GENESIS Week on All is Brawl continues today with a look at the Super Smash Bros. Melee side of the tournament. Over 200 Melee players from around the world are expected to visit Antioch, CA for three days of intense competition. The game may be over 7 years old but the tournament community is still alive and kicking. GENESIS figures to cause a huge resurgence in Melee interest and will be a great time for any new members of the community to check out Brawl's older cousin. To celebrate this amazing opportunity we're bringing you five reasons to get super hyped about the GENESIS Melee tournaments.
Without further ado...
1. Can anyone stop Mango?
With a tournament win streak dating back to *Pound* 3,
Mango is one of the most dominant players in any era of competitive
Melee play and has mastered opponents around the United States since
his breakout tournament of Super Champ Combo.
Initially known for his Jigglypuff, Mango has recently shown
tournament-winning Fox, Falco, Sheik, and Captain Falcon characters in
addition to a few dozen high-level alternates. He is fully expected to
continue a tournament win streak that includes his own Mango Juice tournament plus east coast events Revival of Melee,
Mass Madness 16, and Gigabits Freedom to Melee (Florida). No one has
shown a serious threat to Mango's dominance in a long time... will the
resurgance of international Melee talent at GENESIS finally give the
kid from Norwalk a reason to worry?
2. Flight of the Falcons
The nation's top Captain Falcon mains in SilentSpectre, darkrain, Scar,
and Hax are converging on Antioch with the speed of a raptor in pursuit
of prey. The veteran darkrain hasn't been seen on the west coast in
years -- if ever -- and it will be interesting to see how his classic
Falcon play has adapted to changes in the metagame; SilentSpectre, a
fellow legend, has been overshadowed a little by members of his Home
Team but will look to bring his thrilling unpredictableness to center
stage; Scar, an east coast powerhouse, will try to back up his Revival
of Melee commentary johns/****-talk when faced with the inevitable
hostile west coast crowd; and Hax, the 8 year old Falcon prodigy, will
try to live up to the hype coming from the stereotypically
vocal/abusive New York community.
3. The Armada sails
The
oft-hailed best Melee player in Europe, Armada, is making his first
trip to the 'States to see how he compares to America's best. A lot is
resting on the youngster's shoulders as he fights for the honor of the
European Smash community, which for years has been brushed off as
insignificant next to the American and Japanese scenes. Throw in a lot
of trash talk, "stupid Americans," "no one has cared about Europe for
200 years," etc., and you've set the stage for an important showdown
between the Old World and the New.
As a Peach player,
Armada's biggest challenge at the tournament will likely be adapting to
playstyles native to the North American version of Melee; unlike Brawl,
the European release of Melee featured many game balance changes that
indirectly strengthened Peach by decreasing the threat of her biggest
matchup problems in Marth, Fox, and Sheik. Armada will need to quickly
adapt to the subtleties of NTSC Melee play or risk losing to Fox's
stronger u-smash and u-air or Marth's deadly d-air spike (which can be
Meteor-Canceled in Europe).
Armada will be joined by several
other Europeans traveling across the Atlantic. Slhoka, Doraki, and a
few others are coming from France, and there are rumors that Amsah (Nihonjin) will also make the trip. Throw in a bunch of talent from Canada and an Australian contingent led by the lovable CAOTIC and you're looking at easily the most international Melee tournament since 0C2.
4. The home team
The
west coast has never shown itself as the dominant region in Melee
despite being home to the unquestioned top individual players in the
nation for several years (SephirothKen in the early years and Mango in
the later, broken up by Mew2King's 1.5 - 2 year dominance until 2008).
But things may have changed this year with the shrinking of the Melee
community due to Brawl's influence. California consistently holds the
largest Melee tournaments in the US and undoubtedly has a larger
community. Household names like Mango and SilentSpectre figure to
perform well against any opponent, but which other west coast all-stars
will turn heads at GENESIS?
Zhu: perhaps best known for being on the receiving end of the Wombo Combo
(Happy Feet?), Zhu is one of the most likeable members of the Melee
community and the center of a game of tug-of-war between NorCal and
SoCal, each of which claims Zhu as part of its regional crew. (He grew
up in NorCal but moved to SoCal for university life.) Zhu turned a lot
of heads when he traveled east with Mango for Revival of Melee and will
be looking to make an equally big impact at GENESIS. His numerous matches as Fox and Falco against SilentSpectre
have become all-time Melee classics; expect sparks to fly should we be
treated to a match between Zhu and any of the top Captain Falcon talent
attending the tournament.
Pink Shinobi:
a little-known Peach player from Davis, CA, Pink Shinobi is currently
ranked #2 in NorCal (behind SilentSpectre) following amazing
performances against Zhu, SS, and other top California talent. His
Peach reminds us of Cort in its speed and FC nair abuse and will be looking to abuse anyone unused to his aggressive edgeguarding or brutal counterattacks.
Killa For Cash (KFC):
another unknown-outside-the-region NorCal player, KFC came out of
nowhere with an impressive showing at West Coast Smash League, where he
took out NorCal favorite TANG and came a shine away from beating Zhu.
As a subscriber to the Azen/Drephen School of Thought, KFC's Marth is a
frighteningly-patient flurry of tippers and edge-guards. East coast
players may be accustomed to Cactuar's faster style of Marth play, so
KFC has a shot at ruining a few OOS players' runs through the bracket.
5. The visitors
This is a VERY SMALL SUBSET of the rest of the amazing Melee talent expected at GENESIS:
- The
super old school: D.B.R. itself (Zelgadis, GERM, King, Bob Money,
sidefx), Wife (sans Husband), HugS, Darkrain, Drephen, Caveman, DoH
- The middle sibling: Mew2King, Silent Wolf, Eggz, SilentSpectre, Xif, Xelic, Cactuar
- The kids: Lucky, DaShizWiz, Kage, PKMVodka, Darc, Pakman
We don't know if Melee crews will happen, but even without them there's going to be plenty of regional pride on the line. Will the old-school names show the kids how they dominated back in the day? Or will the younger generations show how Melee continues to evolve and expand to this day?
neal's challenge to both communities
GENESIS
is a rare opportunity for all sections of our community to come
together to celebrate an amazing family of games. Most Brawl/Melee
combined tournaments turn into petty verbal fights between the two game
crowds, with the "Brawl kids" facing off against the "Melee elitists,"
fighting for pride involving video games designed for children. Very
mature, right? Why don't we try setting aside that antagonism for three
days and enjoy each others' company?
Brawlers: take a
break from watching unimportant pool matches to take a peak at the
Melee side of the room. Try to catch a few singles bracket matches.
Melee is a very fun game to watch and I guarantee you'll be entertained
should you be lucky enough to find a match with a skilled Captain
Falcon player.
Melee players: there will be 400
potential converts at the tournament for you to reintroduce to Melee.
They're obviously interested in competitive Smash, so show them how fun
and exciting Melee is and maybe you'll win a few new community members.
It happens every day.
See you Friday!