Welcome to the SmashBoards Writer's Interviews! This is a series that will appear at least twice every month covering a writer. These are more casual interviews, but depending on the interviewer, we leave it up to them whether they'll answer further questions. For those who missed the previous interviews, be sure to check out PopiPenguin, SmashCapps, and Push_Dustin.
This week we have SmashBoards writer Pidgezero! She's been around in the community for quite some time, but the twist is her love of the smaller Smash Bros. games and their scene, along with the willingness to help players in the scene, and the endearingly positive (and quirky, to say the least) personality she has. Without further delay, give your hands up for Pidgezero!
Pidgezero likes Sonic, but Sonic is definitely eyeing that emote more. What a strange date.
Thirdkoopa: Tell us a little bit about yourself! (which yes, this is a question)
Pidgezero_One: Hey! I'm a player and tournament organizer hailing from Toronto, up in Canada. I've been in the smash community for just under 5 years now, starting with Brawl and then switching to 64. I compete in tournaments (currently 8th on the PR in one of the biggest 64 regions) and also run tournaments for the two smallest communities, 64 and Brawl! I'm very passionate about seeing to it that all of the smash games are supported, and have worked on a lot of projects to help the smash community. If you want to know more about my smash career history, there's some cool stuff in the SSBWiki page about me! Outside of Smash, I'm 26 and work full time as a web and software developer. In my free time I can usually be found spamming stupid memes on Twitter.
Thirdkoopa: How did you get roped on board to the SmashBoards Writing Staff?
Pidgezero_One: It's a funny story, actually. The 64 community had a bit of a scuffle with Derrit, where he said something in a private message to one of our players that most of us construed as calling our game irrelevant. This blew up on social media, and it wasn't pretty. Derrit was cool about it and apologized for his wording, but part of that apology included a statement that the writing staff at the time didn't have anyone that really knew 64's community. So, @BananaBolts and I offered to step in! I had written a guest article for MIOM about Smash 64 before, so the SWF team wasn't hesitant to bring me aboard. We don't have much to write about since big news for 64 really doesn't come around that often, but when it does, we're ready for it!
Thirdkoopa: What inspires your work on Smashboards?
Pidgezero_One: While I'm mostly involved in the two smallest games, I'm still no stranger to the Melee, Project M, and Smash 4 communities. I hear countless people confide in me that they wish they could get into Smash 64 or Brawl, but have no one to play it with. And part of the reason people think they have no one to play with is because, well, you never hear about it! I think that when I am able to contribute to the Smashboards front page about my two favourite games, it is a great help to the visibility of those games and their communities, which is something they need right now. What inspires me is knowing that there's interest waiting to be piqued.
Thirdkoopa: Where do you see the community heading in the future?
Pidgezero_One: I think Smash 64 has a lot of good things ahead of it. The community has always gotten the short end of the stick when featured at nationals -- bad times for top 8, featured on side streams drowned out by noise from spectators of other Smash games, not being included in nationals, etc. So for a very long time, 64 players just tried their best to do their own thing instead of depending on organizers who mostly focus on the more esports games -- they bring their own recording setups to tournaments, they fly around and drive halfway up the coast just to go to each other's locals, they make some sincerely creative and awesome things like Salty Streams (a betting site using fake currency) to bring more spectator interest to the game, they pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket to support their players going to nationals elsewhere (Peru and Japan are huge for Smash 64)... and this is how it's always been. 64 started to get more attention at Super Smash Con, and the production value and care given to our top 4 was like nothing we've ever been given before, and held the interest of the biggest audience we've seen in ages. I think more of that will be coming for us as organizers and sponsors start to see the level of passion there is for this game. Our tournament entrance numbers have been doubling, and console scenes are sprouting up all over North America where there were none before. I am constantly getting messages on Twitter from people excitedly and proudly telling me how they started a 64 scene in their town, and I couldn't be happier.
Brawl on the other hand, I think its currently small community has potential, but the people who see it as their favourite Smash game barring entrance numbers need to do more for it. It's different from 64 because Brawl used to have the spotlight, and people who prefer Brawl are feeling kind of burned after interest in it fizzled out. I've done a few things of my own to extend Brawl's longevity for the people who would rather play it over any other Smash game, but the players need to take advantage of it. Super Smash Con was also awesome for this game (did you see that top 8 tho?!), and I think if everyone played the game for pure enjoyment instead of worrying about how it'll never be as big as Smash 4, then things might start to pick up again. Basically Brawl needs to follow 64's lead and realize that they really can just do their own thing and be fine. I think once more players realize that, good things will happen for Brawl's community too.
Thirdkoopa: How did you get into Smash Bros?
Pidgezero_One: I was 10 years old when Smash 64 came out. My younger brother and I were watching TV, and this commercial appeared. We exchanged one of those looks, between siblings where you both know exactly what the other is thinking... "WE NEED THIS GAME!!!!" And the rest was history! (Fun fact: my Brawl mod launcher has that commercial replacing the "How to Play" video.)
Competitively, I went to a tournament on campus when I was doing my undergrad at the University of Toronto (engineering, baby!), which was hosted and sponsored by the owners of my favourite indie game store where I was already a regular. I had so much fun at that tournament. Since I was close to the organizers, I would always find out about their future events -- they ended up opening their own private venue shortly after with their own supply of CRTs and consoles, and the mainstream Brawl community discovered it very quickly. That was when I registered for Smashboards, and here I am today!
Thirdkoopa: Personal favorite stage?
Pidgezero_One: In Smash 64? Gotta go with Dream Land by default. It has the least things I dislike (my main lives forever on Hyrule... but Hyrule enables unapproachable stalling and is bad competitively).
In Brawl, my favourite stage is Rainbow Cruise because I play floaties with good recovery (one of them being Kirby, hello early uthrow kills!) Some of our tournaments (Toronto still has frequent Brawl events) run an experimental ruleset with an extended stagelist, with the stipulation that Meta Knight can only counterpick starters, so we still get to use the fun stages once in a while. I realize that this stage isn't great competitively either, but I find it way more fun than any of 64's jank stages.
Thirdkoopa: How about favorite character?
Pidgezero_One: JIGGLYPUFF! Have you seen my collection? :D I mained her "ironically" in Brawl and then discovered she was actually really fun to use. Now I use her in every Smash game (yes, even Project M and Brawl, I am aware she is not good!) I picked her up in 64 after I realized that @YBOMBB, one of the best (if not the best) 64 Puff mains, lives in my city, and we bonded over that. Now he lives in my house!
Thirdkoopa: How long have you been writing on SmashBoards for?
Pidgezero_One: I guess it's been half a year or so? I only contribute occasionally due to the low frequency of topics I have to write about. But I've grown to love the writing staff! Fantastic bunch of people to work with.
Thirdkoopa: What got you so interested in Smash 64?
Pidgezero_One: To be honest with you, I originally had very little interest in playing the game. In early 2014, I had been thinking about how it wasn't fair that 64 had no tournaments, while Brawl, Melee, and Project M were all thriving. Surely there have to be just as many people in this big city who prefer 64, right? I decided to host a tournament to find out. I was right -- our first tournament got 27 entrants, which was pretty big for a local at the time. Everyone there appreciated it so much that I decided to keep running it, and by virtue of being the tournament organizer, befriended a bunch of the players. Hanging out with them got me interested in actually getting good at the game. It also helps that's a very fun game, the high hitstun really sets its meta apart from the rest of the series. Our tournaments now usually get 25-40 people.
Thirdkoopa: For those new to hearing about the scene, what would you have to say as a quick recap?
Pidgezero_One: As a recap... If you're interested in smash 64 in any capacity, check out this megapost on how to get into the game (yes, that means you, Gamecube controller users), it covers pretty much everything you need if you're willing to sit down and mull through it. Newcomers: If you hear about a local tournament (for ANY smash game), and are on the fence about going? Just go! You'll enjoy yourself, and nobody will care how good or bad you are. I'm glad I decided to go to that one tournament way back when, have never looked back. Everyone can benefit from being part of this community and everyone has something unique to contribute.
And this especially goes to the women and other gender minorities out there who are curious about the game: while this game is mostly male dominated, if you're feeling intimidated, reach out to me or any other girl who plays this game... every smasher is unique, but chances are you have more in common with someone than you think! I have been lucky enough to have been told by other women starting out in Smash that they were inspired either by how I played or something I've done, and that it's made a difference in their decision to stick around. And I would like to keep that up! There are a lot more of us than you think, and you will be welcomed into this amazing community... if you're feeling shy, hit me up on twitter or on here!
Thirdkoopa: What are you looking into for the future?
Pidgezero_One: The next thing I want to do most is to become a top 64 player. I think that I am a decently visible person in the Smash community, and I want to use that to bring attention to Smash 64... but it's hard to do that as only a mid-level player.
Besides that, I'm also working on a web project. I set up a WordPress site,http://ontario-smash.com, to which I installed an event calendar plugin, but I modified it so that it automatically adds events using data it pulls from Facebook events. I am working on extending this concept to work worldwide, with events searchable by location radius and time period. It'll help all of you people going on long family vacations!
Thirdkoopa: Is there any personal goal you have in the Smash Community?
Pidgezero_One: As far as personal goals go, I have three main ones. The first was to increase awareness of Smash to the general public, which I've already had the opportunity to accomplish via my previous job on Gaming Show (In My Parents' Garage), which is the kids' TV show on which NAKAT makes occasional guest appearances. The second is to achieve enough notability in the Smash community to act as an example or role model, someone who is respected enough to set people straight and have it stick when they say or do harmful things. I think of some of my friends who are transgender for example and have to deal with people in the smash community who refuse to call them by their proper names or gender, and I think, what does it take to get guys like that to smarten up and treat their fellow smashers with respect? People don't learn this stuff in a vacuum, they're influenced, and I want to be a good influence. The last goal is to contribute to the success of a Canadian national featuring all of the smash games and Project M, I was very inspired by Super Smash Con. Most of my friends in the smash community are Melee and Smash 4 players, despite them not playing the same game as me, and I love having any chance we can get to unite the whole Smash umbrella. Haven't started on this one yet, though!
Thirdkoopa: Outside of Smash Bros., what other hobbies do you partake in?
Pidgezero_One: I love to cook! I make everything out of healthy ingredients. My favourite thing to make is vegetarian stir-fry. (I'm not a vegetarian, but the recipe was too good to pass up.) I also like to draw on occasion, but that fell off when I decided not to continue with art school. Outside of work I also code as a hobby. And of course I love collecting Jigglypuff merchandise. I also like watching baseball.
Thirdkoopa: Favorite Games?
Pidgezero_One: My favorite game of all time is Super Mario RPG on the SNES. I love playing romhacks and challenge runs, my personal favorite being to beat the vanilla game with no equipment or level grinding (last time I finished at level 13 and the final boss took almost 35 minutes!). I also sometimes have bursts of addiction to the Gamecube release of Animal Crossing -- I have 24 paid off houses on 6 memory cards, and 12 years later I still have the "100 Turnips" cheat code memorized. In fact, my memory seems to be awful except for memorizing useless things... I'm also pretty dece at Dr. Mario, Yoshi's Cookie, and Puyo Puyo, and practicing those games is pretty relaxing. Minecraft is also another occasional favourite.
Anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?
Pidgezero_One: Anything else to know about me? Hmm... I'm the same height and weight as Samus. That's the only fun fact I can think of right now. Oh yeah, I can also recite pi to over 180 decimal places... don't ask.
Thirdkoopa: Would you be up for answering questions in the users comment? Where can people more interested in knowing you get to reach you at?
Pidgezero_One: It's probably easiest to contact me on Twitter: @pidgezero_one (I dont remember how to format this) - feel free to contact me there!
Thirdkoopa: Thank you very much for your time!
Give a warm round of applause to Pidgezero! Check out her twitter over here and support everything she does. While you're at it, if you enjoyed the interview, contact the interviewer himself here. Wondering who the next SmashBoards writer to get interviewed is? Well, I don't know either, so feel free to throw suggestions my way!
This week we have SmashBoards writer Pidgezero! She's been around in the community for quite some time, but the twist is her love of the smaller Smash Bros. games and their scene, along with the willingness to help players in the scene, and the endearingly positive (and quirky, to say the least) personality she has. Without further delay, give your hands up for Pidgezero!
Pidgezero likes Sonic, but Sonic is definitely eyeing that emote more. What a strange date.
Thirdkoopa: Tell us a little bit about yourself! (which yes, this is a question)
Pidgezero_One: Hey! I'm a player and tournament organizer hailing from Toronto, up in Canada. I've been in the smash community for just under 5 years now, starting with Brawl and then switching to 64. I compete in tournaments (currently 8th on the PR in one of the biggest 64 regions) and also run tournaments for the two smallest communities, 64 and Brawl! I'm very passionate about seeing to it that all of the smash games are supported, and have worked on a lot of projects to help the smash community. If you want to know more about my smash career history, there's some cool stuff in the SSBWiki page about me! Outside of Smash, I'm 26 and work full time as a web and software developer. In my free time I can usually be found spamming stupid memes on Twitter.
Thirdkoopa: How did you get roped on board to the SmashBoards Writing Staff?
Pidgezero_One: It's a funny story, actually. The 64 community had a bit of a scuffle with Derrit, where he said something in a private message to one of our players that most of us construed as calling our game irrelevant. This blew up on social media, and it wasn't pretty. Derrit was cool about it and apologized for his wording, but part of that apology included a statement that the writing staff at the time didn't have anyone that really knew 64's community. So, @BananaBolts and I offered to step in! I had written a guest article for MIOM about Smash 64 before, so the SWF team wasn't hesitant to bring me aboard. We don't have much to write about since big news for 64 really doesn't come around that often, but when it does, we're ready for it!
Thirdkoopa: What inspires your work on Smashboards?
Pidgezero_One: While I'm mostly involved in the two smallest games, I'm still no stranger to the Melee, Project M, and Smash 4 communities. I hear countless people confide in me that they wish they could get into Smash 64 or Brawl, but have no one to play it with. And part of the reason people think they have no one to play with is because, well, you never hear about it! I think that when I am able to contribute to the Smashboards front page about my two favourite games, it is a great help to the visibility of those games and their communities, which is something they need right now. What inspires me is knowing that there's interest waiting to be piqued.
Thirdkoopa: Where do you see the community heading in the future?
Pidgezero_One: I think Smash 64 has a lot of good things ahead of it. The community has always gotten the short end of the stick when featured at nationals -- bad times for top 8, featured on side streams drowned out by noise from spectators of other Smash games, not being included in nationals, etc. So for a very long time, 64 players just tried their best to do their own thing instead of depending on organizers who mostly focus on the more esports games -- they bring their own recording setups to tournaments, they fly around and drive halfway up the coast just to go to each other's locals, they make some sincerely creative and awesome things like Salty Streams (a betting site using fake currency) to bring more spectator interest to the game, they pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket to support their players going to nationals elsewhere (Peru and Japan are huge for Smash 64)... and this is how it's always been. 64 started to get more attention at Super Smash Con, and the production value and care given to our top 4 was like nothing we've ever been given before, and held the interest of the biggest audience we've seen in ages. I think more of that will be coming for us as organizers and sponsors start to see the level of passion there is for this game. Our tournament entrance numbers have been doubling, and console scenes are sprouting up all over North America where there were none before. I am constantly getting messages on Twitter from people excitedly and proudly telling me how they started a 64 scene in their town, and I couldn't be happier.
Brawl on the other hand, I think its currently small community has potential, but the people who see it as their favourite Smash game barring entrance numbers need to do more for it. It's different from 64 because Brawl used to have the spotlight, and people who prefer Brawl are feeling kind of burned after interest in it fizzled out. I've done a few things of my own to extend Brawl's longevity for the people who would rather play it over any other Smash game, but the players need to take advantage of it. Super Smash Con was also awesome for this game (did you see that top 8 tho?!), and I think if everyone played the game for pure enjoyment instead of worrying about how it'll never be as big as Smash 4, then things might start to pick up again. Basically Brawl needs to follow 64's lead and realize that they really can just do their own thing and be fine. I think once more players realize that, good things will happen for Brawl's community too.
Thirdkoopa: How did you get into Smash Bros?
Pidgezero_One: I was 10 years old when Smash 64 came out. My younger brother and I were watching TV, and this commercial appeared. We exchanged one of those looks, between siblings where you both know exactly what the other is thinking... "WE NEED THIS GAME!!!!" And the rest was history! (Fun fact: my Brawl mod launcher has that commercial replacing the "How to Play" video.)
Competitively, I went to a tournament on campus when I was doing my undergrad at the University of Toronto (engineering, baby!), which was hosted and sponsored by the owners of my favourite indie game store where I was already a regular. I had so much fun at that tournament. Since I was close to the organizers, I would always find out about their future events -- they ended up opening their own private venue shortly after with their own supply of CRTs and consoles, and the mainstream Brawl community discovered it very quickly. That was when I registered for Smashboards, and here I am today!
Thirdkoopa: Personal favorite stage?
Pidgezero_One: In Smash 64? Gotta go with Dream Land by default. It has the least things I dislike (my main lives forever on Hyrule... but Hyrule enables unapproachable stalling and is bad competitively).
In Brawl, my favourite stage is Rainbow Cruise because I play floaties with good recovery (one of them being Kirby, hello early uthrow kills!) Some of our tournaments (Toronto still has frequent Brawl events) run an experimental ruleset with an extended stagelist, with the stipulation that Meta Knight can only counterpick starters, so we still get to use the fun stages once in a while. I realize that this stage isn't great competitively either, but I find it way more fun than any of 64's jank stages.
Thirdkoopa: How about favorite character?
Pidgezero_One: JIGGLYPUFF! Have you seen my collection? :D I mained her "ironically" in Brawl and then discovered she was actually really fun to use. Now I use her in every Smash game (yes, even Project M and Brawl, I am aware she is not good!) I picked her up in 64 after I realized that @YBOMBB, one of the best (if not the best) 64 Puff mains, lives in my city, and we bonded over that. Now he lives in my house!
Thirdkoopa: How long have you been writing on SmashBoards for?
Pidgezero_One: I guess it's been half a year or so? I only contribute occasionally due to the low frequency of topics I have to write about. But I've grown to love the writing staff! Fantastic bunch of people to work with.
Thirdkoopa: What got you so interested in Smash 64?
Pidgezero_One: To be honest with you, I originally had very little interest in playing the game. In early 2014, I had been thinking about how it wasn't fair that 64 had no tournaments, while Brawl, Melee, and Project M were all thriving. Surely there have to be just as many people in this big city who prefer 64, right? I decided to host a tournament to find out. I was right -- our first tournament got 27 entrants, which was pretty big for a local at the time. Everyone there appreciated it so much that I decided to keep running it, and by virtue of being the tournament organizer, befriended a bunch of the players. Hanging out with them got me interested in actually getting good at the game. It also helps that's a very fun game, the high hitstun really sets its meta apart from the rest of the series. Our tournaments now usually get 25-40 people.
Thirdkoopa: For those new to hearing about the scene, what would you have to say as a quick recap?
Pidgezero_One: As a recap... If you're interested in smash 64 in any capacity, check out this megapost on how to get into the game (yes, that means you, Gamecube controller users), it covers pretty much everything you need if you're willing to sit down and mull through it. Newcomers: If you hear about a local tournament (for ANY smash game), and are on the fence about going? Just go! You'll enjoy yourself, and nobody will care how good or bad you are. I'm glad I decided to go to that one tournament way back when, have never looked back. Everyone can benefit from being part of this community and everyone has something unique to contribute.
And this especially goes to the women and other gender minorities out there who are curious about the game: while this game is mostly male dominated, if you're feeling intimidated, reach out to me or any other girl who plays this game... every smasher is unique, but chances are you have more in common with someone than you think! I have been lucky enough to have been told by other women starting out in Smash that they were inspired either by how I played or something I've done, and that it's made a difference in their decision to stick around. And I would like to keep that up! There are a lot more of us than you think, and you will be welcomed into this amazing community... if you're feeling shy, hit me up on twitter or on here!
Thirdkoopa: What are you looking into for the future?
Pidgezero_One: The next thing I want to do most is to become a top 64 player. I think that I am a decently visible person in the Smash community, and I want to use that to bring attention to Smash 64... but it's hard to do that as only a mid-level player.
Besides that, I'm also working on a web project. I set up a WordPress site,http://ontario-smash.com, to which I installed an event calendar plugin, but I modified it so that it automatically adds events using data it pulls from Facebook events. I am working on extending this concept to work worldwide, with events searchable by location radius and time period. It'll help all of you people going on long family vacations!
Thirdkoopa: Is there any personal goal you have in the Smash Community?
Pidgezero_One: As far as personal goals go, I have three main ones. The first was to increase awareness of Smash to the general public, which I've already had the opportunity to accomplish via my previous job on Gaming Show (In My Parents' Garage), which is the kids' TV show on which NAKAT makes occasional guest appearances. The second is to achieve enough notability in the Smash community to act as an example or role model, someone who is respected enough to set people straight and have it stick when they say or do harmful things. I think of some of my friends who are transgender for example and have to deal with people in the smash community who refuse to call them by their proper names or gender, and I think, what does it take to get guys like that to smarten up and treat their fellow smashers with respect? People don't learn this stuff in a vacuum, they're influenced, and I want to be a good influence. The last goal is to contribute to the success of a Canadian national featuring all of the smash games and Project M, I was very inspired by Super Smash Con. Most of my friends in the smash community are Melee and Smash 4 players, despite them not playing the same game as me, and I love having any chance we can get to unite the whole Smash umbrella. Haven't started on this one yet, though!
Thirdkoopa: Outside of Smash Bros., what other hobbies do you partake in?
Pidgezero_One: I love to cook! I make everything out of healthy ingredients. My favourite thing to make is vegetarian stir-fry. (I'm not a vegetarian, but the recipe was too good to pass up.) I also like to draw on occasion, but that fell off when I decided not to continue with art school. Outside of work I also code as a hobby. And of course I love collecting Jigglypuff merchandise. I also like watching baseball.
Thirdkoopa: Favorite Games?
Pidgezero_One: My favorite game of all time is Super Mario RPG on the SNES. I love playing romhacks and challenge runs, my personal favorite being to beat the vanilla game with no equipment or level grinding (last time I finished at level 13 and the final boss took almost 35 minutes!). I also sometimes have bursts of addiction to the Gamecube release of Animal Crossing -- I have 24 paid off houses on 6 memory cards, and 12 years later I still have the "100 Turnips" cheat code memorized. In fact, my memory seems to be awful except for memorizing useless things... I'm also pretty dece at Dr. Mario, Yoshi's Cookie, and Puyo Puyo, and practicing those games is pretty relaxing. Minecraft is also another occasional favourite.
Anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?
Pidgezero_One: Anything else to know about me? Hmm... I'm the same height and weight as Samus. That's the only fun fact I can think of right now. Oh yeah, I can also recite pi to over 180 decimal places... don't ask.
Thirdkoopa: Would you be up for answering questions in the users comment? Where can people more interested in knowing you get to reach you at?
Pidgezero_One: It's probably easiest to contact me on Twitter: @pidgezero_one (I dont remember how to format this) - feel free to contact me there!
Thirdkoopa: Thank you very much for your time!
Give a warm round of applause to Pidgezero! Check out her twitter over here and support everything she does. While you're at it, if you enjoyed the interview, contact the interviewer himself here. Wondering who the next SmashBoards writer to get interviewed is? Well, I don't know either, so feel free to throw suggestions my way!
