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One Year of Basty: A Reflection of my career so far

Basty

Smash Ace
Joined
Jan 15, 2014
Messages
612
Location
Launceston,TAS
Yo Guys! A year ago today I attended my first ever tournament: Shadowloo Showdown V.

I was going to reflect on my first year of smash back in January, but I realized I had only attended SSV at the time, so I didn't feel it was appropriate. But now, one year after SSV, and with me having won 2-3 tournaments (can't remember exact numbers lel), I think it's the perfect time to reflect.

Let's start with at the beginning, I had joined smashboards on January 7th 2014 (or at least i think that was the date) where I made it to make a fake sm4sh leak. This is the person I was for about 12 months, a cringy guy who thought he was funny by making pictures of Kirby memes. I was getting prepared for Smash 4's release like the casual I was, but then I wanted to become better at smash, so I looked up Super Smash Bros. Brawl plays, and I found CT EMP| Mew2King vs Salem, I was amazed by the level of play I was seeing, and I got super hype watching it. Then I wanted to see more of competitive smash, and I found what introduced me to melee: The Smash Brothers. I was amazed by the stories, the players, the tournaments, the atmosphere, and more importantly: Melee's Tech Skill. It was a level of play I had never seen in Video Games! Instead of being a normal person and going "Man these are all tryhards." The Players pretty much became some of my biggest heroes ever. I managed to watch Apex 2014 and see so many hype moments, including Leffen vs. Mango which to this day, is one of my favourite matches of all time. I continued to watch streams, chat with the pros on their streams (D1,Westballz,Plup etc.) and learn so much about the game, in early February of that year, I bought Melee, and started playing.

The first character I played was Marth,who still has a special place in my heart to this day. I switched from characters quite frequently, but before I got to Shadowloo Showdown V, I had brought in Sheik and Fox to my arsenal along side Fox. I originally wasn't going to Shadowloo, I had to cancel my tickets to PAX that year and barely got to SSV. In the lead up I was watching heaps of Marth, before I found PewPewU, who now is my favourite player of them all.

One month before SSV, I created a thread titled "The Tasmanian Smash Community" and started the Tasmanian scene pretty much. It now, is my full of some of my favourite people to talk to and play with. And i feel they have really helped me change as a person.

Then, the day came, Shadowloo Showdown V! While my flight did get delayed a bit, I managed to get there in time for Friday night where I would meet all the new people for the first time. I admit, I was shaking heaps, and was trying to calm myself down, I think when I walked in I heard people say "Is that Basty?" Probably for being a notorious keyboard warrior on smashboards at the time. It was really cramped when I was in there because there were hardly any melee setups on friday and little room to move around. I was watching Armada playing against Mytus, I was about to say "Do you mind if I jump in?" But then I realised it was a training session for Mytus so I quickly decided to shut up. I eventually ran into Hobs who is a nice guy, I played some matches with him, and stupidly, forgot my money for money matches which I know for a fact won't be happening next time. I also met 1ampercent, Venks and a lot of others there, and my PM doubles partner, Cloud, who I think changed his tag to Tyler? It was really fun to play and I was really hype for the next day where I would play my pools.

Day 2: I had my melee pool in the middle of the day, and had some pretty good players in there like Haikal, Cal and Jei. I lost no games during the whole pool and the closest I got to winning a game was against Jei even though he 2 stocked me twice LMAO. I was pretty happy with how I did despite losing every single game. My PM Pool was next, and the same story, lost every game. I nearly beat a Falco main and probably would have won if my nerves didn't get to me. I also had Polaroid in my pool and when I realised he wanted a fist bump, the game started so I looked like a **** LMAO. Then I had my doubles matches! We lost all our sets, one was on stream but of course the stream wasn't working at the time.

I didn't get to go for day 3, but I watched from home and I realised how many people legit wanted to meet me, which was a surprise.

Then I went quiet, not attending a tournament until January of 2015, where as always, I lost every match... But that just wanted to make me play more! And it was great actually meeting the Tas community for the first time, Melee doubles friendlies with swebe was great.

Then I had another quiet period, not attending a tournament until April, I attended a small local tournament, and well, won! It was awesome! It was one of my favourite memories of all! I went from winning no games in January, to winning a whole tournament 3 months later! Then I attended a Hobart tournament, sand bagged in one match and ended up get like 17th or 13th LMAOOOO. A week later, 2 hobart players came up for a tournament and it was awesome! Got third but hey I 2-0'd swebe at one point lmao. Then 2 weeks later, I came 9th... It wasn't good but I learnt from my mistakes and won the next tournament without dropping a single game!

The next "big" tournament for me was in May where 15 or 16 top hobart players came up for a tournament featuring Melee,Sm4sh and 64! I got 7th in both melee and sm4sh with a good old last place in 64! Still one of my favourite tournaments.

Then my locals stopped for like a month or two and so I went to like the next 3 and got 4th,3rd and 5th. I wasn't really happy with that and I'm still training to win the next one I can attend!

Overall, I'm quite happy I took the decision to leap into competitive smash. I've met so many good friends, became a better person and started a whole community pretty much! I've heard stories that people in other states respect me and that's one of the best feelings! Smash just kinda gives me another family i didn't realise I had. It's like when you eat a food for the first time and wondering where it's been your whole life. And this is definitely one of my favourite foods!

Next week I have my third ever Melee tournament and I can confirm next year I am going to BAM8

So yeah, thanks smash community for giving me one of my most enjoyable years of my life. Hopefully in a few years, I'll be best in the world ;)
 

Splice

Smash Hero
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
5,125
Location
AUS
sick dude
good to hear about people making positive change and getting a wholesome experience from their smash community

keep on having fun!
 

1ampercent

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
310
Location
Australia
Yoo sup Basty, hope you're coming over next year. I wanna see an improved Basty, and you should def MM SurPr15e too while you're at it lmao.

I also had Polaroid in my pool and when I realised he wanted a fist bump, the game started so I looked like a **** LMAO.
LOL I did the same thing Vs. Splice in SS6 and felt like a scrub. *facepalm*
 

Kaiza

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Messages
227
Location
South Australia, Australia
nice blog post good to hear your experiences coming into a new community where ppl can be pretty callous to new people and then especially younger new people

 
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