I want to make a global shout out to the Japanese players for doing so well at Brawl here at Apex, and another to everyone who made it beyond Round 2 Pools. This event was undoubtedly one of the most difficult, stacked, ridiculous tournaments in the history of SSBB, and anyone who managed to preservere that far is legit in my book.
Also, these shout outs were done on the flight back home, and I have no internet as of now, so if I miss you on the shoutsies, don't feel insulted or whatnot. There were a TON of people I met over the weekend, so I'm expecting to forget someone here or there.
Annnnyways:
Nike: Fun stuff this weekend. Marth tournament must have made buckets. BUCKETS.
Paw: Business as usual. The sizzler was just too good.
Slush: We gave you two chances to spoon, and you squandered them both. You have no one to blame but yourself, good sir.
K Prime: Sucks that we drowned in pools. It was one hell of a fun weekend though. Doubles was just awesome.
Leaf: It was awesome hanging with you all weekend. Rainbow colored cupcakes TOO GOOD. Can't wait til you come down to SA again. It's gonna be sweet.
Golden Psycho: That European accent was LEGENDARY. It was awesome finally meeting you in person. It was probably one of the very first times I actually got culture shock. No Oreos or Twinkies. I'd end myself.
Dojo: Didn't talk much, but it was cool to hang out with you in the small amount of time that we had. Those 7-11 Pizzas were friggin' incredible.
Red Ryu & Xiivi: I didn’t recognize you guys at all until I saw RR playing in doubles on Friday. It was cool to finally meet you two. RR, we’ll sit down and watch SatAM some other time. Too much was going on of course.
Strong Bad: Same as with GP. It was awesome hanging with you for the weekend. Good set on Monday too. Your Pikachu is pretty spot on. Just get those chain grabs to be more consistent and you'll improve by a ton.
Denti, Gnes, Razer, & P4: Fun hangin' and seeing you again. We didn't really talk much. :<
Trela: I heard you did good things in singles, but never got a chance to check it out over the crowds. Congrats on bracket.
Pwii & Jtails: Good game in doubles. I can't even begin to tell you how many heart attacks I had during our games.
ShadowPJ: Thanks for chilling out with me after I drowned in pools. Helped pick me up from my blue funk. It's definitely appreciated.
Speed: Good half-game, and our Sonic's are somehow similar in approach yet totally different. It's kinda funny how it works. Those double ditto sets were full of hilarity. We'll hopefully meet again someday soon.
KID: I had no idea you were so animated in real life. You really left a positive, lasting impression on me, and I look forward to seeing you and the other Sonics up north someday again. It was incredibly fun to hang around.
BAM: We didn't get to talk too much, but it was great meeting you.
XLR8: ^
True Blue: Those double dittos were just so great. Your Sonic's smooth as hell and fun to watch.
Meekspeedy: You went Meta Knight in pools. </3
KayLo: It was awesome meeting up. Sorry if I acted like a goof half of the time. Just hyped about all of the events and whatnot. I swear.
Stealth Raptor: Your set with Leaf was so close. It was great to sit down and play you. I should've gone Sonic at one point. Sorry about that. :<
Doll: I think I might have diabetes from the sweetness you radiate. It was good to see you.
Mink: I never got to check out your Puff, OR give you the Jigglypuff sweatband I had back at my hotel. Either way, it was cool chatting it up with you. Cheers.
Bronies: I don't remember EVERYONE off the top of my head, but it was great to see how many of us were there at APEX. We should've gone to Bronycon.
Z: Cool to finally meet you. We didn't get to friendly. :<
ESAM: Your sets on the live stream were awesome. Ice Climber dittos are too good. Thanks for the help in coaching K Prime and I during our live stream set. It gave me a good idea of how we stand on our team dynamic. It'll definitely help sometime soon.
Zero: We didn't play at all. I'm sad. ;-;
Nairo: Congrats on an absolutely amazing performance. Wish I got a chance at you before everything was over, but make no mistake that you had some of the most entertaining sets in the entire tournament. Keep it up!
MikeHaze: We'll never play each other at this rate. /wrists
Lauren: There's not much I can say here that I didn't say to you at the event. It was so, so, so awesome to see you and Haze again, and I simply can't thank you enough for making the Applejack tag for me. I'll definitely do whatever I can to visit the West Coast soon. It was a blast at Apex. <3
Vex: I honestly REALLY wanted to see you go at it at Mortal Kombat 9, but I never got the opportunity during the event. Was loads of fun.
Dabuz: Good games in pools. Sorry that I raged though, it's not something that I do, but I guess I let my frustration get the better of me that day. Hope we get to play again soon. I won't make it so easy for you next time. :>
Rich Brown: Didn't talk much, but it was cool to see you again too.
Ankoku: I never got to talk to you. ;-;
Bionic: I never got to REALLY talk to you either. ;------;
Vermanubis: Oh my god man. Just...oh my god. Half of the time that I saw you, you looked ready to eat a child or something. It was great to finally meet the man behind the 'Dorf, and I definitely wanna get a crack at your Ganon sometime.
...my god you're built like a beast.
DLA: Ganon Gauntlet was amazing. You trashed me so hard, lol.
Isai: You're too good.
White: Good games in pools. Dedede really caught me off guard at this event.
Kevin "Magic" Johnson: Lucario whyyyyyy~
Kel: You played SOOOOO gay! It's NOT a bad thing though, play to win and whatnot. Good games.
Seagull: I'm now fully convinced that Sonic vs. Wolf is an even match up. Our set was incredibly close and awesome. Same as with Dabuz, I apologize for getting all frustrated and whatnot during the pools. I DEFINITELY wanna play you again sometime.
Nicole: Sucks that we both drowned. Our pool was so goddamn tough, but we put up one hell of a fight. Thanks for cheering me up, it was fun to chat. Your set vs. Seagull was one hell of a nailbiter.
Illmatic: Awesome job getting out of pools, Ill. How do you feel now that MK is gone?
Dark Pch: Amazing set vs. K Prime. Congrats.
Hylian: Same as with Nicole. That death pool was insane. GGs, and it was great to see you again.
Radium: Didn't talk much, but it was awesome to see you again too.
Ryo: Your Ike is so damn legit. I caught your set vs. Brood in pools, and I was blown away. Excellent job taking him to game three, and those late day friendlies were just too good.
Ussi: Your beard is awesome.
San: Your Ike is godlike.
Poltergust: Didn't talk much, but it's always cool to see your Yoshi do work in pools.
Alex Strife: My goodness. Thank you for getting this set up with your staff, thank you for bugging me to go so much that I convinced myself to buy the plane ticket, and thanks for hyping up every single match under the sun.
Javi: That Fox made me want to play Melee again.
X: Great to see you too, and congrats on making it outta pools.
PikaPika: You've gotta be one of the funniest goddamn people I met at APEX.
GDX: ^
hungrybox: I LOVED those Melee finals. Not joking. At all. Such an amazing Jigglypuff.
Otori & Co: Massive kudos to taking APEX and stomping out the competition. Every single one of your sets was awesome to watch.
DeLux: We didn't get to play. :<
Sky & Zex: Too good man. Wario/MK hurts so much.
Coney & Logic: Good games in doubles. Had fun.
NiTEWing: We didn't talk too much, but it was cool to meet you and all of the other bronies.
FOW: I had no idea that it was you that money matched me at the end of the day. Sorry about my silly shenanigans in game, but I had promised to play Speed before the event was over, and what with them kicking everyone out, I needed to cut some loose ends. We'll definitely have to play a set someday. I'd love to get a legit crack at that Ness of yours.
Seibrik: Good game. Sorry I couldn't put up a better fight in our set. I'll do what I can to improve should we ever play again. Your Wario is pretty damn awesome. If you ever need any more info on MK vs. Sonic, just lemme know, okay?
Shippo: I told you that I'd eventually go to an out of state event. Turns out it was sooner rather than later. Sorry we didn't get to talk as much as we could've. Maybe some other time.
Meta Knight: Don't let the door hit you on the way out you money hungry *****.
Zajice: <333~s. Insurmountable <333~s. Copius, enormous, gigant, swollen <333~s.
=====
Despite the poor execution of the tournament itself, I had one hell of a good time at this event. Meeting up with players from every single region, the setting, and the journey all made the experience well worth going through. Hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to go to another national of this caliber, but that won't be for quite some time, unfortunately. Huge thanks to the Apex 2012 Crew for all of the super hard work and effort that y'all put into this gigantic event.
Now if you excuse me, I have to rest because my throat went completely raw from all of the yelling and cheering I did. 'Til next time, everyone!
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