Smash Summit 2: The Case For ESAM

As Smash Summit 2 heads into its voting phase, players will be paying with their wallets on which six players will be invited to attend the event alongside those ten already invited. Smashboards is giving the opportunity to all those involved to come here and make the case for why they should make it in. When ESAM begun to place high during the nominations phase it lead to a lot of controversy among Melee fans. He gained his eligibility by coming in 25th at The Big House 5 and has gotten a massive swing in both nominations and votes from his Smash 4 fans for this Melee event. So why should this top Smash 4 player have a shot at Smash Summit 2? Here is the case for ESAM.

A History In Melee​

While many assume ESAM may have started playing Smash in Brawl, this seriously isn't the case. He began playing competitive Melee all the way back in 2005. "My brother (Nick Riddle) and his friend (Seibrik) told me to. I got 5th out of 70 or so at my first tournament." He took Melee very seriously as well, managing to make the Florida Power rankings for Melee many times before Brawl's release and he wasn't just good in singles either. "My old training partner Rexx were one of the best doubles teams in Florida," he told us.

He has always played as Samus in Melee, so much so that it's in his name. "ESAM is for 'Everybody Sucks At Melee,'" he said jokingly "By that, I mean Eric SAMus. She's my favorite video game character, I main her in Melee, and Melee only allowed you 4 spots in your tag so ESAM was born." His love stemmed from watching his Dad play Super Metroid. "He played it to completion multiple times when I was too young to really get what was going on. I would sit on his back and watch him play, and so I came to like her."

Uuaa and ESAM vs Hungrybox and QVDS In 2009
​

While he loves Melee he never really considered dropping Brawl for it full time and doesn't intend to do so for Smash 4 either. "I enjoy the game, but the community is a little more unwelcoming and I am close friends with many more Smash 4 players," he explained. "I would love to have consistent high level practice in Melee since I love the game and I definitely have shown that I'm amazing at it." He also wanted to make it clear that Melee is something very important to him. "Melee is a big focus for me, don't get it twisted. My main sphere of influence is obviously Smash 4 considering I'm a top 10 player, but I never stopped caring about Melee. I make a lot of YouTube videos for Smash4, and between that, the stream, and tournaments, I don't really have TIME to practice Melee outside of locals or maybe a few hours a week to solidify tech skill. If I had 6 more hours in a day you bet I would play more Melee, but I'm living off of Smash right now and Smash 4 is more lucrative in my case, so I'm obviously going to focus MORE on it."

It was his training partners that really inspired him to focus more on Brawl. "I pretty much stopped playing Melee completely for about a year and a half once Brawl came out. My main training partners also switched to Brawl so we played it a lot. My first time playing Melee after Brawl came out was at Winterfest, which happened in December of 2009 where I lost to FullMetal (The only tournament set I've ever lost to a solo marth player) and DJ Nintendo. After that I played both side-by-side, but the Brawl community was significantly larger in South Florida so I focused mainly on that, where I became a national threat within the next year."

The Case For ESAM​

ESAM at one point on Twitter had said to not give him the votes but went on to change his mind part way through the nominations phase. What were his motivations in joining the Smash Summit? At first he definitely wanted to go but he was worried of the exact kind of adverse reaction he relieved from the Melee community. "To clarify, I did want to go to Smash Summit 2 at first, which is why I opted in before any of the nomination stuff took place. After a while I thought that I didn't really want the Melee Hate Mob to go after me if I took a spot from someone they deemed more worthy." In the end he decided to enter for himself. "After a day or so, I decided screw it, this is for me and not for the people that are going to hate on me regardless. I am doing this so I can get better at Melee and enter more Melee events and beat people and do what I WANT TO DO with the game, not worry about the community."

So for those who think another Melee star deserves the spot, why pick ESAM? In his own mind, he can't force people to. "I can't convince people that don't like me to suddenly like me. I am rarely Melee player's favorite as I do not stream it/make videos/live in an exposed area. I don't want those people's votes, I just want them to not hate me because I'm a 'Smash 4 player' when I'm just a 'Smash player'. It's a skill + Popularity contest. I made it to the opting in phase, so people cannot deny my skill. This part is a popularity contest, and I am extremely popular....just not necessarily with the die-hard Melee fans. And that's OK by me because if I make it I'm sure I'll gain quite a few new fans."

ESAM also firmly beleived that his attendance at Smash Summit 2 might bring in new players from Smash 4 who've never taken Melee seriously to be invested in watching. "There is always some cross-viewership at majors that host both events, but I'm sure a large portion of my EFAM will watch Summit because I'm in it," he explained. "I hope that it opens them up to more Melee and I hope me being there opens up people's minds and shows them that just because someone is a top player at 1 game they can also hang with the best of another. I have always wanted to be a top top level melee player. I have the mindset, but I have never had nearly enough high/top level practice. This can open up a whole new world for me as I will get DAYS to practice with everyone. I would be so excited to get in."

ESAM also believes he has what it takes to beat some of the players already nominated to attend. "I've taken out a decent number of names Including but not limited to The Moon, Soft, Porkchops, Blea Gelo, and Alex19. With just a few tournaments under my belt, I still got number 81 on MIOM, but my potential RIGHT NOW is already much higher than that."

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For those wanting to see ESAM playing Melee in action be sure to check him out at Tiger Smash which will feature Redd and Milkman and is set to be streamed this weekend by ClashKingStudios. Did ESAM make a good case? If so be sure to go vote for his entry into the Smash Summit. Disagree with his case? Tell us in the comments below and don't forget to stay tuned to Smashboards as other stars make their case to enter Smash Summit 2.

 

This is definitely a good case.

 

****ing melee community. Bashing on Esam for playing "tr4sh" smh.

 

ESAM has proven his worth as a strong melee, brawl, project m, and sm4sh player. His skill at these games is by no means luck.
Mew2King also has his awesome DK/Cloud in sm4sh and he still plays melee. If anything, being a pro at more than one smash game is just another reason to vote for players such as these.

 

I don't really have TIME to practice Melee outside of locals or maybe a few hours a week to solidify tech skill.

And that's all I need to know. For ESAM, Melee is a side game at best. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to go at the beginning. He even had a segment on the MIOM podcast with Tafokints where he tried to convince people to play Smash 4 over Melee. He is not passionate about the game. It makes me mad as hell that he might get in when players like Hugs and Duck, who have been traveling and getting good places all year long, won't. All because he got 25th at Big House 5 with a not even particularly impressive run.

 

And that's all I need to know. For ESAM, Melee is a side game at best. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to go at the beginning. He even had a segment on the MIOM podcast with Tafokints where he tried to convince people to play Smash 4 over Melee. He is not passionate about the game. It makes me mad as hell that he might get in when players like Hugs and Duck, who have been traveling and getting good places all year long, won't. All because he got 25th at Big House 5 with a not even particularly impressive run.

Who cares if it's just a side game to him. The main issue is just that he is NOT GOOD COMPETITION FOR THE TOURNAMENT. If it was a side game for him and he was actually a top 20 player in melee? LET HIM GO! The fact is that if he goes to summit he will not win a set. He could be taking the spot of a potential god upsetter like Druggedfox. What would you want to see? ESAM getting 4 stocked? I don't care what his legacy is in melee, I don't see people arguing for Ken to go.

 

Who cares if it's just a side game to him.

I do. The Summit is an amazing opportunity for players to level up. All these high level practice partners, and the spot is going to someone who doesn't even take the game seriously?

Imagine how much better MacD or Duck would be if they got the chance to go? We might never know now.

 

And that's all I need to know. For ESAM, Melee is a side game at best. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to go at the beginning. He even had a segment on the MIOM podcast with Tafokints where he tried to convince people to play Smash 4 over Melee. He is not passionate about the game. It makes me mad as hell that he might get in when players like Hugs and Duck, who have been traveling and getting good places all year long, won't. All because he got 25th at Big House 5 with a not even particularly impressive run.

As he pointed out, he wanted to go (or obviously he wouldn't have opted in) but he was unsure because of the hate he'd get

And he's getting.

But I'm glad he's doing this, personally, if he can take this opportunity to push his melee career further, then by all means.

 

I don't keep up with Melee, but ESAM is cool. I think I'll vote for him.

 

As he pointed out, he wanted to go (or obviously he wouldn't have opted in) but he was unsure because of the hate he'd get

And he's getting.

But I'm glad he's doing this, personally, if he can take this opportunity to push his melee career further, then by all means.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PG_ESAM/status/710641866140729349

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/PG_ESAM/status/710641866140729349

People can change their minds. As obviously right now, he's very interested in going.

That being said, if he makes it, I guess we'll see if his play speaks for itself, how much he likes melee or not XP

 

You guys are acting like the fact that Esam plays Melee on on the side makes him bad. In reality, there isn't one person in these comments he can't beat in a tournament set. Not one. He's still phenomenal at Melee, despite not playing as much as other games. You guys need to chill.

 

I don't see how the melee community could bash on someone so hard just because they play a different game too. I'm not a huge fan of sm4sh, but I'd love to see how a top 10 player fairs in melee. He's obviously good, so why not let him put his skill where his mouth is?

 

I do. The Summit is an amazing opportunity for players to level up. All these high level practice partners, and the spot is going to someone who doesn't even take the game seriously?

Imagine how much better MacD or Duck would be if they got the chance to go? We might never know now.

This is exactly my thought process. To me, there are two reasons why someone should get in to the Summit event:

1. Are they going to help make an overall better event?

2. Are they going to help the scene?

To make the event as best as possible, you want as much high level competition there. Frankly, I don't have any problems with ESAM personally, I recognize he is a fairly good Melee player, and although it isn't my choice of game I don't hate him because he plays sm4sh. There are, however, several people that are MUCH better than him that want to go. Having them there would produce much better content because of the potential for upsets and high level competition.

The biggest way to help the scene right now, imo, is to bridge the gap between the top 6 and those ranked around 10-15. Once Westballz, Plup, Axe, Lucky, SW, MacD, etc., can start being legitimate threats to win tournaments, we are going to have much less stale Top 8's, and even Top 16's, than we have now. As I said, ESAM is a good player, but he isn't going to be a threat for that anytime soon. Especially because he even states he doesn't care as much about Melee and doesn't have the time to put in.

Given all of that, I just don't understand why we'd have him there for this particular event.

 

Just gonna say this right now, Him being in would definitely increase viewership and he isn't as bad as people say. If he changed his mind then that must mean he's being serious about melee and he wants to put his passion into it again. I think Hbox from the subreddit said it the best

Hungrybox: Alright, this is getting out of hand.

ESAM has met the eligibility requirements. He's actually a good Samus player and basically could body anyone in his region on a given day (South FL).

People really like to dismiss Smash 4 players as good Melee players. They also like to dismiss ESAM because of his personality/content/insert-reason-here-that-has-****ing-nothing-to-do-with-his-skill-as-a-melee-player/placings.

A lot of people in this thread are mentioning Alex19 as an example for this. I don't think anyone opposed to Alex going (myself included) because we saw he had good potential to do some crazy upsets. Although it didn't happen, we still know it could have.

But it was a lot easier for Alex to attend the event because he's Norwalk. Very popular group, MASSIVE backing from Mango's fanbase. Plus Alex had great runs at some SSS's and Big House 5 which only helped to legitimize him.

He didn't do great at Summit. And it happens. Everyone has their off day. But then he went on to do incredibly at G3.

But my point is, why the hell would ANYONE oppose to someone being voted in when they:

a) have met the requirements

b) are POPULAR enough to OBTAIN these nominations

c) gives another chance to integrate both communities + increase an already HUGE viewership + honestly has the potential to make some upsets happen?

There's more players out there than Norwalk. There's secret bosses everywhere wishing they had this opportunity. If ESAM gets the votes then I for sure will back him. Not just because he's from the same region of mine, but because he earned it.

If the Summit team decided to not let him on, what kind of precedent would that set for any other up-and-comers in the future? You're allowed to play more than one Smash game. ESAM just happens to be godlike at Brawl and Smash 4. But he was on FL's Power Ranking every year before Brawl came out. He's also taken games off me in tournament.

If it was any other similarly ranked player making it in, no one would bat an eye. I think N0ne for instance, definitely deserves a spot in, but the requirements prevent that. If it were up to me I would open it to the entire MIOM Top 100 but it's not the case.

I just think it's ****ty for people to dismiss him immediately like that is all.

 

As someone who enjoys Melee and Smash 4 (and PM, he played that too and beat Armada in it at least once), ESAM's got 8 of my votes!

(Hanging on to the other 4 for now. If he looks like he'll fall short this round, he'll get 'em, if he makes it in, I'll use the rest on some other players I want.)

 

I laugh and groan at people who think ESAM came from Smash 4

 

People can change their minds.

You realize that tweet was about a week ago, right? He goes from not caring about the game to apparently being very passionate about it and you don't think that's weird?

 

You realize that tweet was about a week ago, right? He goes from not caring about the game to apparently being very passionate about it and you don't think that's weird?

idk it might be connected to him being worried about what people think of him

 

You realize that tweet was about a week ago, right? He goes from not caring about the game to apparently being very passionate about it and you don't think that's weird?

It is weird, so I'm giving the benefit of the doubt in that perhaps his intention when saying he didn't care about melee was moreso the same he expressed here, where he likes the game but obviously makes more money with smash 4, and just doesn't have time to practice that much, as opposed to simply not giving a crap about Melee.

I mean, if I didn't care about a game, I wouldn't care about practicing tech skill and whatnot, even if only a few hours a week xD

 

It is weird, so I'm giving the benefit of the doubt in that perhaps his intention when saying he didn't care about melee was moreso the same he expressed here, where he likes the game but obviously makes more money with smash 4, and just doesn't have time to practice that much, as opposed to simply not giving a crap about Melee.

I mean, if I didn't care about a game, I wouldn't care about practicing tech skill and whatnot, even if only a few hours a week xD

Yes, benefit of the doubt for someone who claims that he loves pissing people off.

 

People greatly over estimate how hard people practice on average at this game. A few hours of techskill practice a week with a samus is no joke. Probably 99% of our entire playerbase is not practicing that much a week with their spacies. And i'm sure esam will probably be practicing more than this for summit.

 

If people don't like him going spend your money on who you think is worthy. People are speaking with their bank accounts. Money is money no matter who it comes from.

 

ESAM is cool man. He gets hype over fighting games and I'd love for him to go to more melee events since he showed a lot of personality at G3. Haters should bring it in for a hug.

 

I'm a Smash 4 player myself, I don't play Melee competitively, and I only rarely watch Melee, so I don't feel like I ought to be voting here, I feel like it'd be a bit silly to vote as a solely Smash 4 player on who should be playing Melee. Still, regardless of that, I think ESAM's a pretty swell guy and I think it'd be interesting to see how far he could make it in a big Melee tournament like this. Obviously, I'm probably not a very good judge of this, but I've seen ESAM play Samus in Melee and I remember it looking pretty good, and his play history seems to indicate he indeed is good. So from that perspective, I'm all for it.

 

Real question though, how will he fair against the popular players?

The popular players being some of the toughest Smash has ever seen. Put that together with a person who's passion lies with Smash 4, and you've probably got yourself one depressing fight. Unless he gets extremely lucky with his seed placement, or practices the hell out of Melee from now until the tournament, he's gonna be booted off fast.

Now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't mind seeing ESAM. I'm just going to assume though that he's gonna get bodied hard by everyone else, and quickly too.

I wouldn't want that on my Melee resume.

 

If he wants to go let him go.

If he gets voted in and get voted in.

Nothing more to say about this honestly.

 

ESAM has proven his worth as a strong melee, brawl, project m, and sm4sh player. His skill at these games is by no means luck.
Mew2King also has his awesome DK/Cloud in sm4sh and he still plays melee. If anything, being a pro at more than one smash game is just another reason to vote for players such as these.

It doesn't matter whether he's a multi game prodigy (even then, we have Wizzrobe to cover that). This is a Melee tournament. And ESAM is significantly worse than EVERYONE in the voting list, by a large margin. ESAM has only beat the Moon and Alex19 on that list, but The Moon and Alex 19 are siginificantly better players than ESAM. The Moon has beaten Westballz, SFAT, Hax, etc, while Alex19 has beaten Lucky, Silent Wolf, S2J, Westballz, etc. ESAM does not have top 20 wins, at all. He's out of place. His skill is completely dwarfed y everyone else's.

At a Melee tournament, Melee players want good Melee play. ESAM isn't primarily a Melee player, and he isn't good at Melee either. Its irrelevant that he plays other games at a high level. He offers next to nothing for Melee play.

 

Sorry, but I want others to make it in over Esam. People who actually spend a lot of time in the community.

 

ESAM is not a top 10 Smash 4 player anymore lol
It might do him a lot of good to branch out and I'm welcome to a bit more character variety.
But maybe I'm just too dense to hate things like an idiot, I never got the ESAM hate anyway.

 

This article is dumb as bricks. People voted for Esam because he said he'd follow them back on twitter and he did. He wasn't voted due to popularity in the smash 4 realm. I'd do the same thing myself if a smash 4 summit existed LOL.

 

If he gets in, he'll be lucky to win a single game against any of the other competitors in any of the crews, exhibitions, or in the bracket. And people will be saying "ah, ya see? Smash 4 players can't win in Melee". So I don't think its good for either party involved. The better players don't get in, and it makes Smash 4 look bad. That's my take. Everyone was mad about Alex19 getting in last time, but at least he's beaten Wizzrobe and Silent Wolf. ESAM hasn't done anything noteworthy in Melee except getting 25th at Big House 5.

 

Uhh question.

Who is Alex19? that is first for me.

 

Uhh question.

Who is Alex19? that is first for me.

A friend of Mango. That tells you all you need to know.

 

****ing melee community. Bashing on Esam for playing "tr4sh" smh.

Esam is a pretty nice guy. yea i do play melee as my main game but damn **** these melee elitist. instead of the melee community trying to sacrifice him. why not welcome him you ever thought he could play both like mew2king does?

 

Esam is a pretty nice guy. yea i do play melee as my main game but damn **** these melee elitist. instead of the melee community trying to sacrifice him. why not welcome him you ever thought he could play both like mew2king does?

He can't, not like Mew2King.

 

ESAM (Eternal Samus) was a 13 year old kid slaying people in Melee in 2007 in Florida, and was known as the best FL. Samus main. I remember he took sets off of players that were arguably top 5 in FL. He seemingly came out of nowhere, and within I think was about 6 months he was a force to be reckoned with. This was before Brawl came out. Then when Brawl came out, he was amazing and one of the best, and Smash 4 even still.

ESAM meets the requirements, so he should be granted the opportunity.
Sadly, it seems nowadays the majority of smash enthusiasts just follow the trends on the stigma that is allotted to players by the general "community," which now consists mostly of fans than players because of how commercial and mainstream Smash has become, contributing to this fan based mindset instead of fact based. Player skill and performance respect should be determined by their placings in notable tournaments, not how they are perceived.

 

If he gets in, he'll be lucky to win a single game against any of the other competitors in any of the crews, exhibitions, or in the bracket. And people will be saying "ah, ya see? Smash 4 players can't win in Melee". So I don't think its good for either party involved. The better players don't get in, and it makes Smash 4 look bad. That's my take. Everyone was mad about Alex19 getting in last time, but at least he's beaten Wizzrobe and Silent Wolf. ESAM hasn't done anything noteworthy in Melee except getting 25th at Big House 5.

You must not know the history of ESAM before Brawl came out.

 

ESAM (Eternal Samus) was a 13 year old kid slaying people in Melee in 2007 in Florida, and was known as the best FL. Samus main. I remember he took sets off of players that were arguably top 5 in FL. He seemingly came out of nowhere, and within I think was about 6 months he was a force to be reckoned with. This was before Brawl came out. Then when Brawl came out, he was amazing and one of the best, and Smash 4 even still.

ESAM meets the requirements, so he should be granted the opportunity.
Sadly, it seems nowadays the majority of smash enthusiasts just follow the trends on the stigma that is allotted to players by the general "community," which now consists mostly of fans than players because of how commercial and mainstream Smash has become, contributing to this fan based mindset instead of fact based. Player skill and performance respect should be determined by their placings in notable tournaments, not how they are perceived.

If we're gonna go based off of how good you were in 2007 we might as well should just bring in Ken and KDJ and call this a rap LMAOOOOOOOOO

 

SAUS beat The Moon too, does that mena he should go?
But seriously I think this will be able to get lots of crossviewership for Melee which is a good thing.