Road to Apex: The Big House 2 feat. Mango, Hungrybox, KirbyKaze!

[Juggleguy]

Attendance list is live! You can find it on the website: www.umsmash.com

 

[S l o X]

looks like i will be going with proskater from CT. (southwest airlines prob not 100% yet)

anyway we dont have to rent a car for the weekend and can get a ride or something and housing?

 

[Sweet™]

Anybody interested in teaming with me for melee?

I play Sheik/Zelda in doubles.

 

[KZEZ]

looks like i will be going with proskater from CT. (southwest airlines prob not 100% yet)

anyway we dont have to rent a car for the weekend and can get a ride or something and housing?

I know a ride may be better, but there are shuttles that go from AA to DTW and back that are not very expensive (but depending on your group size, renting a car may be cheaper and more convenient). But i figure I would leave these here in case they are helpful to anyone. At least i used these a few years ago when in AA someone there now may know more details.

http://www.michiganflyer.com/

http://www.myairride.com/AirRide/Schedule

 

[kalamazhu]

i still need a teamate
preferably a fox or a sheik
any takers?

 

[Scythe]

I still need a teammate and I play fox in teams! : D

 

[JediKnightTemplar]

Any suggestions on convincing my parents to let me go? My original plan was to lie about where I'd be for the next 7 hours and go for P:M on Saturday, but having to pay via credit card prevents that. I don't think they're vehemently opposed to the idea, but I'm almost certain they'd think it's a waste of time. Any tips?

 

[metroid1117]

Any suggestions on convincing my parents to let me go? My original plan was to lie about where I'd be for the next 7 hours and go for P:M on Saturday, but having to pay via credit card prevents that. I don't think they're vehemently opposed to the idea, but I'm almost certain they'd think it's a waste of time. Any tips?

If you don't think you can persuade them, you can try getting a friend or someone else to pay by credit card and then pay them back in cash.

As for persuasion, try to make it more legitimate by getting some friends to tag along. Also try explaining to your parents how big of an event this is, how you can meet friends/contacts that you've made online (not too sure about this one, I can imagine parents freaking out about this), and how much it means to you. My parents were pretty opposed to me going to MLG Chicago in 2005, but I was able to convince them otherwise because I went with two other friends; it's hard to persuade parents, but it's by no means impossible.

 

[JediKnightTemplar]

I don't think I'll be able to convince any friends to go- none of them are really into competitive smash- though using one of their credit cards is a good idea (one also suggested to me by HIV+). That being said though I know my brother would be interested, so I could try to play that to my advantage... Worst comes to worst lies and a friend's credit card should get me there.

 

[Juggleguy]

looks like i will be going with proskater from CT. (southwest airlines prob not 100% yet)

anyway we dont have to rent a car for the weekend and can get a ride or something and housing?

Read the Travel section of the original post, then PM me if you have any more questions. This also goes to anyone else who is flying in.

Any suggestions on convincing my parents to let me go? My original plan was to lie about where I'd be for the next 7 hours and go for P:M on Saturday, but having to pay via credit card prevents that. I don't think they're vehemently opposed to the idea, but I'm almost certain they'd think it's a waste of time. Any tips?

Easiest solution is to borrow a friend's credit card and pay them back with cash.

A more individual solution is to go to a store and buy a Visa Gift Card with your own cash. Make sure to put a few extra dollars on it; for example, if you're entering all events here and have to pay $50, just put $60 on the Visa Gift Card since there is a small PayPal transaction fee and there might also be a $1 "test charge" to the Visa Gift Card account before it makes the final payment.

 

[Lanceinthepants]

I also need a teammate for this.

 

[Wenbobular]

I don't think I'll be able to convince any friends to go- none of them are really into competitive smash- though using one of their credit cards is a good idea (one also suggested to me by HIV+). That being said though I know my brother would be interested, so I could try to play that to my advantage... Worst comes to worst lies and a friend's credit card should get me there.

Haha ... tournament is basically a national in your backyard ... tell them you get to meet people from all across the country or something <___< I'm sure you can spin it to sound like not a waste of time SOMEHOW

 

[PGH Carroll]

Tell them I'll be there.
The world famous Carroll from the internet.

 

[Hot_ArmS]

jedi how old are you?

best way really is to just tell them upfront youre going to a smash tournament. First time is always the hardest for parents to let you go, but when they see that you had fun and that you're home safe and sound after the first or first couple smash related things you go to, theyd be fine with it for the rest of the future

 

[Quaz]

yeah just tell them to **** off and you're your own person. lol.

*does not like strict parents at all*

 

[Vudujin]

Tell them that Lvl 9 Luigi is gonna be there. I'm sure any rational thinking, 20th century born parent would understand.

 

[Windrose]

Smash boards parental advice

 

[rokimomi]

Go full Chillin, make the trip, repercussions later, legend forever

 

[metroid1117]

I've asked the IL people this, but how many people usually split a hotel room?

 

[Engo]

Any suggestions on convincing my parents to let me go? My original plan was to lie about where I'd be for the next 7 hours and go for P:M on Saturday, but having to pay via credit card prevents that. I don't think they're vehemently opposed to the idea, but I'm almost certain they'd think it's a waste of time. Any tips?

Tell them how it'll be a great experience where you get to meet lots of people and have fun with your friends. Sell it to them on the fun and great experience aspect of the tournament rather than just sitting in a building playing videogames for a weekend. That's kind of what I did when I told my parents about the possibility of me going to Apex 2013 and they were okay with it.

I'm 17 by the way and Apex 2013 if I go would be my first out of city tourney.

 

[unknown522]

Man. I never told my mom **** about where I was going, as long as I had the money. If not, I would straight up ask her for it for exactly what I was doing. Lol

That was between the ages of 15-17.

We would maybe argue a bit since she'd be against me going. I would never yell or swear though

 

[PGH Carroll]

My mom has a Smashboards account. I can't even make that up.
Best mom in the smash community.
Unknown knows! ^

 

[unknown522]

Hehehe. Yeah your mom is awesome

 

[Engo]

I think "haha" or "lol" would be the appropriate laugh type for this discussion. "hehehe" has way too many negative connotations.

 

[Fly_Amanita]

Registered! Woohoo.

 

[Little England]

Registered! Woohoo.

 

[Juggleguy]

I've asked the IL people this, but how many people usually split a hotel room?

I think you could potentially squeeze up to 8 people into a Red Roof Inn double bedroom to save money, though it would definitely start to get uncomfortable after 5-6 people or so.

 

[JediKnightTemplar]

Well, I asked my parents and their primary complaint was that they didn't want me dealing with highway traffic in the Ann Arbor area given I'm a fairly new driver (I'm 17). I'm not sure whether I'll risk losing my license or not yet. If I can get a friend to vouch for a "school project+impromptu hangout afterwards" I might be able to pull it off... Also the Visa gift card is a good idea. I think I'll go that route assuming I have a logical reason to go into town somewhat soon.

Also what did Chillin do, besides the obvious?

 

[Juggleguy]

Well, I asked my parents and their primary complaint was that they didn't want me dealing with highway traffic in the Ann Arbor area given I'm a fairly new driver (I'm 17). I'm not sure whether I'll risk losing my license or not yet. If I can get a friend to vouch for a "school project+impromptu hangout afterwards" I might be able to pull it off... Also the Visa gift card is a good idea. I think I'll go that route assuming I have a logical reason to go into town somewhat soon.

Also what did Chillin do, besides the obvious?

If volume of traffic is the main concern, know that there is no home football game in Ann Arbor that weekend, so highway traffic will be lighter than usual. If getting lost is a concern, it shouldn't be, since driving between Midland and Ann Arbor only requires you to go straight north/south on I-75 and US-23. Just to give you an idea, the metro Detroit players usually have to go on four different highways just to get here, so you should feel lucky.

Here's what happened to Chillin:

Part XII - Smash 4 Cash

Mild and I had gone from two average players who simply played the game for fun to two high-level players who were competitive on a national level, as evidenced by both of us placing top 10 at Game Over. Despite this, we had still never gone further than an hour or so north to Maryland for a tournament because our parents disapproved.

They didn’t like the idea of tournaments in general at first and while they didn’t actively discourage us from going, they were anything but helpful. Almost every tournament we’d been to, we had gotten a ride from Azen’s mom, with the exception of BOMB1 which our parents actually drove us to. Other than that they would allow us to tag along with Azen to local tournaments but they wouldn’t drive us themselves.

A few big tournaments were looming in the summer of 2004, including TG6 and the first-ever MELEE-FC, now simply known as FC. There was however also a DA-run tournament in NYC known as Smash 4 Cash with Isai and MattDeezie coming from the West Coast. This being the first of the major summer tournies, Mild and I decided it would be the perfect place to make our out-of-state debut.

Azen wasn’t going to this particular tournament due to prior obligations, so we had to arrange other plans to get there. We met a player who had just started playing competitively, g-regulate, and he told us he’d be going to S4C and we could ride along if we wanted. We decided to do it, and we came up with an incredibly short-sighted plan to get to NYC without our parents' knowledge: we’d tell them we were going to an amusement park with Azen for the weekend. Of course, most people only go to amusement parks for a day, and Azen’s house was less than 2 minutes driving away from ours; and yes, our parents knew exactly where Azen lived. So this plan was stupid on several levels, but Mild and I were determined to finally attend a tournament out-of-state and show what we could do on someone else’s turf.

We arrived at Azen’s house where we were meeting g-reg and his friend MEGA. The two of them had barely played in any tournaments so they were just getting started, and so in friendlies at Azen’s house Mild and I beat them pretty badly. Sometime on Friday evening we set out for New York City.

No more than two minutes after we left Azen’s house, to the horror of my brother and I, our dad’s car pulled directly next to g-reg’s while we sat in the backseat. A couple things to keep in mind: g-reg and MEGA had no idea we were basically sneaking with them to New York, another stupid aspect of our plan, and our dad who was calmly driving the car next to us thought we were at Azen’s house for the weekend; he certainly didn’t know who g-reg and MEGA were.

Mild and I just slumped down in our seats as low as possible and stayed quiet. For seemingly the longest two miles of my life, our dad’s car was directly next to ours and we couldn’t tell g-reg to slow down or speed up because he had no idea we weren’t supposed to be going to S4C. We just sat there, hoping badly that our dad didn’t happen to glance over and see us sitting in a car with two strangers.

Finally he pulled into a gas station and we continued on. Mild and I knew we had just dodged a bullet, but didn’t say anything. That would’ve been a good time to come clean and let our drivers know what was going on, but we didn’t want to jeopardize our chances of making it to the tourney, so we kept our mouths shut.

The drive was long and relatively quiet. We didn’t know g-reg and MEGA very well and they were each a few years older than Mild who was a few years older than me, so we didn’t talk all that much. Mild and I were also just quiet because we were scared – our plan was crappy and we knew it, and we both had a bad feeling we’d get found out sooner or later.

As we got to New Jersey and neared the house we’d be staying for the night, g-reg got a call on his phone. Judging by the confusion in his voice as well as the voice on the other end, I had an extremely bad feeling about the call. Shortly thereafter, g-reg handed us the phone, told us our parents had gone to Azen’s to check on us and we knew the half-baked plan was unsurprisingly foiled. We talked to our oldest brother at first, who reminded us of how stupid we were before giving the phone to our parents. They were angry, but also really worried about us.

Mild and I knew it would be ridiculously unreasonable to ask g-reg to take us back to VA when we were already in NJ, so we told our parents we really had no choice but to stay for the tournament. We knew we’d be in huge trouble when we got back, since we had just tried to sneak to NYC behind our parents’ back, but at least we’d get to enjoy the tourney before returning to meet our fate.

Unfortunately this kind of cast a cloud over the weekend; it was hard to focus on smash knowing how mad our parents were going to be when we got back. Nevertheless, we got to the house we’d be staying at, a New Jersey smasher by the name of Feyd.

Feyd was a very strange guy. I’d feel bad saying this if he was still active but I never heard of him before this tourney and I never heard of him again afterward so whatever. Just the way he looked was reminiscent of a serial rapist, and his house was seemingly falling apart with chipped paint everywhere and a musky smell throughout.

Team Ben (Wife, Husband and Oro) were also staying there, and they shared our sentiments on our housing. Feyd’s dad was the only other person living there, and he woke us up at 3 or 4 am by yelling at his son about how he didn’t want random people staying in his house. This obviously made us feel really uncomfortable, but we didn’t really seem to have a choice so we just went to sleep after a few hours of Smash practice.

The next morning we got up quickly and set out for the tournament as fast as possible. It was about a forty minute drive from Feyd’s house, and the fact that it was in the middle of Manhattan made it a difficult task to find parking nearby but after nearly an hour we were at the tourney.

We were some of the first people there and immediately we felt like we would end up regretting our decision to come here. The venue was half the size of the Game Over venue, and based on the number of people that were there within the first hour, the number of entrants was also going to be less than half as many as Game Over had. Nevertheless we started playing friendlies and Mild started playing money matches – Mild had to money match to enter the tournament because he only brought ten dollars for the weekend. I wasn’t much better – I brought $20, and barely had enough to enter myself.

About an hour after signups were supposed to finish, a good amount of people were showing up and teams got underway. I was teaming with Maverick, a player from FL who was relatively unknown because of his lack of major tournaments. He was a Mario main and wasn’t anything special, but we ended up getting 4th place and taking out a couple DA teams so I was pleased by our results. Teams was still much smaller and less important than singles though, and that’s where my focus truly was.

Mike G and DA Dave won teams, somewhat of an upset over MattDeezie and Isai since Isai was undoubtedly the best teams player of the time. DA defended their turf while also showing they could hang with the best in teams. Mattdeezie wasn't on the level of the other three players, though, and this tipped the scale in DA's favor despite Isai's unrivaled teams play.

Isai was also the favorite to win singles; I felt really good about my chances against him since I had beaten Ken, but I still didn’t expect to beat him. The bracket got underway and Mild and I both advanced easily for the first couple rounds. There were less than 64 total entrants so the bracket was relatively small. I would play Isai in semifinals if we both got there; Mild was on the other side with several members of DA.

Another crew also made a huge showing at this tourney – players from Fall River, MA, including Hayato and KrazyJones. They took out several members of DA, causing a commotion throughout the venue. Mild got to the winner’s semifinals and to both of our surprise, rather than playing Wes or Dave he had to fight KrazyJones’ Peach.

On my side, Isai advanced without dropping a game and it was my turn to get to semifinals. I had to beat a player who was known in NY but unknown to me – MoFo. I had heard he was a Ness player, but he used Falco against me. A few factors came into play here – I was inexperienced in the Falco match and he was a very technical player, but I was still better than him at the time. I simply couldn’t focus on the game, and tourney pressure got to me more than it ever had before; I barely lost game 3 and right before my golden chance to face Isai, I was in loser’s bracket and MoFo was advancing.

This was the first uncharacteristic loss of my career, and it wouldn’t be the last. Tourney pressure sometimes affects me positively, but clearly it also works the other way, especially out-of-state. I also notice that it has a much greater effect in singles play than in teams – with a teammate to rely on, I perform much better than on my own when the pressure is on.

I was upset, but at least consoled by the fact that Mild beat KrazyJones and advanced to Winner’s Finals. At least one member of H2YL was going to be top 3, a fact that we were very happy about – especially since both of us were flat broke and we literally needed money to eat and get back home. Isai dominated MoFo unsurprisingly, setting up Mild vs Isai as the last match of winner’s.

Mild and I had talked to Isai throughout the weekend and we were definitely cooler with him than any of DA was. We talked about it and we knew for a fact that Isai would demolish Mild. So he had an idea.

He went to Isai and asked if he’d throw the match to take out whoever comes out of losers, then Mild would give it to him in finals. Isai was tempted by the offer, but in the end he declined, probably because he flew out from Cali and needed all the money he could get. They played winner’s finals out and Isai won, 3-0.

My first match in loser’s bracket was Wes, and although I won a match on FD I never felt in control of the match and pretty much went in expecting to lose. Naturally, I lost. I ended up in 9th place, my lowest tourney placing thus far and an obvious disappointment given that my last major tourney had resulted in me giving the nation’s best player his first ever taste of loser’s bracket. My focus however shifted to Mild – he had one more match left, against whoever came out of loser’s, and I was hoping for the best.

NEO, who had come with Team Ben, had a good performance at this tourney as well and ended up 5th or 7th. The rest of loser’s turned into DA vs Fall River – Hayato, Wes, Dave, KrazyJones and Mike G were left. In the end, Mike G came out on top and rode his momentum into his loser’s finals match with Mild.

This loser’s finals set was my first real experience with real-life trash talk affecting people’s play in the game. Practically the entire venue was cheering for Mike G at first, countered only by me and occasional chimes from other MD/VA smashers. The first match started off extremely close, and when Mild’s Sheik downthrew Mike G’s Peach at over 100 on his last stock, I knew the match was over. Mild jumped up and told everyone to shut their mouth, and I was pumped as well. He won the next match as well, but DA’s trash talk was unrelenting even when Mike G was down 0-2 and they continued loudly rooting for him as Mild had to deal with the screaming a couple feet behind him.

Mike G ended up winning the last 3 straight and Mild disappointedly shook his hand and walked back to where the rest of MD/VA was waiting. We congratulated him anyway; he was really upset about the constant trashtalk but there was nothing we could do. He won about $100 at least which allowed us to pay for our trip.

The tourney was kind of Mike G's farewell, since he moved to Georgia shortly thereafter and couldn't play with NYC-based DA regularly anymore. He managed to take 2 games off Isai in finals, but despite being the overwhelming crowd favorite he still lost in the end. Still, 2nd place in singles and 1st in teams were a great way for Mike G to end his stay in NYC.

Mild and I were disappointed with our results, especially me, but we were relieved to finally be headed home. It was our first out-of-state tourney experience and it hadn’t been a good one. It was made worse by the fact that we were going home to certain punishment from our parents.

Finally we arrived, thanked g-reg for the ride and entered the house, half-expecting to be murdered by our bloodthirsty parents as soon as we walked through the door. This didn’t happen, but they did give us one of the longest lectures of our life as well as ground us unconditionally for the entire summer. While we expected harsh punishment, grounding us for the entire summer was even worse than we’d anticipated, and I was starting to wonder if my Smash career was over – right after the worst placing of my life.

 

[kd-]

My mom has a Smashboards account. I can't even make that up.
Best mom in the smash community.
Unknown knows! ^

OliveOil da bess

 

[metroid1117]

I think you could potentially squeeze up to 8 people into a Red Roof Inn double bedroom to save money, though it would definitely start to get uncomfortable after 5-6 people or so.

Thanks for the response, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Registered! Woohoo.

Yessssssssssssssssss... You better show what D3 can do in PM!

 

[R2_GP]

so much hype!!!

 

[Scythe]

hmm isn't october 6th a tuesday? or is the thread title wrong?

nm the calender on my phone is dumb lol

 

[TheCrimsonBlur]

Woah, 42 registered more than a month out?

Siccckkkkk

(I'm pretty sure that outpaces FC or equals it. Woah)

 

[unknown522]

I'll reg very soon. Just need to take care of some stuff

 

[Renth]

Confirmed.

Vudujin is registering me soon.

 

[_marth1_]

if i go i want mario ditto money matches with mango

+ =

 

[hungrybox]

hmmmmm

make PM have more spots

don't be silly

 

[hungrybox]

Also if I go to this I'd need a ride from DTW airport if anyone can help me out =/

 

[Juggleguy]

The venue doesn't have enough space to hold the extra setups and extra turnout associated with a 32+ person Project M tourney in addition to a 120+ person Melee tourney, and even with 1.5 days we only have 2-3 hours to run it considering all the other Melee stuff being planned. I even booked another small room next door to the main room just to accommodate the Project M turnout.

Post your flight itinerary and we'll see if someone can pick you up from DTW. Your best bet is to arrive between 6pm and 8pm on the Friday night. We have so few drivers in AA though, so it's likely you'll have to take the Michigan Flyer bus as described in the original post. Only $22 round-trip, and it takes you right to campus where you'd have housing for the weekend (priority given to those flying in).