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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.

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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 went to Genesis 3 not knowing there was a Furry Con happoning, even if I had known I still probably wouldn't have gone, I was trying to distance myself from them and well I wasn't happy, anyways on Sunday I was hungry so I decided to go to the subway near the convention centre I was waiting in line then these two guy came up they where just talking about the convention (I really don't know I'm only guessing) but then the brought up Genesis and me being me I started talking with them, after I had got my food i decided to stick with them I had nothing else to do that day so it was a good idea to me. the two guys I was with had to split up and one of them... uh Tamurello Ocello on twitter offered me to come with him to the hotel the most of the fur people where staying at and we sat in the lobby and talked and ate, then he told me that he was a volenteer or something anyways he had power, and told me he would give me his pass if I stuck with him through the con (he had two) so we set of at a vary bad time cause the fur suit parade was happening and the quote from him "shuts down the hole convention" but ya he showed me around and made me hug one of the suiters (they are SO soft) and I had found a new love for the community after seeing the loving reaction the smash players at genesis had I'm not ashamed anymore i would love to thank Tamurello Ocello for showing me around and for the smash community for showing that i don't have to hide with them. Side note did anyone who were at genesis watching smash 4 or 64 top 8 (I can't confirm for melee) here people yelling "fur mite" was I miss hearing what does that mean.
 
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Well, that makes me pretty happy to hear. Furries are da bess. We're just normal people doing what we like.

I met the love of my life from the furry fandom, so there's that.
 
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I'm in no way shape or form a furry, but furries are literally some of the nicest people I've ever met, they're accepting of just about everyone. Never seen a furry be a racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. they're just nice, loving people.
If that's what some of you people call disgusting, hoowee, I'm glad we're not friends. "Normal" supremacists.
 
Never thought about furries that way, since I'm just an outsider, sowhat do I know right? I always thought furries were weird af but it's nice to get a different look on things.
 
Hey guys, keep the comments clean now. Use the report button, there are obvious violations of rule 2 going on in the previous posts. They'll be taken care of.
 
That's pretty sad.
The only sad ones I see are people with your asinine mentality. I'm not furry, I don't have a problem with them, and I see nothing wrong in this article. You came back after stating that you're leaving.

You're a pathetic troll. Nuff said.
 
Hey guys, keep the comments clean now. Use the report button, there are obvious violations of rule 2 going on in the previous posts. They'll be taken care of.
Right, right, sorry. I should know better than to respond to trolls on the Internet. :drshrug:
 
Indeed. This forum is a total mess, although you can still get good feedback / advice in some character threads if you post videos.

r/smashbros is pretty sick. Usually on top of the latest smash news miles ahead of Smashbros.

I just have nostalgia for this site is all, been posting here since 2007... but again, if we're promoting fetishes on the front page on a website frequented by minors.... then I'm done. This is just plain wrong.



LOL. Ok.

Look dude, I'm not judging, I have a very specific and weird fetish myself and I'm perfectly ok with it.

I just don't think that it should be on the front pages of smashboards. Children post here.
Not really.

A lot of /rsmashbros is no different from these boards. If you posted this stuff there they would down vote it.

Even then a lot of the front page of smash Reddit is what a lot of problems with Reddit are, hive mind, upvote farming, lot of gifs of cool plays. Even on 2007 you wouldn't get away with this, granted I am an 08er but yeah I don't buy that part from what users here from before then have told me of the history of the site.

It's not even being a social justice warrior about it, far from it. It's just having basic respect for others. Not posting like this is one of the Facebook hell groups or some toxic smash subreddit.

Reddit doesn't promote being a decent human being in ways to the point it disgusts me at times, it's harder to have a discussion or follow something, or even the really really bad formatting.

That's why I don't like it at least.

As for the furry, you are just straight up wrong on pretty much everything about but given your last post I'm not gonna bother.

If you don't like it or find it creepy, that is fine I get it. I got friends who hate it but are fine with me being one.

Just have respect for what they do if it is not hurting anyone. It's on par with saying all anime is NFSW because it has that aspect about it.

Just have respect and not be bigoted about it. But also what I can relate to is not being South Park PC principal about it. I get that from this and your more recent posts.

But again, just have respect for other people.
 
So one thing I'm curious to know is which characters in Smash are the most popular in the furry community. Bets on Fox, Pikachu, and Lucario ;)
 
So one thing I'm curious to know is which characters in Smash are the most popular in the furry community. Bets on Fox, Pikachu, and Lucario ;)
From my experience, Lucario has the most general appeal among those, followed by Pikachu, mainly due to Pokémon itself rather than Smash. (Charizard is pretty popular too, for obvious reasons.) But there are some pretty invested Star Fox fans out there as well.
 
This article makes me feel good. I always like seeing two groups of people get together out of curiosity and have fun. It always makes me more impressed with whatever 2 groups are involved.
 
For real, don't use an avatar of a guy who has a tail albeit cut off, that turns into a giant monkey, and is literally one of the most accepting people to exist across all media and then proceed to bash furries. I mean, It's ironic as hell.

Regarding the actual article, I really enjoy LiteralGrill LiteralGrill writing and articles, and this was no exception. I'm looking forward to seeing more articles similar to this, (not necessary about furries but more so other tournaments at big convention's that aren't directly smash related, coming from someone who ran a tournament at a local Retro Gaming Convention in Upstate NY).
 
For real, don't use an avatar of a guy who has a tail albeit cut off, that turns into a giant monkey, and is literally one of the most accepting people to exist across all media and then proceed to bash furries. I mean, It's ironic as hell.

Regarding the actual article, I really enjoy LiteralGrill LiteralGrill writing and articles, and this was no exception. I'm looking forward to seeing more articles similar to this, (not necessary about furries but more so other tournaments at big convention's that aren't directly smash related, coming from someone who ran a tournament at a local Retro Gaming Convention in Upstate NY).
Pastime Legends or nah?
 
Wow, that was really interesting to read. I've never met a furry (well, "in the fur" anyway) and I admit I'd be a little nervous being around so many costumes as I'm on the shy side.

But, if their community is about accepting people as they are, it sounds like I'd have a blast too.
 
Wait, something just occurred to me... the only legal characters are furs? That makes... 16 playable if I'm right, unless you count the space puffballs and Olimar. Wow, I wonder what the meta is like without Sheik and Zamus everywhere?

That makes: Bowser, Junior, DK, lowercase dk, Yoshi, DDD, all 6 pokemon, Duck Hunt, Fox, Falco and Sonic.
 
Wait, something just occurred to me... the only legal characters are furs? That makes... 16 playable if I'm right, unless you count the space puffballs and Olimar. Wow, I wonder what the meta is like without Sheik and Zamus everywhere?

That makes: Bowser, Junior, DK, lowercase dk, Yoshi, DDD, all 6 pokemon, Duck Hunt, Fox, Falco and Sonic.
Link turned into a wolf and a rabbit those two times. Ganondorf turns into Ganon, the pig beast.
 
User was warned for this post
Furries are weird and cringey why the **** is there an article about furries on smashboards. To each their own though, they can do what they want but that doesn't mean I have to like it or accept them.
 
Did.. did that really happen? That guy who always seems to be just causing trouble and trash-posting was finally called out? Wow.. uh, okay.

Anyway, I enjoyed the article, sounds like you had a lot of fun SmashCapps. Always interesting to see two communities come together socially.

Personally I find fur suits slightly discomforting to be around, and I'm not in the fandom myself, I would call them weird but all it takes is to remember my absolute obsession with Conan and retro video games and I recall I'm far and away the weird one here. Haha. I can't judge someone simply doing what they love, and being who they are: I myself know the feeling all too well.

Kudos to both communities.
 
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