GhaudePhaede010: What can be said about this man that some random poster on smashboards and/or AllisBrawl has not already said? Does anyone here not have an opinion on this man? Should I even do this intro? Too bad; he is not special, he gets one anyway! To the five people reading this interview that do not know, I am interviewing Ally! Thee one and only, Ally. Who is Ally? Who is Ally? Who in the **** is Ally? Really? Who is Ally? Try Canada's best player! Try North America's top player! Try the best Snake player the world has ever seen! Try a National event winner. Try an International event winner. Try the premier WiFi gladiator. Try a part time rapper, journeyman, interracial dater, and stand up classy guy. Try a man of controversy when he switched from maining an amazing Snake to maining a dominant Metaknight. Try the man most people consider to be a pillar of the Smash community and its best representative. Try a Smash LEGEND! Yeah, you try to google all those things and you will get direct links to this man: ALLY!!! Ally, thank you so much for doing this interview. It is an honor to conduct this with you. Thank you!

Ally: lt's an honor too to contribute to AiB and your work, it will be a pleasure to answer any questions you have. I am pretty Excitebike for this upcoming weekend

GhaudePhaede010: Shout-outs to Excitebike! As with Nairo, I am going to touch a bit on APEX before we go into SKTAR. My first question for you is simple; how did you feel about your performance at APEX?

Ally: Hmm Apex... I don't feel bad about my performance, lost to Otori and Nietono. I think Otori got me good. I felt like I could have beaten Nietono if someone wasn't distracting me (though he was trying to help, I just wasn't ready to listen and play). In the end, I think I did overall pretty good. I'm pumped for the Japanese if they come back. I'll put up a better fight haha hopefully.

GhaudePhaede010: Speaking of someone being in your ear, you have a different kind of relationship with that ear muncher, Mew2King. Is the rivalry still as strong as it once was between you two? And did he have to kind of like, "earn" your respect?

Ally: I'd say our rivalry isn't that active anymore, we played one set since Genesis 2, I won it but I don't think we cared that much I'll always say we're even vs each other. I always respected him though.

GhaudePhaede010: You had an amazing set with Nietono. It was epic for me to watch because you did put up a mighty fight. Did you contemplate going Snake against Nietono? Were there any major differences between the Japanese and thee American play style?

Ally: I was thinking about Snake for maybe 10 seconds but my mind totally moved to a HELL NO! I think I was confident with Metaknight, it just didn't go as I planned. They are pretty confident and almost never screw up techs. That's their strengths, in my opinion.

GhaudePhaede010: Do you think you could get them next time?

Ally: Perhaps. I will definitely put the practice in. I underestimated them and I'm glad there's amazing players like them around this world.

GhaudePhaede010: Moving on to SKTAR and I am going to go right into the big story. Obviously, you vs. Gluttony is all the talk and all the hype. If you two do not play each other, I will want my money back. Are we going to see a salty run back of your Snake vs. his Wario or are we going to see your Metaknight this time? Did the crowd have an impact on your performance the first time? And how confident are you that he will not best you again?

Ally: Yeah I'm semi-hyped. I don't like fighting Wario that much. But you will most likely see my Metaknight fight him unless it's a money match or Grand Finals; I'll be using Snake for that but not before. I'm trying to win. I do think the crowd had a huge impact on me. It really destroyed my focus; I had nothing going on in my mind except panic. I honestly think I'll win with Metaknight. Didn't Neath beat him?

GhaudePhaede010: Oh SNAP!!!!! Neath call-out. Good times! SKTAR is a big event and I know you have probably met everyone in attendence. Instead of getting to know who you would like to meet, I will ask who do you most enjoy being around when at an event of this size? Who do you enjoy chilling with outside of thee event?

Ally: Mostly hanging out with myself. And outside of the event, I will have to go with...um, myself. It's always good spending time with someone who isn't annoying! Always calling my name when I'm trying to ignore them... Yep. Exactly that. But umm I'd say Mr. R and whoever is cool. I have a lot of favorites. Oh and Pikachu makes good company. He only says his name so it's easier to ignore.

GhaudePhaede010: Lololol. Pika-pika. That is a good point. What if Pikachu accidentially electro-shocks you? It happens... and it hurts! You are teaming with Nairo at SKTAR and I have to admit, you two are my favorite to win doubles. Is there anyone at this event you feel can pose a serious threat to you two? Since you cannot go double Metaknight, I assume I will be seeing your Snake in doubles?

Ally: Yeah, it's better to leave Pikachu in a pokeball. Honestly, I see M2K + Trela being one of the hardest teams. Especially with the Anubis strategy. There's a ton of teams that could be a threat but I'm not sure. You will most likely see my Snake or Wario, they're my best I think.

Ghaudephaede010: Do you believe double Metaknight should be banned?
 
Ally: I do think it's better to have double MK banned but that's my opinion. It's just too much slashing/tornadoing sounds for my head to bear at the end of the tournament. Drives me crazy.

GhaudePhaede010: D-tilt, F-air, u-air, shuttle loop, tornado times 4... wha wha wha wha!!!! Over 100 players plan to attend SKTAR, does the size of thee event have any positive or negatives for you? Does it get you any more or less excited to know that the tournament will have a large number of entrants? Also, does the fact that it is a two day event bother you at all? It used to get to me because I could be playing well on day one and then day two I would not be properly warmed up or tired and obviously play beneath my expected quality. Does something like this ever happen to you?

Ally: For the same reasons as you; I do not enjoy 2 days events because like at Apex, we did not get any warmups for doubles at all. Straight brackets due to day 1 of Brawl being horribly ran and giving us about 5 hours of sleep MAXIMUM. The positive of the size? Money. And the negative... uh is money a negative? Yeah, guess there's only a positive. And seeing all the different players makes it worth traveling to. I hope I won't be too tired to play by day two... If I don't get all my sleep I'll probably be dropping some dope rhymes 'cause I rap when I'm tired.

Ally: It's also fun having more than a few good players in bracket... makes it more challenging.

GhaudePhaede010: Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa WTF? You drop, "dope rhymes?" Tell me there is a youtube video of this somewhere?

Ally: No youtube videos because I'm usually well-rested, sorry!

GhaudePhaede010: With some top European talent coming here for SKTAR and a couple of them saying they always wanted to come to America for a tournament, where would you like to travel that you have never been for gaming or for fun?

Ally: I would want to go to Europe again (aiming for Germany) or Japan. I hear they drop dope rhymes there.

GhaudePhaede010: The Germans are sick with their rhyme game. I met a German dude that was going between English and German for his word play. One of the sickest rhymers I ever heard. Are the days of you needing to prove yourself a distant memory? Do you ever feel pressure to place these days? If you place outside the top three at SKTAR, will it get to you? I know when I met you at Winterfest that loss to Co18 really, REALLY got to you. Talking to you for a few minutes afterward, I got emotional with you because I could see your frustration and emotion. Are you still that emotional player or have you changed over the years?

Ally: If I do not make top 3 at this no, I will not be Winterfest Ally. I used to get pretty sad when I did horrible because everyone was overhyping me on the boards. They held me up so high that it was a harder fall to take when I didn't live up to the hype. After a lot of tournaments, I learned to ignore the expectations and just play my best without being disappointed. Thanks for talking to me at Winterfest. I really appreciated it. There's always pressure during tournaments, that's what pushes me to do better. I don't feel like I have to prove my skills to anyone but myself. Maybe Japan since they beat me when they last came but I'll prove myself when they come back to U.S..

GhaudePhaede010: I watched most of EVO this weekend as a lot of people in the Smash community did. After seeing the format, should Smash get back on EVO? Do you think it is possible for this game to maintain thee interest of that large an audience for that kind of time? Does Smash even have a place at EVO?

Ally: I don't know. We have no support from Nintendo so it'll make it very unlikely for us to come back. There is a tournament that is hosting Brawl and Melee called Revelations 2012 on august 17th so we'll see how that goes. No, I don't think Smash will ever maintain an audience that size.

GhaudePhaede010: I know your answers sounds a bit critical and grim but I agree with you and I believe that to be a fair assessment. I know you from your gamefaqs days and I know you got a great start with thee online community. When you go to big events like SKTAR, do you notice a difference in attitude between online conversations and in person conversations? Do you prefer online or offline and do you still make time for AiB ladder and stuff like that?

Ally: People don't talk smack to your face. It's easier to hide online. Not to say that they don't trash talk in the crowd during matches but it's never face-to-face (as far as I can remember). In general, people are less rude in-person. I usually have less time to interact with people at bigger tournaments because I'm too busy money matching and practicing. I prefer offline in regards to both playing and social interactions. And I do save about one day a season for AllisBrawl ladder to make it to top 32 atleast.

GhaudePhaede010: What? You can make top 32 in one day? One day!??! Before we depart, I have a personal bonus question: Having a brother that played the game at high level (your brother is Holynightmare... fellow R.O.B./Metaknight main) must have made for some interesting conversations. At one tournament, my brother infamously forgot to program his jump button (plays with tap jump off) for game 3 (he switched to Lucas so he control switched to b-sticking) costing us the set. The match was on live stream too making me even madder. We basically got into a screaming match and embarrassed the **** out of both of us. Has there ever been a time when you and your brother got into it over Smash? And what is it like to have to face him (my brother and I refused to play one another) in bracket? Do you feel great when you would win or was it bitter-sweet?

Ally: Sometimes, in teams we'd argue about who's doing wrong and who's doing better. Like, he'd laser me and I'd tell him to stop screwing me up with it (which is true, he knows it!). Facing my brother is annoying unless it's in Winners Finals or Grand Finals. I don't like to take him out of tournaments. It's not an actual good feeling for either of us. We play each other so often that it seems a little bit unfair since we know each other's play style so well. I did feel good when I beat my brother and his partner TO Joe sooo long ago because he was totally sure he'd beat me and my girlfriend so he didn't care about not teaming with me (haha you messed up). But I felt bad after we won the whole tournament because they got third. Would have been nice if they got second.

GhaudePhaede010: That is such an awesome answer. I am super glad I asked. Ally, thank you so much for coming in and doing this interview. I totally appreciate you taking the time out to hype this event and talk to me again. It is such an honor. Do you have anything to add to the hype of this event that you feel you need to say? If you have any shout-outs or e-hate, please send them out now. And if you have a twitter and/or facebook where people can follow and add you, please let us know now!

Ally: Thank you for interviewing me, it was a pleasure. For the tournament itself, I think we'll see a lot of unexpected results. I'm still going to go hard and win it! Beware because I'll be trying pretty hard so watch out Gluttony and everyone else. Remember to enjoy the tournament and embrace the competition, I can't wait to see some old heads   Oh and Vinnie, 50$ MM still going I hope because I'm wrecking you.

Ally: I also like ketchup chips.

Ally: But again, thank you!

Want to see where Ally vs Gluttony hype comes from?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zZtsS3dK7I
See if it ends this weekend!