Uh... I put character Icons in the post above but it deleted somehow
Here are my Salty Salutations for Super Smash Con 2023:
Salty salutes to Long Beach Airport airport check-in and security, who almost made me miss my flight because it added 40 minutes to my wait, although that’s mostly my fault since I usually expect Long Beach to take 20 minutes tops
Salty salutes to our AirBNB air conditioner. It was a furnace Day 1 and then a fridge every day after.
Salty salutes to morning pools, evening higher level pools, and then morning brackets.
Salty salutes to (related to above) west coast to east coast jet lag. Kept my sleep schedule fairly regular with sleeping pills, but man I was feeling the effect of them early morning.
Salty salutes to Crash Tournaments Chia Mobile 5 person car rides. What a throwback to old school carpools! I promised that never again, but it was worth the exception this time.
Salty Salutes the 4.5 star Taco Bell giving us 0 star service
Salty salutes to the stream almost making gunner/bike/686/me fight to the death or coin flip for stream time. GGs chia for advocating to keep us on the block.
Salty salutes to Pidge and to us not deserving her. Pidge, I admire what you have done, what you do for the community. We would not be where we are now without you. Any time I feel like I’ve done enough for the community, I think about your commitment and am inspired to dig in a little deeper and try to make everyone around me a little bit better. I know you have been a feeling a little down on yourself regarding some mistakes, but please don’t take it too hard. If Brawl had taught me anything, there’s always a small chance that we’ll trip and fall when we’re forced to run too fast. But despite the falls, we get back up and do our best and laugh about it with time. You are the frame one invincibility on trip for the community.
Salty Salutes to 686M making my ZSS look like a FreeSS - Literally godlike this tournament. At first it was a little tough to get you to open up, but it was really nice to get you talking a bit as we waited for Top 8 . I’m not 100% sure, but you MIGHT be the best Brawl ICs of all time. Looking forward to talking shop with you in the future and maybe for a repeat SSC win that would help cement the legacy as the best of the best. But I know 100% for sure your Peach is crazy. Still think ZSS wins the MU though when not piloted by an idiot LOL. Thanks for giving me the Sopo clip of a lifetime, Imma adapt to desync blizzard to Fair faster next time. Let’s get that runback!
Salty Salutes to xXBowserMaste420YOLOSWAG69Xx aka Player-1 making my ICs look free all weekend and then GETTING DOUBLE ELIMINATED BY ICs - You are for my money, the best player in the world, and I mean that in all honesty. I don’t know for sure if anything we’ve talked about over the last few days, weeks, months, or years have helped, but I like to think I played a small part in achieving such a huge accomplishment, coming in 2nd at a national tournament. I love watching you play as a spectator, but as a friend I am so in awe of you and so happy for what you’ve been able to accomplish. I will always be your Player 2, no questions asked, even if it means losing 1000 more warmup sets or situational drills. Let’s rest a little, but get back at it and start putting in the work a few weeks from now and get you to that number 1 spot!
Salty Salutes to Hoenn on putting more evidence that I might be wrong about some things ICs- You and 6 have really helped keep the character alive, and for that I’m really grateful. It was nice getting to meet in person and talk smash for when we did. Great job getting annihilated on stream by Cody! I am proud of you and can’t wait to see you shield grab tornado in grand finals in the future, both are possible!
Salty Salutes to Gunnermaniac by showing netplay ranked doesn’t matter when major bracket hits! Good **** coming in 5th place, definitely taking one back for the old gen! It was great meeting you in person, especially since I’ve been using your pika and MK as a sort of litmus test to see how my co-mains have been developing. Thank you for being godlike at what you do, and it was also nice to meet your SO and that they are supportive of these kid games we play against each other!
Salty Salutes to Mike Ray, for just pulling a grenade with Snake. Well, we’re 1-1 in tournament sets now, although I’m a little sad with how I lost. I know you hate the IC CG, but it’s definitely not easy to execute under pressure, let alone against a Snake of your skill! There’s a reason you nearly took it against 686m though. And it was really moving for me, knowing your disdain for ICs, how hype you were for me for my one IC highlight on stream. I’m really proud of your progress as a leader in the community and am happy our old asses made it so far. Now we need to talk to seeders about why your quartet of the bracket had half of the top 8 lol
Salty Salute to Bike, for killing me with only nades all three games the set we played in singles and nairing the **** out of me in doubles. YO I CALLED IT before you played 686m. I watched you play for like 5 minutes and told Gardex, “Yo I think Bike is going to win [the set against 686m].” It was great to meet you and I am glad I could get you some more PR wins via Ranbats. Your bracket run was the story of the tournament, and it was an honor to tie with you! Good stuff in doubles as well, but next time don’t lose so early to take my team out.
Salty Salutes to Chia, who I let down in doubles. Chia, thank you for teaming with me in doubles. I know we didn’t get the result we were aiming for, but it was a joy to really prepare for the tourney. Your friendship in the community is my most important, so I am ride or die. Thank you for taking a chance on me over a decade ago, and it was proud to roll out the CT jersey for the big stage like it was 2013 all over again. Stop making me look bad by losing to ICs!
Salty Salutes to Big D, who is a top player despite not playing the game. WE FINALLY GET TO MEET IN PERSON! You are the most accomplished ICs in the history of Smash and my favorite player. I wish I had been a little better about keeping in tough over the years, but I’ve been watching from afar and so proud of what you’ve been able to accomplish. It was a dream getting to play friendlies with your DDD, but maybe we’ll get in some dittos next time!
Salty Salutes to Kyoz, who did not see me in grand finals. Ah man, we grinded so hard and came up a little short of our goal, but 7th and 9th at this level of a tournament is nothing to scoff at. You are such a bright spot for the future of the community, and we need to get you on the big stage because the world needs to see. Sorry I let down the ZSS nation against ICs; I still believe we win that MU, I just gotta not play dummy next time. I’ll catch you on night shift netplay soon!
Salty Salutes to Dabuz, who told me that ICs made him quit despite more or less losing a game to my Sopo and me dropping like a dozen cgs because of tilt. I’m sorry you got the double ICs treatment late bracket, but a lot of people would kill to come in 9th place at this event. I get that you are a current and legacy top player and losing that way is tought, but it was really sad to get that reaction from a competitor. I hope you reconsider quitting for the good of the game, and I’d gladly gentlemen’s to secondary vs. secondary next bracket if it helps. I really respect you as a player and what you have done for the game, so I hope playing me isn't the end.
Salty Salutes to Ness682 who was BEATING 686m until he SDed from ice shot pressure. You did really well at this event! Don’t let your mentality take that away from you. We’ll work on the mental game if you want, just hit me up for coaching. Special shout outs to Ness682 Dad for being supportive.
Salty Salutes to Ish for not telling me who he was when we were playing friendlies! Wolf is still broken! I’m glad we got to reconnect though. Sorry about the early pools and the DQ, but I guess thank you for allowing me to get top 8 since I would have lost if we played since Wolf is broken. Thanks for playing ranbats! Hoping to see you around discord more often!
Salty Salutes to Gardex, who beat me on every stage except for GW’s best stage, Rainbow Cruise. Little did you know it is one of MY best stages from years in the Midwest and still legal in KS! Looking forward to the battle of the boat in Norway; let’s set it up! I’m glad you were able to come and good **** for nairing the **** out of me in doubles as well. Good job in Ranbats!
Salty Salutes to Max Power who I would say is the only person that is a bigger lab monster than I am. I am actually salty you are doing the jump tilt stick stuff so effectively despite only using it for a month? That is insane. Looking forward to that training mod pack and also for you to make top 16 next SSC!
Salty Salutes to Fino who did not do that thing I taught him. Aw man, I really thought you’d be top 8ing the way that you had been playing. Now that you are no longer a casual, see me for some coaching and I’ll see you in grand finals next year. It’s been great reconnecting over the game the last 6 months leading up to this tourney. Through ups and down, I’ve missed having you in my life. You are best Olimar now
Salty Salutes to Pelca, who made me wait 3 hours to play bracket because he is an Ult god. I’m really sorry you had to choose between playing really late after your exhausting ult doubles run or really early the next morning. I wish I had seen more of you over the weekend and got a chance to catch up. You really do the Brawl community proud with your success in Ult. Rough draw on getting the DQ and early exit in doubles, kind of sucks that happens. Hopefully we can connect at another in-person soon under better circumstances!
Salty Salutes to Scizor who continues to defy the game engine and place well with Link. I still don’t understand how you do it. Makes no sense and is beyond comprehension. Can’t wait to start the socal Brawl revival!
Salty Salutes to Tori aka SSBBbrawler and getting destroyed by bracket luck. Tori, we both know you are a better player than your placing, and you proved it in ranbats that you can play with anyone. Don’t take bracket too hard and I hope I see your dancing blade go dancing deep into bracket next year. I appreciate everything you do for the community and putting up with my asshattery complaining in discord. It was great to meet you, and I hope we see each other again!
Salty Salutes to Aqua who really needs to figure out how to sleep during events like these! It was great meeting you in person. I’m lowkey starstruck by the ZSS OG every time we play. One of my favorite parts of the event where we came back post bracket and we played the friendlies while I waited for a ride back to the airbnb. Hope we get to spend some more time together next in-person event! Until then, there is always netplay!
Salty Salutes to Xu Factor who pulled the elite smash dip on me by beating me in one friendly after losing every game and then got up and left after taking one game. To clarify, Big D was not playing Player 1 as a way to practice for you in bracket. Player 1 sat down because I asked him to because Big D is an old school Brawl legend. I don’t think we knew who he had in bracket. So apologies, but just know we weren’t trying to do you dirty! It was nice to put a face to the name and I look forward to seeing you in more tourneys.
Salty Salutes to Grunyan who was able to tap into last game Grunyan when it mattered most in bracket a few times despite only using tap jump. I am so hype for how far you made it into bracket! I root for you harder than I root for myself sometimes. And my favorite meal was getting to catch up and talk at Indian food, where we had the true cali rule where if only if we an actually see it do we walk. Let’s hit the lab because like you said for next year, you’re going to be a problem!
Salty Salutes to Fishbait for continuing to make upsets over a decade later. FISH I thought you had an outside shot of making top 8 based on how our netplay went leading up to the event. You were definitely close! You are always going to be a ride or die, and I hope you stick around in the community. Good **** in melee too!
Salty Salutes to Cabbage who I didn’t let pick FD with Sheik by threat of ICs. Glad we got to play after out games on the discord! Keep at it, you’ll go far in this game.
Salty Salutes to Ashley who showed me that I have no idea what I am looking at when I am looking a box controller. That was the funniest moment of SSC for me, when we were playing snake dittos and I did a dthrow looked at your controller to see what you were going to do, and I had no clue what I was seeing and then you almost fsmashed me LOL Glad to meet in person and play a bit!
Salty Salutes to anyone I may have missed! There were honestly so many people that I caught up with that I tried my best to use bracket to remember them but that was honestly all I can get and I’m 5 pages deep on this write up. If I missed you let me know and I’ll write you up one no problem.
686M
Bike
Big D
While I was in the same predicament and barely missed my save ha ha! Oh well, that's how that stage goes usually. Hoping to see your success with Sheik to continue! Us mid tiers gotta stick together and show them we mean business! :D I also enjoyed the Nes dittos, believe it or not, I am very unfamiliar with how to play against Ness despite always playing him ha ha! xD When it comes to Ness vs Ness, you got me beat easily at the moment