New York City’s largest Project M tournament returns this July with Supernova 2! In anticipation for the event, let’s take a look back at the first Supernova tournament.
SUPERNOVA
On February 1st, 2016, the Nebulous smash team announced a major to be held on April 16th of the same year. The tournament was one of the many tournaments featured in the PM circuit, and rewarded players for their placings at majors with circuit points. Those with the highest points would receive special rewards. Along with many other PM circuit tournaments, Supernova would be streamed by its sponsor, Hitbox.tv.
Supernova would be held over one day, which raised concern from many skeptics. This was not a problem, however, as the venue that the Nebulous had bought with their indiegogo campaign from the year before would have plenty of room and setups for all attendees. They were even able to host several events at the tournament, such as singles, doubles, a crew battle, and a Smash Sisters bracket.
At the event’s announcement, several players were already confirmed. These players included Arjun “Junebug” Rao, Jake “Frozen” Somma and Brian “DVD” Sherbert. As the event drew closer, more players began to join in attendance. At first, this included the standard New York and New Jersey players, such as Messiah “Phresh” Williams, Michael “Emukiller” Silbernagel, Kyle “Switch” Carlon and Pete “Envy” Greico, but more and more players from other regions started to sign up for the event. By the time the event came around, players from Long Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Chicago and even California were in attendance. Some notable players from these regions included David “iPunchkidsz” Vargas, Xayya Thomas "ThunderzReign" Thammavongsa, Tom “Aero” Silva, Corey “Machiavelli” Fields, Ripple, Flipp, Alex “Hyperflame” Mireles, Jonathan "Sosa” Sosa and Darc. With the attendance of so many players from the West Coast, the first ever East Coast vs. West Coast crew battle for Project M was now possible.
On the day of the event, players lined up at the door at 10am. The first event of the day was doubles, which saw 51 entrants. Doubles concluded with Darc and Anthony “Slox” Detre taking first place, an unexpected upset over second place’s Switch and Emukiller. Third place was taken by Socal representatives iPunchKidsz and Aero, and fourth place was taken by the unique team of Frozen and Machiavelli.
Near the end of the doubles bracket, the Smash Sisters side event began. With 6 entrants, the event was turned into a 3 on 3 crew battle, with one team being helmed by Emily “Emilywaves” Sun, who recruited Satan and Peachyhime, and the second team of Alleycat and Lyric being headed by Sailor Mercury. The crew battle can be found here(https://youtu.be/_SScnWOZCfM?list=PLoMxjew1nYoGlWfCrgsL_cesbJPwSl25j).
By 4PM, doubles and Smash Sisters had both come to a close, which meant it was time to start pools. There were 20 round robin pools, each with 8 players, and the top 2 players of each pool made it out. For the third and fourth seeds, there was also an amatuer bracket to play in during the pro bracket. For the most part, the pools went as seeded, with few important upsets. However, now that the pools were over, the event that everyone came to see was starting: The Tri state vs. California crew battle.
The crew battle was by far one of the loudest events in Project M history. Players who were still in bracket were delaying their matches to crowd around the CRT and get a good view, people were standing on chairs and furniture to see over the large mass of players that had formed in the middle of the venue.
The crews were both made up of 8 players. Tristate’s team was Zubat, Malachi, Switch, DVD, Zhime, Boiko, Frozen and Phresh, while California’s team consisted of Aero, iPunchKidsz, Venom, Sosa, Jasonwaterfalls, Thunderzreign, Red Ranger and Machiavelli. These were some of the best Project M players in the world at the time, and many were playing each other for the first time ever. If you’d like to see this crew battle for yourself, you can watch it here(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eSmbvVyZjE).
After the crew battle, the last of the pro bracket began. Despite his less than stellar performance in the crew battle, Venom began tearing through bracket, beating DVD, Machiavelli, Sosa, and even Zhime in what many consider to be one of the best Project M sets of all time. Venom quickly made his way to winner’s finals, while Flipp had an equally impressive run on the other side of winner’s bracket, beating Switch, Darc, and Malachi. Flipp beat Venom 3-1 in Winner’s finals, knocking Venom into loser’s finals, where he quickly 3-0’d Malachi and came back to grand finals only to be beaten 3-1 again. For what seemed like the first time in what seemed forever, Junebug, whom many saw as the best Project M player at the time, did not make top 8 at a national. Taking his place was DVD and iPunchKidsz at 7th, Switch and Zhime at 5th, Hyperflame at 4th, Malachi at 3rd, Venom at 2nd, and Flipp taking first place.
Overall, Supernova was one of the largest events in Project M history. Reaching its entry cap of 168 players, with players all across the country, it was easily the most exciting event in NYC Project M’s history.
SUPERNOVA 2
With the recent announcement of Supernova 2, there is even more to be excited about. Unlike last time, the tournament will be held over 2 days, allowing for even more events. The venue has also switched from Nebulous to AON Gaming on Long Island. AON was founded on Kickstarter with the help of the Smash community, and has had great success in hosting large tournaments in the past, such as Flex Zone 2.
Supernova 2 will be held on July 29th and 30th, and will be a part of this year’s Project M circuit. If you’re interested in going, you can sign up on their smash.gg page here(https://smash.gg/tournament/supernova-2), with the early bird registration fee of only $20. However, the venue fee increases to $25 on April 27th, so act now!
You can also follow the event’s twitter page for updates (https://twitter.com/SupernovaPM).
