Where Smash Has Brought Me

[RagingCherry]

About a little over a year ago, I had no clue that the Smash community existed. I ran a gaming club at my school, and at our first event we hosted three games- Melee, Marvel 3 and Halo 3. We had 124 people show up with 84 of those coming JUST for Smash! I kept thinking "I played this game when I was 14, how the hell are people still interested in this ****." By the way, when I started the gaming club, I was a Call of Duty elitist who didn't really care for anything else, especially fighting games. Little did I know where this would lead to..

Then we had a large event (250+ people) about a month later, which had around 10 games played, two of which were Melee and Brawl. I didn't know the difference in the two (as I did not play it much when I was younger), so a friend suggested I sign up for Brawl. I had an ok time but it wasn't anything special to me. Around November, someone brought Project M to a tournament and I instantly loved the game! The Orlando Smash community continuously showed up (Smash is the only game we've always repeated at events). I was helping run tournaments so I saw who the consistent good players were and decided to reach out to them for help.

Two of my friends came over and taught me Project M (since I didn't own Melee or played it), and which I learned wavedashing, tethering, l-cancelling, etc. So I just played around with roommates for fun, nothing too serious yet. I would play a lot but never took it serious. In April of this year, we went to an event in Gainesville where I saw a pretty good Melee crowd there, and noticed all my friends were playing it over Brawl/Project M.

So recently (about two months ago) I have been hosting private events at my place, just inviting the best players in Orlando over so I could watch, play and learn how to get better. I'm not good compared to the average Smasher, but I have definitely seen results show as these events progressed. I have been hosting large events (40 people last time, 60 people yesterday at my house) just to expand the community and have more people to play with.

From what I've noticed (in past experiences), the Smash community definitely are more humble/grateful than the FPS community that I am used to. I broke my ankle about a week ago, and people helped me out with setting up/breaking down, going to get food, tables and chairs to house this event at my house. I can't describe how thankful I am for the community as a whole, and how much everyone has helped me out for being a noob lol. Our event yesterday had a lot of great players (Colbol, Renth, Harriet, EikelmannRUS, AceDudeYea, RockCrock, Plup, Gahtzu, Darksonic, Kuya), about 15 TVs, tables and chairs purchased, as well as being live streamed. Since I've hosted large-scale gaming events for about a year now, yesterday seemed like it was nothing. I was told that this sort of thing (like the Smash event I hosted yesterday) was a pretty big deal, although I wasn't sure how big they meant. I had many people I did not know show up to my house, help setup/clean up, or with anything I needed since I was on crutches lol. I even housed a few people I've never met before.

Now I've made a completely different group of friends in the smash community itself. Learned a lot and now making plans on helping out the community as much as I can. Loving the game and the community I thought so bad about over a year ago. Sorry for doubting you guys, but definitely have a whole new outlook on the game now. I plan on going to a few big events (Tipped Off, CEO, EVO) to watch and compete. Looking forward to seeing where things are in another year! Thanks for everything guys!

Link to results:
http://smashboards.com/threads/orlando-homegrown-november-smash-tournament.342318/

Link to stream:
http://www.twitch.tv/taerknet/

 

[SAUS]

Melee is probably one of the biggest things that happened to me in my life. I go from playing WoW for 2 years and doing bad in school (grade 9 and 10) to playing melee and roflstomping school. I met so many people - many of who I still see and hang out with today - some I would consider my best of friends. The big reason I started playing again is actually because one of my best friends moved back to Ottawa and, after playing for a couple hours, revived my love for the game (well more like made me remember it).

Then I watched the smash bros documentary and DAMN that was good - extremely inspiring. I'm currently making my GF watch it We've only watched 1 episode be she likes it so far.


After playing with my friend a couple weeks ago, I really wanted to play some melee. I went to the lounge at my school (for computer science students) because they play melee there sometimes - I really wanted to play and I thought maybe they'd be there. Well, they were, and I destroyed them badly. What's awesome though is that I've inspired 3 of the better players there (really bad comparatively) to really learn the game. They were all excited to meet up over the weekend to practice It made me remember the times I used to do that with my friends and it was just awesome.

My friends have also been going to a local smashfest and apparently there was 20 people there last time. It's crazy. Can't wait to go to one :D

 

[Alexo30]

It's great to hear such heartwarming stories about Smash.

Smash community for life.

 

[Renth]

I had the pleasure to spend the past two weekends with this guy, don't let him being a new-comer fool you. He's already done more for us than we could have ever asked for.

Alex is an amazing addition to our community, he is damn near reviving the melee scene in central Florida.

 

[Nessafile]

I had a similar kind of thing at my school. Only I dind't run it and Melee is second to COD in our school. >_>

 

[RagingCherry]

I feel very bad for your school then haha

 

[Nessafile]

Its really close tho.

 

[GCS Gaming Customs]

Lol here is our melee to cod ratio at my school:

1 : 1000

There are only about 600 people at my school, but I can assure you these relationships are nevertheless accurate lol

 

[EPsilon933]

Lol here is our melee to cod ratio at my school:

1 : 1000

There are only about 600 people at my school, but I can assure you these relationships are nevertheless accurate lol

Damn. COD players are worth like 1.667x the value of Smashers

 

[GCS Gaming Customs]

Damn. COD players are worth like 1.667x the value of Smashers

Most definitely not, but it feels like that lol

 

[Alexo30]

COD players = *****. Smash players = OG gangstas

lol

 

[Problem2]

I read these great smash stories a lot and can't help but wonder if I'm in the minority of people who let their academics get hindered by smash. -__-
I've made a bad decision a couple of times for smash..

 

[SAUS]

I read these great smash stories a lot and can't help but wonder if I'm in the minority of people who let their academics get hindered by smash. -__-
I've made a bad decision a couple of times for smash..

I have definitely done this as well, but you have to compare it to how badly I did these things when I played WoW. The thing about melee, is when I'm tired, I suck. I get better sleep - with WoW, I was easily up until midnight-1am even when I had to get up at 6:30am.

You can't play melee without someone to play with, so if you're not with someone, you have more free time to do other things (my homework). It's not so much it made me better at school but it was less bad for my academics than WoW was - by a ****ing massive margin.

Also, nice avatar lol :D

 

[RagingCherry]

Yea I've definitely seen a huge explosion in the scene in Orlando, and I am so glad I can be apart of it! Hopefully more people come out in the future of events (and I actually get good lol)

 

[WumpaWolfy]

I can't say I've ever felt a part of the smash community as a whole (mainly because I only attend like two tourneys per years) but it did introduce me to two of my closest friends and gave me a positive channel to relieve my stress in one of the darkest times of my life. Almost everyone in my circle of friends I met through my smash friends (even though most don't play) so I feel I owe smash big time. I can totally see us chilling in our sixties playing smash and johning about arthritis.

 

[choknater]

so you're the host of orlando homegrown?

i've been wondering, since no one said anything in the results thread, were there videos recorded? i want to see new plup videos, especially plup vs col bol!

 

[RagingCherry]

Here is a link to the event. Unfortunately it was a 12hr recording lol so skip towards the 3/4 mark for singles I believe.

http://www.twitch.tv/taerknet/b/478221765

 

[IShotLazer]

I didn't know about your events! I live in the Tampa area along with Lamugi and Harriet.
I think smash has a better community because it wasn't tied to the internet, it was always tied to people. Going to smash events are some of the only ways to get better and being a crappy person means you won't get a lot of friendlys. People are just so freaking nice and love the game so much and the community. I remember at fast1 I got to play pros for the first time and m2k probably spent 1-2 hours with me on teams just showing me around.

But yeah, smash has succeeded not only because it is a great game, but because the players that supported it had to be nice in order to attract more people. The people it attracted were also nice and thus the cycle continued. I've only very rarely met smashers I disliked and even then it was mostly because they were abrasive, not necessarily bad people.

 

[Sixth-Sense]

this is a great example of what melee does to people, well no, what the community does to people (but the game is awesome)

I don't have anyone to play with really, but i still grind out tech skill with fox when i'm stressed or having a ****ty day, it just feels relaxing

 

[SAUS]

I didn't know about your events! I live in the Tampa area along with Lamugi and Harriet.
I think smash has a better community because it wasn't tied to the internet, it was always tied to people. Going to smash events are some of the only ways to get better and being a crappy person means you won't get a lot of friendlys. People are just so freaking nice and love the game so much and the community. I remember at fast1 I got to play pros for the first time and m2k probably spent 1-2 hours with me on teams just showing me around.

But yeah, smash has succeeded not only because it is a great game, but because the players that supported it had to be nice in order to attract more people. The people it attracted were also nice and thus the cycle continued. I've only very rarely met smashers I disliked and even then it was mostly because they were abrasive, not necessarily bad people.

I totally agree. I think melee wouldn't have had such an impact on me if it was just me and a couple friends playing online or with each other. Going out and meeting people is awesome. It even developed me as a person.

I remember years ago I used to always get mad and bitter and john about characters and ***** about how stupid certain things were (shine spike and stuff). I realised it made playing with me super annoying for my friends and I kinda punched myself for it. I started gradually trying to be more positive. Complimenting my friends when they did good combos or edge guards and it made everything better overall. That probably wouldn't have happened if I had played a different game that had online capacity. I probably would have just raged by myself in the basement lol.

Online play is such a gigantic feature these days, and I can see why, but sometimes I wish it wasn't so mandatory for games to have it.

 

[Sixth-Sense]

I totally agree. I think melee wouldn't have had such an impact on me if it was just me and a couple friends playing online or with each other. Going out and meeting people is awesome. It even developed me as a person.

I remember years ago I used to always get mad and bitter and john about characters and ***** about how stupid certain things were (shine spike and stuff). I realised it made playing with me super annoying for my friends and I kinda punched myself for it. I started gradually trying to be more positive. Complimenting my friends when they did good combos or edge guards and it made everything better overall. That probably wouldn't have happened if I had played a different game that had online capacity. I probably would have just raged by myself in the basement lol.

Online play is such a gigantic feature these days, and I can see why, but sometimes I wish it wasn't so mandatory for games to have it.

I really think, that, while not having online capability being a hindrance in regards to the amount of people who play, its truly a blessing in disguise, especially for people who never go out and always play games by themselves, its just great and it really helps in building your own personality, not to mention how friendly people are compared to other FGs

 

[Dinowulf]

The Smash community has been a great influence in my life. I played 64 a little bit with friends but wasn't aware of the "Competitive" side until i played on kalliera. Then left off to college went back home and joined the army. While i was in the army (Ft campbell, KY) I met a friend out there who was a smasher just like me. I met him in nashville, TN then when i was just about to get out the army he left to go down to florida. When i got out of the army i went back home (alabama) and found out via his facebook that he was only 2 1/2 hours from where i lived. So being used to a long travel took another one and met up with him again and instantly got sucked into the smash scene in West Florida (Pensacola). Now thanks to him i got some great friends in florda. I got hired for the post office at the stateline and i found a college i want to go to in the pensacola area. So i'm seriously lucky and seriously happy that i made some new friends that has some likes that i do and we all get along as well...I would have never gotten any of this if it wasn't for either one of them.