Well, WHOBO 3 has come and gone. 139 players came down to Houston, beating last year by 34 entrants, but falling short of the inaugural WHOBO's attendance by only one person. I'm sure that for everyone who came down, it was a weekend to remember.

Video of the tournament (in glorious HD): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc6p9arfovk

The Con

As you may or may not know, WHOBO 3 was held at the annual Anime Matsuri convention, so there was plenty more to do than Smash. Booths selling artwork, plush toys, buttons, and more lined the halls and filled the dealer room. I managed to get my hands on an official Square-Enix Cactuar plush. Very cool. Characters of every sort were walking about, from racoon Mario, to nurse Joker from The Dark Knight, to the gimp from Silent Hill. Mr. Misty and the WHOBO beast each made their triumphant returns, though not too many people got a chance to see them.

Guests of Honor

Being a national, there were A LOT of reps from all over, and I think this tournament had the strongest out-of-state attendance of any Houston tournament thus far. Florida players came in droves, with RedHalberd, ESAM, MVD, Seibrik, and more attending. From further up the east coast came Coney, Vinnie, Atomsk, Inui, Logic, Noid, Will, and more. Ally came from Canada, Tyrant and Rich Brown came from Cali, MJG, Hylian, and Shugo came from the midwest; pretty much every region had some of their strongest reps. There were too many to mention, so if you attended and weren't named, I sincerely apologize. Notably absent from WHOBO 3 was Mew2King, who elected to enter a local touranment that weekend instead.

Results

There were six events at WHOBO 3. Brawl singles, doubles, low tier singles, and low tier doubles, and Melee singles and doubles, which were on Sunday, the final day of the tournament, and were nowhere near as big as the Brawl events.

Doubles (50 teams):

1 - Ally & Dojo
2 - Gnes & Razer
3 - Shugo & ADHD
4 - Lee Martin & Tyrant
5 - Domo & MJG
5 - Seibrik & Afro

Singles (139 entrants, 48 man bracket after pools)

1 - Ally
2 - Razer
3 - Dojo
4 - ADHD
5 - Vinnie
5 - Atomsk
7 - Shugo
7 - Will

Low tier singles (47 entrants)

1 - Ally
2 - Poltergust
3 - Trela
4 - Noid
5 - KPrime
5 - Xyro

Low tier doubles (21 teams)

1 - ESAM & Poltergust
2 - Ally & Trela
3 - Gnes & Xyro
4 - Espy & KPrime
5 - Chaz & Lady Legion
5 - Tyrant & Nicole

Melee singles (17 entrants)

1 - Lee Martin
2 - Silly Kyle
3 - Oscar
4 - Broly

Melee doubles (5 entrants)

1 - Vash & Broly
2 - RedHalberd & Silly Kyle
3 - Oscar & Von

Upsets, memorable moments, and quotes

Before the tournament, those who didn't stay at the venue were more than likely housed with Sync. Sync had close to twenty people in his small on-campus apartment at UH. With quite a few of the top players staying there, Sync's was definitely the place to be before the tournament.

Inui flew in early and helped Xyro set up the Brawl room. About 30 TVs were brought in and set up, and were made to work from only five power outlets scattered about the huge room.

The first event on Friday was doubles. Razer and Gnes defeated Dojo and Ally in winner's finals, but then lost in grand finals, with Razer tripping into an Ally uptilt in game 4 of the second set to end it.

Singles pools followed doubles, with sixteen pools and the top three making it out of each pool. With so many good players, many got the shaft and didn't make it out. There were a few upsets, notably Noid's Samus defeating Rich Brown's Olimar 2-0, and Vinnie beating Razer 2-1. Pools finished at about 1 AM that night, and everyone left to get some much-needed sleep.

On Saturday was the singles bracket. Surprisingly, most of Florida was knocked into loser's bracket early, with Illmatic beating ESAM 2-1 in an early round. ESAM later lost to another Floridian, MVD, in loser's.

Trela's set with Ally was one of the most hyped sets all weekend. Trela made a great comeback and practically zero-deathed Ally to win game one. Ally won games two and three, but every game of the set went to last stock, last hit.

In a controversial set, Will defeated Rich Brown 2-1 by planking him with DK on game three of their set. Will grabbed the ledge 185 times during game three, simply because the rules called for a ledge grab limit on Meta Knight, but no other characters.

Surprisingly absent from the top of the results is Gnes, who lost to Atomsk in an early round and then RedHalberd in loser's.

Razer was absolutely on fire on Saturday. He defeated Vinnie in their rematch in loser's quarterfinals, and beat ADHD twice. In loser's finals, he 3-0'd Dojo, but then lost to Ally in grand finals. For being the highest-placing southwest player, Razer gets free entry to Clash of the Titans 5 in Philadelphia, PA! Congrats, Razer!

At tournaments, you hear people say some funny things. The runner-up for quote of the weekend goes to Xaltis, a Florida player, who, during Poltergust's low tier matches, got on the mic and started announcing, "Attention, ladies! Poltergust WILL be at the rave tonight, so make sure you attend and go see him!"

The best quote of the weekend, though, goes to Coney, who was wearing a cowboy hat at one point, and said, "I want to set grab to L, start a match with Will, and infinite him with one hand while waving the hat around with the other and yelling 'YEEEEHAWWWW!!!'"

Overall, it was a great weekend, and a very successful tournament. Thanks to everyone who came out to play, and to Xyro and Inui for running it!