and a lot of fun. Shame that I couldn't get past top 8, but at least I got past Silent Spectre, Lunin, and T!mmy. I even BEAT T!mmy's Kirby with my D3.

 

[TheMintyCookie]

I don't want this anymore

 

[HowaitoKumaSan]

Smash balls save lives. lol

Fixed for future reference.

 

[TheMintyCookie]

I don't want this anymore.

 

[Oceanborn]

Boo, unfortunately I got eliminated during the second round last night due to my inexperience with the game/controller - not that I even expected to make it past round one but hey. Anyway I had fun despite the long wait - I was there since 8 and ended up maybe around 30th in line.. in the rain. I met some kid who was there since 4.. crazy, lol. The event was surprisingly not bad. I got to meet Smash players from the area and even some from LA and Nevada and they were all pretty cool, good vibes overall. But someone did tell me that the LA one was wayyy better with their set-up, so I was bummed about that. In the end though I'm just glad I got to play, and it's not much, but free Wii gloves and a 10$ gift card, why not?

P.S., Anyone know who won? I absent-mindedly left for Wondercon after I lost when I really wanted to stay. I was betting on either that one guy that kicked some pro's *** or that one dude from Nevada - they both had the game for awhile.

 

[HowaitoKumaSan]

I don't know the guy's name. Seemed like a cool person, though.

And the CC wasn't really all that bad. After my first match, it felt completely natural. Of course, it helped that in my first round, I went against someone who had never played any Smash Brothers games in his life, but hey, you take what you can get, right?

 

[Oceanborn]

I don't know the guy's name. Seemed like a cool person, though.

And the CC wasn't really all that bad. After my first match, it felt completely natural. Of course, it helped that in my first round, I went against someone who had never played any Smash Brothers games in his life, but hey, you take what you can get, right?

By the time I got used to the CC (and Olimar) there were only 2 minutes left unfortunately. I kept killing myself off stage because I kept pressing up+y when I meant to press up+b, down+b when I meant side+b, etc. I hardly doubt that I would have won first or anything, but I guess I just wanted to win, I mean who didn't want more free stuff right? Haha. It's ok though, I had fun.

 

[Naota21t]

I was at the tourney yesterday as well. My two main gripes were : How the staff handled the tournament, and the **** classic controllers.

They were sooo disorganized. The little packets they handed out explaining all the rules didn't even have the same rules that were used during the tournament. I arrived with a bunch of friends at like 10 or so, and we didn't get in until 3:30 or so, so they ran about 1 1/2 hours late. Once we all got in though, it was good. They ran it pretty well. It definitely reminded me why items are banned.

I hated the classic controllers. It was my first time using it, and it just felt weird. The z button was way too far from the shield buttons. The a and b buttons were at the bottom row instead of the top, so jumping was actually above the a button which threw me off really bad. The analogs felt weird.

The game itself is really fun. It runs extremely smooth (which is the first thing I noticed).

 

[DarkFalcon025]

lol yeah, they didn't really follow their own rules well. The sheet said it was 4 minute time limit with 3 stocks, they forego the 3 stocks. Items were a ***** to handle, total luck of the draw. And the classic controllers, no good. Maybe people I saw, including me, failed to do their up+b because they were hitting up+y (the natural place on the gamecube controller for b). I know a lot of people got screwed waiting in line, the rain was terrible, and all I got was $10 best buy card and Wii Gloves. Oh well. Shoulda went to Wondercon instead.

 

[Oceanborn]

lol yeah, they didn't really follow their own rules well. The sheet said it was 4 minute time limit with 3 stocks, they forego the 3 stocks. Items were a ***** to handle, total luck of the draw. And the classic controllers, no good. Maybe people I saw, including me, failed to do their up+b because they were hitting up+y (the natural place on the gamecube controller for b). I know a lot of people got screwed waiting in line, the rain was terrible, and all I got was $10 best buy card and Wii Gloves. Oh well. Shoulda went to Wondercon instead.

Haha, I ended up going to both. Huzzah! No don't worry, you didn't miss anything, and there's one more day of Wondercon today.

 

[Budai578]

I practiced with the classic controller a couple days ago. The first game I think I did up+y instead of up+b like 2 or 3 times. Then the next few games I did it at least once. After a while I got the hang of it, but in the heat of the moment it's easy to forget the button layout when you're so used to the gamecube controller.

For those of you going to either of the next tournaments, I would suggest getting a hold of a classic controller and getting a feel for it (don't buy one unless you actually think you'll use it in the future for virtual console or whatever). If you have one laying around or can borrow one from a friend, then pick it up and mess around with it even if you don't have Brawl yet. All the buttons are the same (A=A, B=B, Y and X=jump, L/R = shield, Z=dodge), it's just the layout feels different than the GC controller.

 

[TheMintyCookie]

I don't want this anymore

 

[MrCharlieBoi]

Pure greatness. Other then the rainy wait in line of course. Whew that was great. Especially in front they had this Professor Layton truck where some little boy was able to run and turn is head a full 180...that was a good laugh. Outside was really sketchy...didn't even have a name in the front..seems i went to a 21y and older night club before I was even 21

Won the first round against the Link, I just remember that the first 30 seconds of play we were just jumping around because we couldn't even hit each other. I used pit and I couldn't even shoot an arrow! I looked at all the strats beforehand seeing what his killing moves were...none of them were working..I guess I didn't hit those sweet spots or something...Lost in the 2nd round...it feels so bad to die from a sheik arrow at 0%.

 

[NyTeStRiDeR]

my most exciting match was winning cus I lugged a box in the guys face while he was recovering with 3 seconds left. I could have edge hogged cus he was olimer but i dont think i would have had enough time. He was cool.

Yea, that ending was hella crazy, box kill at the last second. Sucks that you and mitchell had to play each other. This is Eric btw...

 

[MrCharlieBoi]

No. They were not. They stated it plenty of times you had to be >18 to play. Explicitly stated in the rules packet, and ID was checked at the door. Don't worry... you did the right thing in NOT waiting...



Well. I wont say anything about the first half of your post, since that will lead down a path of ugly ugly proportions. But lets at least clear up that items were at MEDIUM level. Which made it a very NICE flow of items to have to maneuver with / around. It was hardly stupid, and quite enjoyable. Well, aside from having to wait an extra hour in the rain because of 'audio issues...'

I know you!

 

[Grey Fox]

Wait so you have to be 18 to enter these tournies and you can only use classic controls??

 

[Oceanborn]

Pure greatness. Other then the rainy wait in line of course. Whew that was great. Especially in front they had this Professor Layton truck where some little boy was able to run and turn is head a full 180...that was a good laugh. Outside was really sketchy...didn't even have a name in the front..seems i went to a 21y and older night club before I was even 21

Won the first round against the Link, I just remember that the first 30 seconds of play we were just jumping around because we couldn't even hit each other. I used pit and I couldn't even shoot an arrow! I looked at all the strats beforehand seeing what his killing moves were...none of them were working..I guess I didn't hit those sweet spots or something...Lost in the 2nd round...it feels so bad to die from a sheik arrow at 0%.

It feels worse to die from thinking you can grapple grab with your Pikmin with R then you realize it's Up+B, then you realize you're using a classic controller which means you were really hitting Up+Y.. then by the time you realize all that you're being teleported back from dying..

 

[f8lmatt]

so Who Won. Any videos?

 

[DarkSpidey13]

It feels worse to die from thinking you can grapple grab with your Pikmin with R then you realize it's Up+B, then you realize you're using a classic controller which means you were really hitting Up+Y.. then by the time you realize all that you're being teleported back from dying..

haha. yeah, i had the same problem with the grapple. i couldn't recover worth anything since i'm used to grappling the edge. by the time my fingers found the right button to grapple, i was already dead.

but i didn't have the problem with jumping that a lot of people had since i jump with Y in melee, and on the CC, X is exactly where Y was, so it feels the same to me.

 

[Kokichi]

I got to the top 8 in the tournament, and was probably expected to win. No one else was really good, except for the guy who won the entire thing (the guy who I lost to). I was up early in the match with a quick 10-second kill, then he killed me, then I killed him and was up a point. 17 seconds were left and I was trying to kill time, but I'm much more of a fighter than a runner and got killed, so it went into Sudden Death. (I was Lucas and he was Diddy, btw). Anyways, we're at SD. We run around for a bit, I create an opening, and go for it. I do Lucas' nair, knowing it comes out fast and has a good range of attack. Unfortunately, despite having had the game a for a few weeks, I didn't practice at all before the tournament (midterms and frat stuff), nor did I really practice Lucas at all, so I didn't realize that Lucas' nair does next to no knockback. As soon as the attack finishes Diddy just grabs and throws me and wins the match. Boo.

So, I lost because of a lack of knowledge of what my character could do, which could have easily been remedied by playing more, instead of studying for midterms. First place gets $1000 and a trip to New York for a chance to win $3000 more - I should have totally concentrated and practicing like this guy did. The winner had a big posse with him, obviously people he's played with, so at least I can't say that I lost to some random noob, I actually lost to someone who's had the game for a while and has most likely played more than once a week, if that (my average, UCLA is kind of intensive ^_<).

Anyways, the over all tournament was fun, classic controllers weren't as bad as everyone *****ed, items on normal were fine and actually pretty fun, they don't really effect high-end players as much as one would expect. If you've played the game for a few weeks, I highly recommend training on a classic controller and going to the east coast ones - the prizes you can win are extremely valuable, more so than any grassroots tournament we run. If you haven't, don't expect to win, people like me will get 9 kills on you before you can even get one kill on us

 

[vandal]

my most exciting match was winning cus I lugged a box in the guys face while he was recovering with 3 seconds left. I could have edge hogged cus he was olimer but i dont think i would have had enough time. He was cool.

That was one of the most exciting matches I saw. You managed to nail him with the box with barely a second left in the fight. My entire group was like WTF!!

I lost in the final 16 to some metaknight guy... we hit sudden death because I miscounted kills and just wasted the end of the match... frickin timer game. Then he just flew back and forth under the stage nonstop until bom-ombs came... I wasn't even aware of that ability so my mind was blown too much to even think of a way to retaliate.

It was a fun tournament, though.

 

[Dantarion]

interesting info...

Thanks for your post. Ive been praticing and I think I can pull of a win.

I think that the Worcester tournament will be the easiest to win, simply because there are many people at WPI not really into smash that will competing simply because it is here. Its the day after exams end, and a lot of people will already be here, and the place where the tournament is being held is about a 4min walk from all of the dorms.

I know about 20 people myself who will be competing, and I think that 1/4 of the tournament AT LEAST will be from WPI. Should be interesting.

 

[t!MmY]

I got to the top 8 in the tournament, and was probably expected to win. No one else was really good, except for the guy who won the entire thing (the guy who I lost to).

Wow, you made it to top 8? I did too, but I didn't know you were there! I was the Kirby player. And I agree the Classic Controllers weren't as bad as people make them out to be once you get used to them.

All in all I had a lot of fun at this event. ^__^

 

[Naota21t]

The most exciting match I saw at SF was this one match in the second round. It was on the first screen from the left. It was between Peach and Zelda, great match. The announcer was watching it and even said HE said it was a great match.

Btw I took a good amount of pics of the long line waiting out in the rain, if anyone wants to see them I'll host them and give you a link. Maybe you'll find yourself or recognize me lol.

 

[the reQuest]

I went to the SF tourney and made it to the 3rd round. I got knocked out by a Kirby player (who no matter who is playing, my MetaKnight cannot beat). I've played the game a lot before the tournament, but i only used the classic controller about a week before in practice with me and my friends. My other mains were sadly all unlockable characters...

Oh, and by the way, the guy who won was one of my friends, real name Jason, tournament name VaJayJay/VaJJ. (If any of you were there, we were the really loud crew yelling "Who Those Filipino's?") Unfortunately, I can't talk at all about who he played or how he plays until after the NYC Grand Finals, so that the other players can't get a good read of him.

 

[SurooshX]

Yes! Frisco tourney was the ****. VaJJ representing for Stockton! w00t!!! I was surprised to see that the game isn't as slow as all the online videos would have you believe.

Here's a teaser vid. We're gonna show all the vids during the finals like "the reQuest" said.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JxJUzL7pTws

 

[Dantarion]

Its not slow, but it will look slow when people try using melee tricks.

 

[TheMintyCookie]

I don't want this anymore.

 

[Kokichi]

That was one of the most exciting matches I saw. You managed to nail him with the box with barely a second left in the fight. My entire group was like WTF!!

I lost in the final 16 to some metaknight guy... we hit sudden death because I miscounted kills and just wasted the end of the match... frickin timer game. Then he just flew back and forth under the stage nonstop until bom-ombs came... I wasn't even aware of that ability so my mind was blown too much to even think of a way to retaliate.

It was a fun tournament, though.

Haha, I saw the end of that match. Really funny that Metaknight did that, but lame. If I were you I would have just grabbed onto one edge, then just hoped bombs fell on his side first.

Wow, you made it to top 8? I did too, but I didn't know you were there! I was the Kirby player. And I agree the Classic Controllers weren't as bad as people make them out to be once you get used to them.

All in all I had a lot of fun at this event. ^__^

I was the 6'4" guy with the UCLA shirt / frat sweatshirt. Name's Xander. Nice to have met you and your brother.

I went to the SF tourney and made it to the 3rd round. I got knocked out by a Kirby player (who no matter who is playing, my MetaKnight cannot beat). I've played the game a lot before the tournament, but i only used the classic controller about a week before in practice with me and my friends. My other mains were sadly all unlockable characters...

Oh, and by the way, the guy who won was one of my friends, real name Jason, tournament name VaJayJay/VaJJ. (If any of you were there, we were the really loud crew yelling "Who Those Filipino's?") Unfortunately, I can't talk at all about who he played or how he plays until after the NYC Grand Finals, so that the other players can't get a good read of him.

FYI to anyone out there, he mains Diddy Kong and plays a standard Diddy. I saw him go Fox but he switched back to Diddy the next fight. Diddy is pretty good, I was going to main him but saw that he's not as good as I would have liked against some of the unlocked characters. He is, however, really good with items (his item attacks with star wands and the fan are really good), so in a tournament with items, he does well. Just make sure to pick up his bananas and use them against him. Also, if you want to get an easy kill on Diddy (I killed VaJJ within 20 seconds of the match starting), he's actually one of the easier characters to edgehog against, especially if he's right below the ledge. Without charing up his up-B goes pretty far (it also has virtually no horizontal distance after reaching the zenith of its upward movement), so just grab the edge right away and Diddy will probably die.

Then again, it's not like you can really say "how" a player plays right now at this stage in Brawl. A Diddy strategy right now is to plant bananas, throw them at the opponent to trip them, get some up smash and forward smashes in to rack damage, then kill with fair, bair, or dsmash. Though, I was surprised that he didn't use Diddy's forward B at all - it's a very good mindgame attack.

Super John. I just said it was luck of items. He, on the other hand, said that if only he played more to get better, then he'd be better than everyone better than him. Very nice. You basically said that if you played more to get better then you'd be better, which is a John for everyone else. haha

You know, I thought items would have really changed who would win, which is why I didn't practice at all for the tournament - I just assumed some random noob would win due to items. Though, as it turned out, items didn't really matter in the end, because people were good enough to work around them. For example, I got a curry when I fought the winner of the SF tournament and killed him with it. As soon as he spawned he picked up a fan and killed me with that. Kills with items just seemed to trade off for the good players there, and when there was an obvious skill level difference, it just made the better players win by more.

And yes, if I had to throw out an excuse, it'd be that I haven't played as much, though that's not really an excuse. I've had the game for about three weeks now, but I don't have anyone to really play against, so I haven't really practiced at it. That got me to the top 8, and nearly beating the guy who won (who, I presume based on his posse, has had the chance to play against other people a lot). Lame John, if you want to look at it that way, but whatever. If I had lost due to items, that'd be annoying, but at least I lost to a guy who's played it more than I have, so I would imagine to lose to him.

 

[Radikal]

I went to the SF tourney and made it to the 3rd round. I got knocked out by a Kirby player (who no matter who is playing, my MetaKnight cannot beat). I've played the game a lot before the tournament, but i only used the classic controller about a week before in practice with me and my friends. My other mains were sadly all unlockable characters...

Oh, and by the way, the guy who won was one of my friends, real name Jason, tournament name VaJayJay/VaJJ. (If any of you were there, we were the really loud crew yelling "Who Those Filipino's?") Unfortunately, I can't talk at all about who he played or how he plays until after the NYC Grand Finals, so that the other players can't get a good read of him.

Hoh hoh! Are you the guys with the rubixxx cube in the line? And is your friend Jason the guy who was wearing the white sweater? There was a really tall dude there too, but I didn't catch his name... I think I might have met you/your friends there, and got kicked from the tourney by Jason (if he's the person who I think he is).

 

[SurooshX]

Hoh hoh! Are you the guys with the rubixxx cube in the line? And is your friend Jason the guy who was wearing the white sweater? There was a really tall dude there too, but I didn't catch his name... I think I might have met you/your friends there, and got kicked from the tourney by Jason (if he's the person who I think he is).

YES! You're thinking of the right people. But I was the one with the Rubix Cube. VaJJ FTW!
Check the vid I posted earlier. You guys made a cameo.

 

[the reQuest]

Hoh hoh! Are you the guys with the rubixxx cube in the line? And is your friend Jason the guy who was wearing the white sweater? There was a really tall dude there too, but I didn't catch his name... I think I might have met you/your friends there, and got kicked from the tourney by Jason (if he's the person who I think he is).

Wait, are you one of the guys from Berkeley? 'Cause yeah that was us, and I think you played an Ike against Jason (white sweater). I'm the guy from Davis, so hit me up on smashboards one day and we'll get some brawl matches going.