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Our Fuzzy Neighbors: Further Confusion 2016 (Part 1)

With one the largest most spectacular events Smash has ever seen taking place it might surprise many that right in the very same venue another Smash tournament was taking place. In many ways it is similar to any other tournament: the room is filled with friends being reunited after such long spans apart, the clicking of buttons pierces the air, and the venue is packed to capacity with people who love Smash. The real difference was the event took place at Further Confusion 2016, the furry convention right next door to Genesis 3.

At the last minute upon learning a Smash tournament was taking place at the event I reached out in hopes of attending and was surprised to not only get a response but was offered free entry into the event with a media badge. I not only entered the tournament myself but decided to take the opportunity to learn about something I had never seen before to try and see what I could bring back to Smash. Come and see all that I learned.

---



To say my welcome was anything less than the most warm one I have ever received would be criminal. I was met at the entrance by Bliz Fox, one of the many people that make FurCon so successful. He took me to get a badge, made sure the fee was waved, and then proceeded to give me a tour of the entire venue so I could know where everything would be.

He introduced me to top organizer at other conventions so I could ask questions about how the events worked all while explaining the furry culture so an outsider like me could understand. We passed by a photo shoot with at least fifty suits by the same maker and was told how most suits cost at least $2,000. I was surrounded by $100,000 of fursuits. The quality was impressive.

Everywhere I went every single staff member already knew my name and what I looked like before I managed to say a word, they really wanted to go out of their way to make sure it was an incredible experience. After our tour I was given free reign for reporting which I later learned is incredibly rare in the community. Most reporters are escorted, as many show up to events having been specifically paid to try and get footage that can be edited in a bad way or used for a biased reporting which hurts their community. I was honored to have that trust from my first time attending.

Smash 4 At Further Confusion 2016

ToaEnemis stands on a chair directing the crowd. This is second time working on Smash at FurCon. Last year he was co-host but now it's his time to shine all on his own. While many people had asked me if the tournament would be casual before I went in, I quickly found it was not. The only things different in the event were that Castle Siege and Delfino Plaza were legal (still not too uncommon at events) and that the event was single elimination due to time constraints.

Vespa26 and Reep, two volunteers for the event, are forced to turn away people at the door: the room is already packed to absolute full capacity. A few players are no shows and everyone groans at the thought of taking a free match . Nobody just wants to win, so I take one of the spots (replacing Lupo) and decide to enter the fray.

The first matches are already bringing on the hype. A last minute Bowser up-b takes out a Wii Fit trainer and everyone cheers. A Fox gimps a Lucas player then a spectator exclaims “YOUR MOMMA WOULD BE PROUD SON!” and the room erupts in laughter. In full suit Rithuld goes around entertaining players and volunteers alike.

Just as the players play under a professional ruleset some of them are very skilled. I managed to take a match but was eliminated by ParanoidPimp, a Pikachu main with agility skills to rival ESAM. In the end I take 17th place. With so many people and being a bit rusty it's a good performance. Plus it's hard to be mad losing to the player who eventually got 4th.

The matches continue and top 8 is set on a projector so everyone in the room can see. Lenoh, the man in charge of the game room, booms out the names of the final two competitors in an impressive fashion. Ben The Dragon vs Shikan grand finals. Two players who did incredibly well during the event, honestly being capable of breaking round one pools in Genesis 3 here at its next door event fighting for first prize.

The first match is on Smashville, some things just never change. It's a Saturday night and KK Slider plays, a fun coincidence everyone points out from the crowd. Shikan's Greninja manages to take game one but Ben The Dragon brings it back just as quickly changing to Bowser and using his newfound throw combos to take the next match. Shikan being knowledgable on many characters makes a switch to Duck Hunt which proves to be just the right counterpick for another win.

With the Bowser proven to have issues Ben The Dragon pulls out his last hope: Yoshi. Shikan yet again makes a change switching to Fox and the match to determine Ben The Dragon's tournament life begins. While he tries his hardest it was Shikan's day to shine, and in the end he would be the Further Confusion 2016 Smash 4 Champion.

The Night: Further Confusion 2016

This wasn't the end of my adventures at the convention however. With a full day pass for Saturday it seemed silly not to use it to attend some panels and enjoy some of the events. I was able to talk to fiction writers and pull some heartstrings at karaoke singing Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt. Everyone continued to be incredibly friendly, and then on Twitter I was offered a chance to have the full "furry experience" by Toby and for the sake of reporting (who am I kidding, I was curious and it sounded fun) I decided to head over for a party and a chance to try on a fursuit.

Thanks to Tav I was able to try on a partial suit which I learned included feet, sleeves, paws, tail, and a head which was all worn with regular clothing. The suit was old but trusted and true and was surprisingly comfortable. The head even had the ability to let me open my jaw if I was clever. It wasn't easy to see and talk at first but I was able to get the hang of it and soon found myself headed towards the dance party they hold every night.

There was a problem fetching the tweet
Hint: I'm In The White Shirt

Other than the amazing dance (which was incredible to say the least) I got to learn how to use a straw and get drinks while in a suit (very difficult) and learn the general ethics and etiquette that goes along with fursuiting. It's a good thing I was a quick study, there really was a lot to learn.

It really is hot in suits and I was only in a partial, I can't image some of the full suits I saw walking around so I was shown the room that was a safe haven for those in suits where they could take off their heads without ruining the magic for others and cool down. The place was set up brilliantly with lots of fans and a special homemade device used to cool off the fursuit heads. I met with many other people in suits and was amazed at the modifications I saw from led lights hidden with fur to full electronic muzzles capable of moving quite realistically.

Unfortunately the party cannot last forever. I had Genesis 3 top 8 to cover the next day and the others had to prepare for their own final day of festivities so we headed back to the room, I removed my suit, and headed back to regale friends with the stories of the night.

---​

Many Smashers, me included, went to Genesis 3 knowing that the FurCon would be taking place next door and all came in with expectations, biases, and stereotypes, but almost every Smasher I talked to had them broken just as I had. It is hard to meet kinder people and seeing how open they were to show the outside world just how great they are to just one member of the Smash community was awesome.

I learned a valuable lesson: it is smart to expand your horizons and not judge others for what they enjoy. No matter what, there are always commonalities that bind us. In this case it was Smash but for other times it may be something else.

There are many things we could learn from our furry neighbors next to Genesis 3 and one of those things was how to better our own events. Did you meet new fluffy friends at the event? Surprised to see a Smash reporter in the suit? Leave a comment below and stay tuned for part two here we'll talk on what Further Confusion 2016 taught me on how to better run Smash events!
 

Comments

I don't mind furries. Unless they publicy show that they are furries (like bronies wearing MLP shirts). Its not the kind of thing someone normally would do but still my local hot-topic store has shirts like that and i'm thinking, "Who would wear that outside?". Something about it just doesn't feel right.
There's nothing wrong with people wearing shirts expressing their fandom, and its not up to someone to dictate what fandom a can and cannot be celebrated publicly.

Are they hurting anyone? Causing public unrest? Since the answer is probably no, there's nothing wrong with them wearing something just because someone else doesn't like their fandom.
 
I enjoyed seeing smash player's reactions to furcon. My city, Pittsburgh, hosts Anthrocon, which is the largest furry convention in the country if I remember right. So this wasn't the first time I've seen a furry convention.
 
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It's people expressing themselves. I have a Rocket Raccoon shirt that I wear. It's normal for me.
sometimes it just goes too far. that's what im saying. there's a clear social gap between MLP and Guardians of the Galaxy. one is more relevant in social culture than the other. no matter how many bronies there are on the internet, the more popular trend will be more acceptable than the other.
 
There's nothing wrong with people wearing shirts expressing their fandom, and its not up to someone to dictate what fandom a can and cannot be celebrated publicly.

Are they hurting anyone? Causing public unrest? Since the answer is probably no, there's nothing wrong with them wearing something just because someone else doesn't like their fandom.
my feelings about this are expressed on my last comment.
 
my feelings about this are expressed on my last comment.
Again, popularity and social relevance don't dictate what people can express in public. How do you think cult followings exist in the first place?

In regards to MLP, I'm willing to bet the issue isn't related to this, and is more about gender norms (which are also a silly social construct), because I doubt you find it weird for female fans to wear MLP stuff, if I may assume.
 
I realise that most furries aren't in it for the sexual thrills, but a good chunk of them are and I really wish they'd just keep it contained to their bedrooms. Seeing people parade around what's essentially a fetish with a large fandom growing around it is cringeworthy to say the least.
I'm very open about a lot of things, but I can't honestly say furries don't creep me out on at least some level. If that makes me bigoted, I'll deal with that.
 
There isn't anything wrong with being normal because it is normal.
Abiding by the social and political stigma that defines what it truly means for one to be normal sound pretty weird to me. If being a furry is something of a worldwide constant that millions of people enjoy, does that not make it normal? Or are you one of those types who believe anything outside of their perception of a normal interest is abnormal.
 
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sometimes it just goes too far. that's what im saying. there's a clear social gap between MLP and Guardians of the Galaxy. one is more relevant in social culture than the other. no matter how many bronies there are on the internet, the more popular trend will be more acceptable than the other.
Furries aren't really about what's popular and what isn't. It's us being us, people being themselves.
 
Keep telling yourself that, special snowflake.
Normal is entirely subjective. And if a true, clear, list of what was nornal and what wasn't were to ever be made, no one could ever fall under that. There would be no sense of individuality. "Normal" person couldn't relate to anyone. We have all of our things that make us us. Furries have their lifestyles and you have yours. No need to get so judgemental when you haven't heard the whole story, man.
 
Its nice to see the furry fandom in a positive light and I never thought I would see anything furry related on smashboards but then again smash bros is full of furries.
 
It's an easier way to express yourself through ways where reality can't. It is easy to draw and colour something than it is to actually become your 'sona. It ultimately is "Why not?" instead of "Why?"
Most of the news posts on here now are advertisements. A little while back Reddit got subreddits for all the different smash bros characters. Time to immigrate?
 
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Guys, don't respond to the people that make comments you don't like. It just encourages them to keep making comments you don't like.

With that said, it's a pleasant surprise to see something like this pop up! I don't really know much about the furry community (even after reading this), but I'm always willing to know more about this kind of thing and I try my best to be accepting of others when it's clear to see they're not hurting anyone with what they're doing. Though I'll admit I wouldn't be comfortable with wearing a fur suit, it's just not for me.

A more direct note to people who think of this kind of thing only as a fetish: Basically anything can be a fetish. While kind of thing may give sexual pleasure to some, for others it can be nothing more than a hobby, and it's important to know the distinction.
 
I just don't think that it should be on the front pages of smashboards. Children post here.
Name one NSFW thing in this article. We covered friggin Fakku signing a player, same for Team YP. THIS is your problem area?

This is absolutely disgusting.

No wonder people think the smash community is full of weird autistic furry weirdos, because of stuff like this.

I think it's official, if I have to see Furries on the front page of Smashboards it's probably time to delete my account. This is completely unacceptable. This is a forum for smash bros, not Fetlife. ... uhhh gross.
Rarely would I be this aggressive but go ahead, delete it. You obviously took NO time to read the article. You leave massively ignorant comments on other articles covering videos or whatnot without even reading or watching them. This is an annoying pattern I doubt many would miss.

The article covers a SMASH TOURNAMENT AT THE CON NEXT TO US. A con a ton of Smashers interacted with and showed how awesome we can be to anyone of any community so they could feel welcome and they returned the favor.

Most of the news posts on here now are advertisements. A little while back Reddit got subreddits for all the different smash bros characters. Time to immigrate?
Almost every single exclusive original article we write is on that front page, including this one. We outrank shoryuken in views. We have broken news seconds after it happens, before reddit even sees it. You'd miss more than you know.
 
Name one NSFW thing in this article. We covered friggin Fakku signing a player, same for Team YP. THIS is your problem area?



Rarely would I be this aggressive but go ahead, delete it. You obviously took NO time to read the article. You leave massively ignorant comments on other articles covering videos or whatnot without even reading or watching them. This is an annoying pattern I doubt many would miss.

The article covers a SMASH TOURNAMENT AT THE CON NEXT TO US. A con a ton of Smashers interacted with and showed how awesome we can be to anyone of any community so they could feel welcome and they returned the favor.



Almost every single exclusive original article we write is on that front page, including this one. We outrank shoryuken in views. We have broken news seconds after it happens, before reddit even sees it. You'd miss more than you know.
I looked in r/smashbrosmains and couldn't find any smashboards articles for 4 pages. Also if there are any tournaments I care about then I will see the stream of them. For match and mechanic analysis it's better to go directly to top players rather than having an article advertise and link someone elses video.
 
Thank you for doing this article. I honestly was really worried how the smash community would deal with the Furry community. I have a lot of faith in the smash community that during genesis I saw only positive feedback from the Smash community.

The fandom does have its NSFW side but a majority of fandom keeps that stuff private. There are troublemakers out there like in any community/fandom. But yes thanks Smashcapps for doing this article it really made my day.
 
I am literally pudding. So I don't judge people or hobbies if they are a little different or into things that don't harm others.

...

Unless...

They're a (insert any annoying character) player! Or racist. Or sexist. Or jerks.

Ok nvm. I judge all the time. Call me Judge Pudy.
 
Need I point out once again that Dylan_Tnga should be recognized as an "Internet Tough Guy"... all he does is spout nonsense that is meant to set off people. I can easily see him as the Smasher's equivalent of Westboro Baptist Church.

If the turd wants to delete his account, then by all means, we will not lose any sleep over it.

back on topic, though... I've sort of surfed a few Furry sites myself and found some very neat looking entries, and I got a friend who goes to Anthrocon every year. it certainly IS cool to know that several smashers learned some cool stuff on the side!
 
Let's be real here. By the very nature of this entire culture, and practically by definition, IT'S WEIRD.

I know that the fur/scale/whatever community is mostly consisted of nice people and that's great.

But do you realistically expect me to not get a single nerve response seeing a person dressed as big pawed rainbow dog OC, much less a thousand of them?

I mean good lord, IMO, I like my own human body, idk why you'd need to find comfort in a (non)fictional creature.

Then again, I have a subconscious fear of being near a costumed person who's dressed as something not human, which probably carried over from when I was a kid.

Other than that, it's good that this con-sharing experience went without a hitch. We got some good 20XX jokes out of it, which is a plus.
 
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For what it's worth, not all furries do fursuiting; I bet there were plenty of people at FurCon who weren't in suits. This is one of the most common misconceptions I see about furries, up there with "it's just a fetish".
 
Let's be real here. By the very nature of this entire culture, and practically by definition, IT'S WEIRD.

I know that the fur/scale/whatever community is mostly consisted of nice people and that's great.

But do you realistically expect me to not get a single nerve response seeing a person dressed as big pawed rainbow dog OC, much less a thousand of them?

I mean good lord, IMO, I like my own human body, idk why you'd need to find comfort in a (non)fictional creature.

Then again, I have a subconscious fear of being near a costumed person who's dressed as something not human, which probably carried over from when I was a kid.

Other than that, it's good that this con-sharing experience went without a hitch. We got some good 20XX jokes out of it, which is a plus.
All we really ask of you if you're not interested or even if you're weirded out is to just let us be us and let you be you. You respect us and we'll respect you.
 
For what it's worth, not all furries do fursuiting; I bet there were plenty of people at FurCon who weren't in suits. This is one of the most common misconceptions I see about furries, up there with "it's just a fetish".
You're probably right. I do get the feeling that 90% of the people who don't go fursuiting are too broke to do so, but I'm not entirely qualified to say that.

I have inadvertently made a furry friend (he wasn't likable in general so I cut ties), and it was kinda weird how he prided himself as an otter online.
 
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All we really ask of you if you're not interested or even if you're weirded out is to just let us be us and let you be you. You respect us and we'll respect you.
Ey, don't worry about it. IMO, people can do whatever they want as long as no one, including themselves, gets hurt in anyway, shape or form. It's not my place to tell people how to live their lives if they're happy and it's healthy.
 
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Ey, don't worry about it. IMO, people can do whatever they want as long as no one, including themselves, gets hurt in anyway, shape or form. It's not my place to tell people how to live their lives if their happy and it's healthy.
That is literally all we want from non-furries. Thank you very much. :)
 
I found it so surreal that Genesis 3 and Further Confusion were taking place at the same time and place. It just blew my mind. Two things heavily invested within my life meeting. It was just mind blowing seeing stuff like Nairo and ZeRo taking pictures with fursuiters on twitter.

The entire time, I was saying "is this really real?"

And, oh my gosh, the amount of acceptance the furry fandom got on twitter from so many players, ranging the entire skill spectrum from top players to new ones. It was really heart warming to see.

A lot of the people who attended had some misconceptions cleared and I think that's just great.

People don't need to like furries, definitely not. Just that the community does request respect. Every community has it's trouble makers that give a bad image. Just as we, the Smash community want to clear up conceptions that smash isn't just "fun canceling and skippity doo-dop shines on Final Destination," the furry fandom isn't all of that sexualized material everyone seems to think it is. Not even a majority of the fandom is interested in that type of stuff. As well as not many are fursuiters as well. Most, like me, just enjoy the art and other content that comes from it.

Sure, something like an interest in anthromorphic animals bringing people together seems foreign and strange to people, but is the Smash community that much different? We all hold a passion for Smash and are willing to get together to celebrate it, just likes furries do with their own passion as well.

Of course, misconceptions are going to continue to exist and, sure, furries are still the internet's punching bag, but I sincerely hope that at least some people who decided to read and give this article a chance understand that it's just a community brought together by a single shared passion, just like Smash.

Thank you, SmashCapps for writing this!
 
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Is this really going on in the comments? You people that are bashing on furries do realize the Nintendo -- the people who MADE THE GAME AND SPONSOR THE EVENT-- do in fact have people that check these boards and see what direction the smash brothers competitive community is going in. I went to both events and had an amazing time at both events and would LOVE to see both go side by side for the future. I love both of these communities for their accepting nature, but if you can't accept anyone but your own neck-beards who huddle around an old CRT TV playing a video game, then you guys really need to open up. BOTH of these communities are already seen as socially unacceptable by the "Norm" of society.

Riddle me this: Which event do you think is going to get pulled first?
1. The Girl's Volleyball Finals who enjoy the furries and love getting pictures with them. The mothers of this event HATE HATE HATE furries, and they probably hate Smash players too.
2. The Smash Brothers event which has only been around for 3 years and is sponsored by a FAMILY ORIENTED COMPANY which does their absolute best to stop as much hostility as possible.
or 3. The Furry Convention which not only has been around for 17 years, but was more than accommodating to the other 2 things going on at the same time.
 
Is this really going on in the comments? You people that are bashing on furries do realize the Nintendo -- the people who MADE THE GAME AND SPONSOR THE EVENT-- do in fact have people that check these boards and see what direction the smash brothers competitive community is going in. I went to both events and had an amazing time at both events and would LOVE to see both go side by side for the future. I love both of these communities for their accepting nature, but if you can't accept anyone but your own neck-beards who huddle around an old CRT TV playing a video game, then you guys really need to open up. BOTH of these communities are already seen as socially unacceptable by the "Norm" of society.

Riddle me this: Which event do you think is going to get pulled first?
1. The Girl's Volleyball Finals who enjoy the furries and love getting pictures with them. The mothers of this event HATE HATE HATE furries, and they probably hate Smash players too.
2. The Smash Brothers event which has only been around for 3 years and is sponsored by a FAMILY ORIENTED COMPANY which does their absolute best to stop as much hostility as possible.
or 3. The Furry Convention which not only has been around for 17 years, but was more than accommodating to the other 2 things going on at the same time.
It's pretty much a given that this would happen

Same way when we try to bring Smash 4 into a Melee huddle.
 
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