P. O. F.
Smash Ace
I could have made a post in the results thread to thank plank but I'd rather do it this way to be sure he sees my thoughts on the event. (Thanks for writing down the directions to the bus stop and getting me home man!) (You too Ebo, try not to get pulled over and wear your seatbelt son)
Pound 4 was the biggest Melee tournament of all time. With that came players from all over the world to come and compete and showcase their skills to everyone who still plays this game. HDL from Puerto Rico showed us that Link can compete at high levels and Skler is not the only one, Armada once again came through under extreme pressure to place very nicely, West Coasts Silent Spectre took Armada out of Winners singles, and so much more. This tournament had so much hype and Plank followed through and delivered an amazing event. With the new stage ruleset, proper date selection, pre registration, transportation for ooc and oosers, organization through cars to drop off and pick up smashers to the airport, getting everyone housed, good seeding and brackets for all events, proper selection for projector screen matches and livestream, strict organization and rules to keep schedule going, and all of this done with little to no problems made this worthy of possibly being the greatest tournament Melee has or ever will see.
This event wasn't a simple "Oh, look! Theres Armada guys. Wouldnt it be cool to play him?" It was more like, "Oh, theres Axe, Taj, Dark Rain, SS, Hax, Jman, M2K, HuGs, Ka-Master, Armada, Vidjo, Silent Wolf, Chu Dat, and every other good player to ever play Melee. I should go play some of them!" I was really happy to finally get a chance to play all these guys. I missed out on playing HugS and Dark Rain but made sure I played everyone else at least in a set. IMO, not playing any of these guys is pretty epic fail. lol.
I've taken a look at the (semi) results thread and as always I see players who did not go to the tournament finding SOMETHING about the event that was "unfair" or was "stupid" or was not seeded properly. Stop making the Melee scene look bad by complaining about dumb things. Half of you should try doing what Plank had to do. Just think about that for one second. I'm sick of going into results threads and hearing whiners and people who did not attend complain. LOL, are you kidding me? Why do you care? This crap just reminds me of Brawl kids complaining. ew.
There were also a couple of things that I noticed at this that really bothered me and actually got me thinking. In the grand finals a few people taunted Hbox and literally stated things along the lines of "when are you losing? Just give up." Are you kidding me? Are you for real? Once again, this is ******** and completely uncalled for. I can understand trash talk and having fun to build up hype for your region but to go out of your way to be rude to someone in a match bluntly is beyond ridiculous. I also noticed some high end players (not exactly top level) pre deciding the outcome of their next pool before they even played their matches. I know I show this all the time and always post it but can we please all watch this for the love of god:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9khDedACgY
I know gimpyfish is retired or whatever but god, do I love that segment. Is it corny and cliche? Yes. But its soooooooo true. I could literally give you guys 3-4 PERSONAL examples of this right now. 2 of which happened at pound 4. lol.
I must have heard "I'm playing ____, that's a loss." a good ten times at this tournament. I hate when people give up and not trying to their full ability and believing they can win. Did any of you know that SPAWN from CT beat Lucky in tournament? I bet some of you do not even know who SPAWN is. He won because he believed he could do it. (Good **** SPAWN)
Honestly if you think about it for a second, have you ever talked to a high level player about their upcoming matches or how they think they'll do or how they talk about players? Think about Kage, Hax, PC Chris, MaNg0, Swiftbass, Ka Master, Silent Spectre, and Darc. They all are very confident, respect their opponents abilities, and are aware and accept the fact that they may indeed not come out on top all the time.
I have learned so much about competitive Melee at this tournament. Not so much about the game itself but what it takes to be relaxed in an important match whether it is tourney or MM, how you need to be mentally and physically while playing, never doubt or question your opponents abilities, and to never get frustrated because you will play worse.
I hope that everyone who attended this learned a great deal about smash, what it means to be part of a community, and enjoyed this weekend as much as I did.
Thanks again Plank for everything you've done!
Carry on,
P. O. F.
Pound 4 was the biggest Melee tournament of all time. With that came players from all over the world to come and compete and showcase their skills to everyone who still plays this game. HDL from Puerto Rico showed us that Link can compete at high levels and Skler is not the only one, Armada once again came through under extreme pressure to place very nicely, West Coasts Silent Spectre took Armada out of Winners singles, and so much more. This tournament had so much hype and Plank followed through and delivered an amazing event. With the new stage ruleset, proper date selection, pre registration, transportation for ooc and oosers, organization through cars to drop off and pick up smashers to the airport, getting everyone housed, good seeding and brackets for all events, proper selection for projector screen matches and livestream, strict organization and rules to keep schedule going, and all of this done with little to no problems made this worthy of possibly being the greatest tournament Melee has or ever will see.
This event wasn't a simple "Oh, look! Theres Armada guys. Wouldnt it be cool to play him?" It was more like, "Oh, theres Axe, Taj, Dark Rain, SS, Hax, Jman, M2K, HuGs, Ka-Master, Armada, Vidjo, Silent Wolf, Chu Dat, and every other good player to ever play Melee. I should go play some of them!" I was really happy to finally get a chance to play all these guys. I missed out on playing HugS and Dark Rain but made sure I played everyone else at least in a set. IMO, not playing any of these guys is pretty epic fail. lol.
I've taken a look at the (semi) results thread and as always I see players who did not go to the tournament finding SOMETHING about the event that was "unfair" or was "stupid" or was not seeded properly. Stop making the Melee scene look bad by complaining about dumb things. Half of you should try doing what Plank had to do. Just think about that for one second. I'm sick of going into results threads and hearing whiners and people who did not attend complain. LOL, are you kidding me? Why do you care? This crap just reminds me of Brawl kids complaining. ew.
There were also a couple of things that I noticed at this that really bothered me and actually got me thinking. In the grand finals a few people taunted Hbox and literally stated things along the lines of "when are you losing? Just give up." Are you kidding me? Are you for real? Once again, this is ******** and completely uncalled for. I can understand trash talk and having fun to build up hype for your region but to go out of your way to be rude to someone in a match bluntly is beyond ridiculous. I also noticed some high end players (not exactly top level) pre deciding the outcome of their next pool before they even played their matches. I know I show this all the time and always post it but can we please all watch this for the love of god:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9khDedACgY
I know gimpyfish is retired or whatever but god, do I love that segment. Is it corny and cliche? Yes. But its soooooooo true. I could literally give you guys 3-4 PERSONAL examples of this right now. 2 of which happened at pound 4. lol.
I must have heard "I'm playing ____, that's a loss." a good ten times at this tournament. I hate when people give up and not trying to their full ability and believing they can win. Did any of you know that SPAWN from CT beat Lucky in tournament? I bet some of you do not even know who SPAWN is. He won because he believed he could do it. (Good **** SPAWN)
Honestly if you think about it for a second, have you ever talked to a high level player about their upcoming matches or how they think they'll do or how they talk about players? Think about Kage, Hax, PC Chris, MaNg0, Swiftbass, Ka Master, Silent Spectre, and Darc. They all are very confident, respect their opponents abilities, and are aware and accept the fact that they may indeed not come out on top all the time.
I have learned so much about competitive Melee at this tournament. Not so much about the game itself but what it takes to be relaxed in an important match whether it is tourney or MM, how you need to be mentally and physically while playing, never doubt or question your opponents abilities, and to never get frustrated because you will play worse.
I hope that everyone who attended this learned a great deal about smash, what it means to be part of a community, and enjoyed this weekend as much as I did.
Thanks again Plank for everything you've done!
Carry on,
P. O. F.