As The Big House 6 wraps up its voting phase, Smashers had the opportunity to help fund their favorite players. By purchasing items that go towards their trip, they could have funded those who were voted into the rewards levels by the community at large. SmashBoards received the opportunity to speak with the nominees that were involved in the compendium to get their views on the matter. Nineteen-year-old Erik “Rideae” Smith, top Pikachu main from Florida, is among the players that have received enough votes to be on the compendium and shares his thoughts.
Fanboy Beginnings
Like any other Smasher, Rideae was exposed to Super Smash Bros. 64 at a young age alongside his sibling. “Smash was my favorite game as a little kid and while growing up, my sister and I always used to play 64 when we were younger.” But his discovery of the competitive scene is an interesting story. “I was a huge spectator before I even started playing competitively. I loved watching the game and was a big fan of the scene, and my favorite iteration to watch was PM, although it typically alternated between Brawl and Melee too. I was also a huge Sethlon fanboy when I watched PM with literally all of my free time. And now that I think about it, being a spectator for so long might have been what gave me a bit of a head start when I joined the offline scene.”
The Nomination
Having the nomination and support from the entire Smash community can be a humbling experience for any player, especially if you get your entire trip funded for a supermajor. In Rideae’s case, he's still surprised by the community’s generosity. “I was completely shocked. I wasn't expecting even close to that much support, it was truly amazing… regardless of if I get flown out or not, this is a great experience for me.” Rideae is currently sponsored by Shoq eSports, and they couldn't be any more proud of him. “They've been supportive the whole way and I'm grateful to them!”
The player compendium on The Big House’s smash.gg profile is fair opportunity for nominees to get fully funded. “I thought there would be clear favorites which to be fair there were, but there was no overwhelmingly one-sided person in the lead or anything, which definitely surprised me.” Here, Rideae states his case: “I feel like there are obvious reasons as to why Sodrek should be funded, but when I think about why I would want to be funded, things that come to mind are more opportunities to show that I'm capable of making upsets, improving myself, and pushing my character’s meta.”
The Big House 6
As a young up-and-coming Pikachu main from Tampa, Florida, Rideae has a clear goal for The Big House: he hopes to acquire more experience outside of his state. “One of my biggest goals in Smash is to be the best, and in general I'd say a goal for me is to learn about the game every chance I get, which would be a tournaments and fests and what not. However, I've come to learn that you want to set small achievable goals along the way, so you can eventually get to the biggest ones while still feeling like you're improving and accomplishing something.”
“What I hope to get from it is improvement as a player overall, as in more match-up knowledge and more top level experience. I've never been to Michigan and it would be great to see their local top players as well as all of the top players from around the world that will be there.”
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The compendium has closed unfortunate, to view the results of your favorite player and their travel to The Big House 6, visit the link here. Don't forget to follow Rideae on Twitter and to follow his stream on Twitch. For more information on his sponsor, Shoq eSports, follow them on Twitter and visit their website as well. “Shoutout to Shoq eSports for always supporting me and helping. Obviously shout outs to everyone who voted for me in the compendium and endorsed me, I can't thank you guys enough for that."
