Recent News

As our continued effort to improve in 2013 we have added some high level staff members. The individuals are all motivated and have ideas and goals to further things around here. Each of them have provided introductions to let you, the community, know about a bit about themselves and things they want to accomplish. 

Next to each of their names below you will find their department/realm. If you guys have ideas, feedback, or thoughts for their department I strongly encourage you to communicate with them. PMs, wall posts, interpretative dance, whatever works for you. Each of them cares about improving and wants to hear from the community as to ways we can do that. 

Also, in keeping with this improvement in 2013 theme we have a couple ways for you to get involved and or provide feedback. At the bottom on the page you will find a general staff applications and content team application procedures. We are looking for new people that have the desire to make a positive contribution and get involved in staff. If thats you head to the bottom of the page to apply now. 

We also have a Ladder Survey. Since our new ladder format announcement there has been some solid feedback that has given us additional things to think about and talk over. So prior to finalizing our full on ladder plan for the upcoming season we wanted to solicit some additional feedback. Let us know what you think here.



Staff Introductions 

TheEnigmaLiesBroken- Head of Staff 

Dear Members,  

It is a priviledge to introduce myself as the new Head of Staff of All is Brawl. As a longtime member and somebody that has benefited immensely from the community which has gathered here over the years, I am looking forward to this new role as an opportunity to try to give back.    

I've been fortunate enough to work with several amazing people over the last 4 and a half years here. During that time, I have gained a ton of rewarding experience interacting with the Smash community, it's higher level players, tournament operators, smash modders, and those of you who just appreciate the series in general. During that time I've helped expand and maintain sections of the forums, created a skin for the site, managed a huge trading card game, helped organize certain events, wrote tons of guides in Smash Development, and had the opportunity to be a part of several other things across the site. Along the way I've become friends with a number of amazing people and I can't be any happier with the community as a whole.    

My new, expanded administrative role as Head of Staff will hopefully allow me to accelerate that momentum and carry us into a fulfilling beginning of the next generation of Smash and the next generation of AllIsBrawl.    I'm a firm believer in setting SMART goals and sharing those goals with the people that help us get there. That means YOU, AIB. I find that sharing goals is a great way to stay accountable and focused. There is no such thing as magic wand that we can wave and change the community without the help of our members. I feel like sharing the goals with the community and making a site wide group effort to achieve those goals will make it possible to achieve anything we want. 

I want to help strengthen our community by perhaps applying a new outlook on staff members ability to work together to help expand our sphere of influence, be organized and stay in the know with our members.    

Staff Factions - I want to try to organize our staff in such a way that is isn't impossible to reach higher level moderators whenever there is an emergency that needs to be handled. I want to try to create an environment where AIB users can feel free to approach staff openly without feeling like they're over stepping their boundaries through a chain-of-command type system that will allow quicker communication between the users, the staff, and the higher management so that we can get things done.    

Technology - At this point I can safely say that your pleas for change have been heard and I will do all in my power to help those wishes get granted. Slowly at first, but over time we aim to improve the community and make it easier for users to feel like their activity and contribution to the site are valuable to us and see their efforts rewarded. User name colors, more attention to the ladders and freeplay chats in an effort to prevent spam, fights, and other disruptive chat abuse from happening before it starts. Rewards for participation, community events and more. Your requests have been heard and I will be doing all that I can to help make those dreams a reality.    We want to attract new users to the site, bring a new spark of life to the ladders and the forums. 

We want to be an attractive community for users and possibly sponsors, which allows for better prizes from the ladder, creating a win-win for everyone involved. But at the end of the day, we can't come close to achieving these ambitious goals without you. Remember guys, the biggest help to the AIB community is, and will always be, the AIB community. You are our backbone. Without your input, your suggestions and your willingness to keep this place clean, we can only do so much. I want you all to want to improve the site, not just want someone else to do it for you.  

Please consider my inbox or the Site Feedback forum as an open line of communication and continue letting us know what we're doing right and what we could be doing better to make All Is Brawl a better site for you all. I will make it a habit to check the feedback forum each and every time I log in right alongside my now habitual checking of the Issue Resolution forum.    I'm looking forward to working with each and every one of you in the future.    

Sincerely,  
E.Nigma 
=========================== 

Linkz- Head of Ladder   

Fellow All is Brawl Users,

I’m very elated to introduce myself as the newest site Administrator, and more importantly, your new Head of Ladder. I’m looking forward to paving the way towards what will hopefully be a new chapter for the site ladder.

I’ve been involved with the ladder since my early days on the site and eventually joined the site staff as a ladder referee. From there, I worked my way up the staff ranks to ladder administrator, super moderator, and now administrator and Head of Ladder. I’ve gained a large amount of experience throughout my time on staff, and plan to use it to hopefully bring back some hype to Singles, Doubles, and any future ladders we may or may not add.  

I know that as of late the ladder has been the subject of much controversy, for lack of a better word. The overall idea of the new playoffs structure received far more negative feedback than was originally anticipated. I’m here today to tell you that your concerns have not gone unheard. I'm currently working on tweaking the system we presented to you in order to better suit everyone’s likes and dislikes.

Seeing as how the ladder is for everyone, it’s only natural that everyone gets to give some input on how they think things should go. This article contains a link to a survey in which you can provide further feedback on the ladder structure. Please take this as an opportunity to voice your opinion and possibly leave your mark on how the ladder works.

Of course, I don’t want your feedback limited solely to public announcements. If at any point you have a comment, concern, or if you even want to pitch a brand new idea for the ladder, whether it be for playoffs or for a new ladder altogether, please speak up.

The Site Feedback Forum and my Inbox are the best ways to make sure your opinions reach me, as I check both of those pretty much daily. As Head of Ladder, I also oversee the ladder staff, so if you feel someone isn’t doing their job properly (say you feel your dispute wasn’t handled correctly), please come talk to me about that as well. You can either PM me, or we can set up a time to meet on Skype.

I look forward to running the new ladder for you guys.

Sincerely,

Linkz

=========================== 

lightlanayru - Head of AiB Content 

Greetings to the AiB community,  

For those who may or may not know me, I am lightlanayru (mostly referred to as Trish). I have been working with the AiB staff for a little over three years now, and I have observed the many changes that have taken place over the years. Along with the rest of the higher-ups and staff, I will assist them in strengthening the site and its community as a whole through my duties. As Enigma stated, sharing goals is a great way to stay focused and connected with one another. Today, I would like to introduce myself as two of the main site positions I uphold onto: Head of Tournaments and Head of the Content Team.   

Tournaments → I watch over everything in the site regarding tournaments; from the hosting of tournaments, the beta testing of Tio Tournament Organizer and TioPro, to the uploading and processing of tournaments and its brackets. Yup, you name it! We will also find better uses of the tournament chats, too. If you have questions regarding on how to host tournaments, technical issues with the TioPro program or with your tournament's page, or if you have a request for us to process the results of your tournaments... you may message me, or I can direct you to a tournament admin of your tournament's region. We do not bite at all, and I promise you that it's a short process. 

Content → Since the retirement of Invinciboy and the inactivity of Miles of SmashWiki, I was the last one standing in what used to be the triumvirate of the Content Team. As the current site movement will go under way, I am announcing another Content Team open call! There's always more room to add to the flow of content. If you like to write to your heart's content, be creative, keep track of the ladder or the smash scene, or even host site contests for the community, this is the section for you. While we already have tournament coverage writers filled, we're definitely on the lookout for those who want to share new ideas and let the creativity flow! So if you are interested, follow the application process below!  

I believe that is all I can present to you. But hey, we all have our goals to accomplish here that will keep this site as lively as it should be! If you really wish for this site to improve for the next generation, we cannot do it alone. There is a reason why a community exists, and that is to work together. Believe me, your help will be very much appreciated and can definitely push AiB to the right direction. I will now conclude this with a certain lyric to keep in mind. (Props to whoever can figure out where this came from. xP)  

"Each of us holds the key to the Power of One." 

Yours truly,

lightlanayru

===========================   

Staff Applications - We have a staff application for you to fill out here. Simply do so by Wednesday April 17th and you will hear back from our new Head of Staff Engima within a week of the deadline. 

Content Team Applications - We are looking for people that want to contribute content. Videos, interviews, written pieces, and more. Any content that the community wants to see, we want to provide. You can provide content of your own ideas/creativity or our content team leaders can help provide direction in some content you could create. To apply simply email one example of a video or written piece you have done, your AiB username, and why you want to join the content team to content@allisbrawl.com. Submission Deadline- Wednesday April 17th

Ladder Survey - Use the following link to let us know what you think about the ladder going forward.Give us your ladder feedback here 

The Content Team is looking for Videographers. There are a ton of videographers in the community that make a video, put it on YouTube, and then it gets around 300 views. Why does this happen? AiB has the power to spread that video between hundreds of players on a daily basis. Not to mention that those players will show their friends and then those friends will spread it between their friends, until the video that started with 300 views can have 1500, maybe even a 3000.

Continue reading Videographers Wanted!

Do you want to be a part of the fantastic team that is behind the Site Content? All is Brawl is looking for a brand new group of writers who will push the envelope in terms of producing varied, interesting, and informative Smash content for everybody who visits the site. We’re looking for Smashers who, besides pwning at Smash (you don't really have to be amazing), possess rock-solid writing skills and are willing to share them with the community.

Continue reading Content Team Open Call

Do you have ideas for articles for AllisBrawl?  Looking to try out your writing skills?  Maybe you just think you're better than the Content Team?

Well then, this is the moment you've been waiting for.  As of right now, you may submit any articles you think merit being posted to the front page of AllisBrawl to me, Miles of SmashWiki.  Just send me a PM for the full details. We don't take suggestions; we take drafts. Any submissions will of course be fully credited to their author(s).

Let me preemptively answer a few of your questions and comments, hm?

"Is it really that simple?"  The answer, of course, is yes.

"What can my article be about?"  Your article can be about whatever you want, within reason.  While we would obviously look for articles that relate to Smash or AiB itself, submissions can be about other topics as well.  Note that if an article is about something too distant from what this site covers, however, it will not be selected.

"But Miles, I'm not qualified to join the Content Team!" or maybe "But Miles, I don't have the time to commit to joining the Content Team!"  This asks you to do neither.  This request for submissions is understood as a chance to give other members of the community besides the Content Team to write articles for this site.

"Is nealdt really OK with you doing something this ridiculous?" 

nealdt: "Yes. "

 

*Picture may have been added for dramatic effect

Hello AiB and welcome to the third installment of Methodical Madness. Well, this is actually the fourth installment but for some odd reason my second article got overlooked. Apparently it was illegal or something. I didn't argue it becuase, yeah, that sounds like something I would do. Anyway, this article will be shorter then my usual stuff. I figured I'd give Miles of SmashWiki a break from having to edit all of the grammar mistakes from my lengthy reports this time so I'm gonna be a bit more direct with this one. =P

It's as if Mewtwo was watching out for me because the moment I got finished interviewing PhantomWings for my last article a miracle happened. A little project that I'd never heard of before called "BrawlBox" popped into my life out of nowhere and turned the entire Brawl hacking universe up side down for me.

As of late, a continuous slew of updated hacks for Brawl have come about just begging to be exploited further. This series of events, of which I shall from now on refer to as "The Pattern" (Yay for Fringe references), has lead up to the development of a program that has single handedly simplified everything we know about basic customization of Brawl's infinitely restricted character selection. Everything from a character's textures to the character's animations can be exported, modified, and re-imported to replace the old materials with not so much as a single complicated step.

Today we salute Kryal, the creator of BrawlBox. His efforts have been greatly appreciated by many and will continue to benefit us all in the coming months whilst we attempt to fully modify the character roster in order to add new players to the game.

Introducing...



Brawl Box

BrawlBox has, for lack of a better word, revolutionized the way that we view the world of Brawl customization. This program gives one the ability to open up encrypted files from the disc and view them in a simplified and effective manner.



Each feature of BrawlBox has been added to give the user significant control over what they want to do with the game. It comes complete with tools to open and view ARChive Pack (*.pac), Compressed ARChive (*.pcs), BRResource Pack (*.brres), MSBin Message List (*.msbin), Sound Archive (*.brsar), and Sound Stream (*.brstm) files. Exporting these files used to be a painful task but with BrawlBox it has become little more than a click of the mouse.



The program allows the user to view a great deal of things within the character's make up in order to really get a feel of everything that's going on inside the game. It has a built in texture viewer that lets you see which textures you're exporting before you put them into your favorite editing program for modification.

Can you guess who this is? I'm sure you can.



Along with that the program gives the user the ability to view a character's model data as well. In the model viewer the user has the option of opening a character's motion files in a side menu which will allow them to view a character's individual animations frame by frame and, with the right amount of skill, make changes to them. However, there isn't a built in animation modifier tool so making changes to an animation is very hard work at this point has to be done numerically frame by frame. By the time someone finished reanimating a character from scratch there would probably be an animation program available.

Another cool thing you can do is swap animations between characters. If you want to see Ganondorf do Snake's Nair you can!



Brawl has tons of security measures which force the game to freeze if certain standards aren't met. A character's .pac file is only allowed to be so big when loaded into the game or it will freeze, if it is too small it will freeze, if a character's bones don't match up they will freeze, and there are probably a ton of undiscovered reasons hiding amongst the files as well. This makes editing characters a complete pain in the butt.

The biggest problem at the moment is the bone structure of a model. To the left you see the bones of the assist trophy Gray Fox. To the right we have the playable character Marth. As you can see the difference in the sheer amount of bones is pretty drastic. At first glance you might not think so, but take a look at marth's left hand.



It alone consists of more bones than most of Gray Fox's entire upper body. To port Gray Fox over Marth's model would almost definitely cause the game to freeze because Marth's animations would make calls for bones that weren't available in the model.



Sadly we are unable to extract the bones from one model and import them into another (believe me, I've tried about 10 different ways with no success). You have to extract the entire model or nothing at all. Extracting a model's bones and polygons does nothing when importing it into a new model without everything else that's supposed to go with it.

There is currently only one way to successfully do it and that method is to replace an alloy's model (red, green or yellow - blue has too many bones) with the model of an assist trophy but those characters are glitchy, freeze the game on occasion, and they don't have the ability to ledge grab, dodge, or use B-button special moves.


Another interesting feature of BrawlBox is that it allows the user to modify some of the text within the game as well. One fan favorite is that you are capable of changing the names of the songs that are playing during the battle. The name of the song will appear at the beginning of the battle between some music notes, I'm sure you've noticed this. In combination of the Dynamic SD Loader code you are able to put custom music in your game and have it labled correctly during your battle without having to use tons of Hex to simply change the names that appear on screen. BrawlBox gives you a simple method of doing it right there in the program. Just find the name of the song you want, erase it and type something new. Now when you start your battle instead of "Final Destination" showing up on your screen you'll see "My Milkshake Brings All of the Young Fellows Over Into my Yard" if you wish.

One of the funnier things that I did with my game was change the names of the difficulty levels of the CPU's AI.

CPU Levels
1.) PUNY ==> F-TIER
2.) WIMPY ==> D-TIER
3.) WEAK ==> C-TIER
4.) NORMAL ==> B-TIER
5.) HARDY ==> A-TIER
6.) STRONG ==> S-TIER
7.) BURLY ==> JESUS CHRIST
8.) MIGHTY ==> HOLY ****
9.) NASTY ==> CHUCK NORRIS

Not to mention all of the other weird crap that it lets you do >.>

It's that time again. We've got new additions to the AiB Content Team.

First of all, to everyone who applied, thank you. You remind everyone of why AiB is so great -- because it has a brilliant community behind it. Neal, JV, Peachy and I want to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to apply to write for this site. There were many incredible applications, hence the long time it took us to come to a decision about who to select.

Well, we've come to a decision, and all of the members you see below are simply fantastic. We were highly impressed by what they sent in, and we're excited to see what they'll bring to the site. They've got lofty expectations to meet. Let's cheer them on.

Without further ado... the brand-new members of the All is Brawl Content Team.

Continue reading The. New. Content. Team.

Hey guys, check this video out. It's from Chill on CGC VI.

I took some videos from CGC, but I can't really make it into one whole video since I didn't take any consistent footage that documented my day from start to finish. So, nothing from me... unless you want to see an epic match of rock-paper scissors...

Anyway, a quick word about the new Content Team: If you applied, I, surfingnc and Peachy will be choosing new members of the team shortly. We've been thinking about selections, and we'll be getting together soon to talk about the candidates.

That's it for now... more soon.

 

If you wanna share yo' stuff with da Smash community, send it in, mang.


Continue reading SMASHScene: CGC VI (plus Content Team update)

Our site is always growing, always evolving, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to slow down anytime soon. With that we are pleased to bring you this new home page graphical redesign.

Now for some more fun news. Do you want to be a part of the evolution? All is Brawl is looking for a brand new group of writers who will push the envelope in terms of producing varied, interesting, and informative Smash content for everybody who visits the site. We’re looking for Smashers who, besides pwning at Smash, possess rock-solid writing skills and are willing to share them with the community.

Even if you don’t have a great idea for a piece right away (or maybe you do) and just want to write, that’s great. There will be brainstorming sessions with your fellow Contenters. So if you are short on ideas at the moment, don’t let that stop you from applying. We just need active people who are passionate about bringing some great content to the AiB community.

Bonus Points, and PolarJunkie-baked cookies if you have extensive knowledge on the following:

Tier and character updates. As it relates to the evolving metagame. (Maybe Yoshi is making waves as a Meta Knight counter? We want the community to hear about it.)

Advanced Smash theory.

Stories/Thoughts on how best to use AiB to get involved in the community.

Tournament scene and Smashfest coverage, videos, player interviews. (We are really looking for tournament scene and player coverage. Maybe you just want to video-blog your tournament experience. Maybe you can let the world know who the top players are in your region, provide interviews, videos, crazy jokes or words (No Johns!, JV _ Stocked!, etc. Bottom line is we want consistent live news coverage.)

These positions are on a volunteer basis, and we're looking for at least one article every three weeks (that said if you are doing video tournament coverage or something, and it's great, we would be interested in case-by-case content from you). If you can provide an absolutely fantastic article every three weeks, then you've bought yourself a ticket onto the All is Brawl Content Team. Have fun, and good luck!

But wait that’s not all. As you can tell by the graphic this go-around I am no Da Vinci. With all these new pretty story box graphics we are looking for artists willing to share their expertise and come on board the AiB graphics team to help make Allis a pretty place. We are only looking for artwork as regards to the need for stories or graphical redesign. So there would not be a big-time commitment and assuming you are busy during a given time hopefully another Graphics Team member could pick up the slack. That’s the point of having a team! So get your application in now!

To apply, send a short bio about yourself as well as a sample article or artwork to content[at]allisbrawl.com. If you have any questions, feel free to send to any our amazing content team leadership group, PolarJunkie, PeachyAenne, or surfingnc. Graphics questions go to LadyMartel. We'll be accepting applications until Sunday, February 22, and we'll announce the newest additions to the Content Team shortly after.

A few weeks ago, many of you submitted articles and writings in order to prove you had what it takes to become an AiB Content Team member. After hours of examining MANY excellent submissions, we are proud to announce the new AiB Content Team members! (NOTE: These are the new additions to the content team, not a new content team!)
Please give a warm AiB welcome to the new team members!

Continue reading to find out who they are!

Continue reading Announcing: The New AiB Content Team Members!

Just a reminder to submit your writing applications for the content team tonight by 11:59PM EST. Thank you to those of you (a lot of you!) who already submitted your sample articles/content.
So if you haven't submitted your piece then HOP TO IT! We have already started looking at the articles that were submitted first and it has been a tough decision! We seriously have some talented and creative writers here in the AiB community.
If you have not submitted a sample article or if you missed the announcement last week, simply write a sample article about anything (doesn't have to be about Smash but it would be better if it was) and send it to content@allisbrawl.com. The results will be up sometime within the next week or two!

Again, the deadline is TONIGHT at 11:59PM EST!

We here at All is Brawl love good articles. Our goal is to provide some of the most interesting and informative reading material on Smash for all types of Smashers, casual and hardcore alike. So, if you’re a great writer and have a passion for Smash and the Smash community, we’d be thrilled to have you write for us right here at All is Brawl.

How do you get started? Easy. Simply write a sample article to give us an idea of your talents, and then send it off to content@allisbrawl.com. This article can be on anything you want. Extra points given if it’s a really good article on Smash. ^_^

Also, be sure to include any area in which you’d like to focus your writing. Specific topics that we’re currently looking for are:

• Tournament scene coverage, videos, player interviews
• All is Brawl Ladder coverage
• Tier and character updates
• Advanced Smash theory
• How best to use the All is Brawl site to get involved in the community; articles about big groups of features on All is Brawl, explaining what they are and how they can lead to a better Smash community
• Tournament tips
• We’re looking for an experienced tournament host to write articles on features of tio and how it helps them run better tourneys.
• We’re also looking for someone to write Host of the Month features.
• Lastly, any type of unique content is welcome.

These positions are on a volunteer basis, and we’re looking for one article per week/two weeks. Positions are open until they fill. We’ll be accepting applications until Tuesday, September 16, and we’ll announce the newest additions to the Content Team shortly after. Have fun, and good luck!