So, as you may or may not be aware, WHOBO 2 is just around the corner. It is Houston's second national tournament, with last year's WHOBO pulling in 140 players, all gathered at the Anime Matsuri convention just north of Houston last April. This year promises to hold a tournament just as epic, if not more epic, than last year's. I recently sat down and talk with Xyro, the organizer of the HOBO series and WHOBO 1 and 2. We discussed the coming tournament and reminisced upon last year's event.
TALLMAN: First of all, thanks for taking the time to do this interview.
XYRO: No problem. It's an honor!
TALLMAN: So, we're good friends, and I know you're not a big fan of anime or anything like that. So why hold WHOBO at an anime convention?
XYRO: Yeah, why would an anime hater do an event at a anime convention? Anime Matsuri (AM) brings in over 2000 in each year and I wanted to take advantage of that. If AM advertised WHOBO 2 to all of those people, I know I could at least get 50 or more extra people for my event (last year it worked well). Another reason why I pick AM is because it is held in a very nice hotel and I want out-of-state (OoS)/out-of-city (OoC) players who travel to this event to experience something they have never had a chance to experience. The last reason why I choose AM is because there are plenty of other things to do other than Smash. There is a rave at midnight on Friday and Saturday, hot girls (no f-ing joke) or guys (if you swing that way), anime stuff like cosplay/movies/artwork/role play, import car shows, SBO qualifiers and Asian/anime food you will find nowhere else. You really get more than what a normal tournament experience gives you.
TALLMAN: Do you expect this year's WHOBO to be more successful than last year's?
XYRO: Last year we had 140 people enter 1 vs. 1 and this year I expect that number to be our minimum. So, yeah, I expect the numbers to grow by about 50-60.
TALLMAN: So, quite a few OoS people are coming in for this. Why don't you run down a quick list of some of the biggest names who will be in attendance.
XYRO: Just to name a few..... M2K, Ally, Lee Martin, Judge, Atomsk, Havok, Tyrant, Inui and, of course, San! Now of course there will be many, many more but these are the ones that are confirmed as of right now.
TALLMAN: Now, anyone who knows you knows that you are a fervent supporter of the pro-ban side of the Meta Knight ban debate. Why did you choose to run WHOBO2 with a MK-legal ruleset, even though it goes against your opinion?
XYRO: I knew this would come up! Ok, I'm gonna lay down the law for a sec, so check this out.
Knowing that I am the greatest TO of all time (by far), and knowing that I am the only TO willing to stand up and stop the EVIL Meta Knight from stealing matches from innocent children, I had to make a choice. Should I be a hero and be the first person to hold the first MK-banned national? Or should I cast aside my belief and allow my state to level up at WHOBO 2? After WHOBO 1, my players had a renewed urge to play Smash and get better, so I decided that leaving Meta Knight legal was the right thing to do because our state will only get stronger. Not only that but when Meta Knight dominates the top 5 or 7 or 10 I'll be able to make fun of more people (anti-bans mainly) and that is ALWAYS fun.
TALLMAN: You're running quite a few events this year. What are your thoughts on some of the biggest threats in each event?
XYRO: From out of state, I think Ally, M2K and Tyrant are our hardest foes. TX players like Gnes (Diddy Kong), Razer (Snake), and Dojo (MK) will pretty much clean house in bracket and are our best hope in defeating the three I mentioned before. What's really good about Texas is that we have several severely underrated players like Ozz (Falco) or RoyR (Marth) who can take it to 3/4ths of the people that will show up to this event.
In 2 vs. 2, any team that has UTD Zac/Dojo/Gnes/Razer/Lee Martin will be in the top 3. The only team that might beat them is Ally/M2K; it's not because of thier teamwork, it's because they are just overall better players than the people they are facing. Then again, people like Inui and Atomsk are "doubles gods," so who knows? Maybe they can upset some people.
Low tier 2 vs. 2 will be interesting because me (Samus) and Lee Martin (Ike) have a perfect record together. We have never been sent to loser's bracket when we have teamed in low tiers. At the same time M2K (Ike) and Ally (Captain Falcon) will be teaming as well. Other low tier mains like San (Ike) or you (Lucas) or Bored (Ike) have been known to be amazing so I'm pretty sure this event will not be so easy for me and Lee.
Low tier 1 vs. 1 will be nothing but Ike. I honestly can name about 10 Ikes off the top of my head and that's just in TX!!!!!
As for Sunday, I'm going to do 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 item standard play (ISP). Did you know items can be competitive? Neither did I! Also, if we have time on Sunday I'll do some melee and maybe some mid tier Brawl. Time will tell.
TALLMAN: How do you think the top 3 in singles will play out?
XYRO: M2K, Ally, and Dojo. There is a chance for Razer making it in as 3rd place because recently, he has been getting the best of Dojo here in TX.
TALLMAN: Surely, at anime conventions, you see some crazy stuff. What was the weirdest/wildest thing you saw at last year's WHOBO?
XYRO: I got to see this really obese girl (she had to have weighed over 400 lbs.) dress up in a Hello Kitty outfit with a mega tiny Hello Kitty backpack and waddle down the hallways. I was walking behind the beast and started to film it just so I could send it in to CNN and maybe win some money for finding the true Godzilla. For some reason, CNN never called me back. Oh well. (reference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOkGF0gwAfY)
TALLMAN: Same question, but relating to Smash. Craziest in-game tournament moment from last year.
XYRO: I got to see Dojo 3-0 M2K in grand finals which was pretty amazing because, at that time, no one had ever done that before. One other cool thing was a Pit player by the name of Esca 2-0'd CO18 in pools.
TALLMAN: Alright, one more thing about last year's tournament. Favorite story relating to anything about WHOBO last year.
XYRO: Other than the Hello Kitty beast? Hmm, well I housed Lain (Ice Climbers/King Dedede) in my hotel room. He walks in at about 5-6 AM the day of the tournament and pops about 20 sleeping pills and goes to sleep. Fast forward 4 hours later, and it's tourney time! So I wake up everybody and head downstairs. One problem, though, Lain didn't get up. So I head back upstairs and try to wake him up. He won't move. I slam doors. He won't move. I flick him on his face over 8 times and kinda punch him in the head. He won't move. By now I'm starting to worry so I put my head to his chest and hear no heartbeat! So I sit there and wonder if he overdosed and died in his sleep, and if I'm gonna have to put his dead body back on the train and send it home with an "Oops, he sorta died on me" note to his mom. So anyways, I took another look at him and I started screaming "LAIN! GET THE F UP OR YOU'RE DISQUALIFIED!" and he pretty much just turned over and started to snore. I was pissed! So I turned on the heater to 90 degrees, opened the blinds so the sun would fry him, and then I threw all the covers and blankets on top of him in hopes it would boil him awake. I left and within an hour he woke up and came downstairs and didnt know what had just happened. Scary ****!
TALLMAN: Not a lot of big money matches go down in Brawl, when compared to other fighting games like Marvel. However, I understand you're in a fairly big one. Care to give me the details, in your own words?
XYRO: OH ****! I DONT MIND AT ALL!
So it goes like this! I am known for literally molesting Ike players. I pretty much eat them for breakfast/lunch/dinner and sometimes for a midnight snack. Ike vs Samus is a piece of cake. About a week ago I saw the famous video of the best Ike named San who SD'd at 0% but managed to take Ally down to last hit last stock. I was impressed! So I went to the Ike boards, announced that Ike was trash, and created a thread saying how I challenge San to a $5 money match. Soon I realized that $5 is what babies do so I upped the money match amount to $100! San accepted to the rules (3/5, WHOBO rules) and we will do this epic money match on Friday during pools because that's when everybody will be in the game room. If you want to read the trash talk between me and San, check out
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=268075 TALLMAN: Alright, that's about it for the questions I have, anything you want to say to people who won't be attending WHOBO?
XYRO: Yeah, I pretty much want them to realize that if they didn't go it's because they are wimps and are not ready for a real man's tournament. So i guess it's best they didn't go.
If you would like more information on WHOBO 2, please visit
http://allisbrawl.com/ttournament.aspx?id=5806 or
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=257495 Thanks for reading!