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If you follow Texas smash at all, then you're familiar with the Hobo series already, but you're also thinking, wasn't 38 supposed to be the last one? It was, but after Xyro saw that he was needed back, he decided to host Hobo 39, and managed to get over 50 players to attend, which is the most a Texas tournament has had in a long while outside of a national.  Due to the success of Hobo 39, we're now going into the possibly supposedly final hobo (he just wanted to end it with an even number or something).  Anyways, being the last Hobo, this one will be a bit special, as the winners of each event will receive this medal.

There will be 4 events for you to try and win one of these medals at: Brawl singles and doubles, and Project M singles and doubles.  I believe if there is enough interest, there will be low tier teams as well, but I'm not sure if that one will have a medal or not.  For more info on the tournament itself, please visit the Smashboards page here and click attending if you're going.  Also, remember to click attending here on AiB if you're going.  Also, this will be a Road to Whobo 5 event; formerly known as the Lone Star Circuit 2, but due to complications with other cities, that has been cancelled and switched to this, so don't get it mixed up.

LSC 2, no.

Road to Whobo 5, yes.

Basically, all this means is that part of the venue fee used towards the events in the series will be added towards the pot for Whobo 5, so you don't have to attend all of them or accumulate circuit points.  Hope anyone who can will attend this and that Hobo ends on a great number, thanks for reading.



-Zano

Welcome back to my look back at the HOBO series. Upon reading this article, you will be brought totally up to date with this epic tournament series. Coming up after all this, the sequel to the epic WHOBO will take place, and I will be covering WHOBO 2, which is sure to be a great tournament. If you can, definitely try to make it down to Houston for WHOBO 2. But now, without further ado, enjoy reading about the rest of this fantastic tournament series thus far.

HOBO 18
September 5, 2009 - 80 entrants

Picking up a month after we left off, HOBO 18 was upon us. Planet Zero had opened back up, and we decided to hold another tournament there, to check out the new location. We got a great turnout, although not as big as the previous HOBO, it was still a very good number of people. Unfortunately, the new Planet Zero felt smaller and more crowded than their previous location, so it was tough to get around. And all of their arcade machines were still around, crowding things up even more. Because of this, we have not yet gone back there for a tournament.

But that didn't stop the tournament from being epic. Xyro once again ran this tournament with a Meta Knight-banned ruleset, and this was the last time up until now which he has done so. However, Meta Knight was allowed in teams, the ban only applied to singles play. The top 3 placers in this tournament were Razer, Gnes, and Lee Martin, in that order. Also note that Lee Martin was not able to use Meta Knight, whom he used at that time. Also, after some requests to list doubles winners, I'll be listing the top placers in doubles as well. The winners in teams at this one was a team of Lee Martin and DPhat, who beat the team of Inui and UTD Zac, who beat the team of CY and Esca of Beaumont.

GET HYPE!!!!! - In the pre-tournament hype for this tournament, a joke came out of nowhere, and turned into a legend. My good friend Gea, in the HOBO 18 thread, randomly posted "I heard Inui smells like stale Fritos." Normally, a random comment like this would go unnoticed, but for some reason, people noticed. Inui took great offense to this, but he was the only one who didn't think it was funny. Needless to say, Fritos were the hottest topic in Houston leading up to the tournament. At the tournament, Inui was using the tag "DF," which people began to joke about, saying it stood for "Dirty Fritos." Needless to say, it was a very silly, stupid joke which ran its course and died out, but was fun while it lasted.

GUEST OF HONOR - And speaking of Inui, he was the only new OoS player to show up (those in the Louisiana crew are practically regulars). Inui ended up taking first in low tier doubles, in which he teamed with Xyro, third in doubles, in which he teamed with UTD Zac, as mentioned earlier, and 9th in singles (remember, Meta Knight was banned at this tournament).

HOBO 19
October 3, 2009 - 71 entrants

A month after HOBO 18 at Planet Zero, we were back at FunPlex for HOBO 19. Also, unlike HOBO 18, Meta Knight was legal for this tournament. Dojo won this one, with Razer coming in second, and Gnes coming in third. In doubles, the team of Razer and Gnes won, with the team of DMG and UTD Zac coming in second, and the team of Lee Martin and DPhat coming in third.

GUESTS OF HONOR - In addition to Inui returning for the second HOBO in a row, Pennsylvania's own Vex Kasrani showed up to this tournament. The two of them teamed for both normal doubles and low tier doubles, and took 7th and 3rd, respectively.  In addition to Vex, Dekar from New Mexico showed up with the El Paso crew (they're so far away they're practically from another state).

BIG MONEY MATCH - To my knowledge, Brawl doesn't really run big money matches, when compared to other fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom. At HOBO's, all money matches I have seen have been anywhere from $1 to $10. But at HOBO 19, Dekar challenged Inui to a $50 money match, Diddy vs Meta Knight. And lost. Fifty bucks, gone like that. Sucks.

HOBO 20
November 7, 2009 - 40 entrants

A month after HOBO 19, HOBO 20 took place at FunPlex, once again. This tournament received a significantly lower turnout than the previous tournament, but that didn't stop it from being really awesome! Due to time constraints, Gnes and Razer split for first place, while AiB's very own Samboner (in only his second offline tournament appearance) placed third. In teams, Gnes and Razer beat Hylian and PhantomX, and Esca and Inui came in third.

GUEST OF HONOR - At this point, Inui has been coming to HOBOs regularly, so he doesn't really count as a guest of honor any more, in my opinion. However, as mentioned before, Samboner came to this, after never attending a HOBO, and he did really well. In fact, he did so well, that it brings us to our...

EPIC MOMENT - To place high in any tournament, you have to beat some big names. How did Samboner place third? Well, at some point in winner's bracket, he faced Inui. And he didn't just beat him; he wrecked him, by beating him 2-0! Then, in winner's semifinals, he had to face Razer, who rarely loses sets at HOBOs. And what does Sam do? He 2-0's Razer! However, after this, Sam got beaten by Gnes, and then again by Razer in the rematch in loser's finals. But, congratulations to Sam, for impressing a lot of people.

HOBO 21
December 12, 2009 - 50 entrants

Alright, staying on schedule, once again, at FunPlex, HOBO 21 occurred on what was likely a warm Texas day in December. This tournament had more entrants than the previous HOBO, and those who went had a good time. Winning this one, straight from New Jersey, was the best Diddy Kong player in the nation and the world, ADHD. Coming in second, was Houston's own Razer, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk user. In third place is the other best Diddy Kong player, Gnes. Teams went to Gnes and Razer, again, who beat Dojo and ADHD, and with UTD Zac and Lee Martin coming in third.
GUESTS OF HONOR - As I've already mentioned, ADHD flew in for this HOBO, his first one. He did indeed live up to the hype he brought with him, coming in first in singles and placing in second in doubles. Also attending this tournament was the ZSS player Snakeee, who ended up coming in 13th in singles. A THIRD out-of-state player was in attendance, Alex Strife, the tournament organizer from New York. He did not enter singles, but did enter doubles, placing 17th with his partner.

GET HYPE!!!!! - As I mentioned before, ADHD coming to this garnered a lot of hype, even more so when Dojo said that he would be in attendance. Naturally, a match between Dojo and ADHD was highly hyped. Would it be winner's finals? Perhaps grand finals? Only time would tell. Xyro asked me to photoshop a battle screen from Street Fighter 2 and put both Dojo's and ADHD's faces over Ryu and Guile, respectively. So, how did the epic showdown go? Well, it didn't happen.

Why didn't it happen? Well, Dojo got knocked into loser's bracket fairly early by Hylian, who then got knocked out of loser's by Razer, who had lost to Espy early on in winner's bracket. ADHD never had to face him, as ADHD stayed in winner's the whole time.

HOBO 22
February 6, 2009 - 41 entrants

After taking the month of January off, February 2010 brought about HOBO 22. The turnout was about the same as the previous few HOBOs, fairly small. For the first time, Gnes wins, with Louisiana's Lee Martin coming in second, and the almighty Razer placing third.  Gnes and Razer once again win teams (and with the greatest team name ever), Lee Martin and Trela came in second, and Esca and Inui placed third.

GUEST OF HONOR - After a while, familiar faces tend to become all too familiar, and sometimes one might overlook how far they had to travel to get to a tournament. Once again, Inui and the Louisiana crew showed up, but a new state was represented here. For the first time, players from Arkansas came to this HOBO. YOSH (a Yoshi player) and Kirby (a Kirby player) came to this, and have since returned to Houston.

BEST TEAM NAME EVER - As I mentioned before, Gnes and Razer had an amazing team name. What was the team name? It was "Don't Lecture Me on the Ethical Ramifications of Putting a Shock Collar on My Child." I'm not sure if it was actually called over the loudspeaker, as I wasn't there, but if it was, imagine how awesome that would be to hear that name so many times!

HOBO 23
March 6, 2009 - 38 entrants

The month before WHOBO 2, the so-called last practice session before said tournament came about. Because it was so close to the coming WHOBO, people decided to wait a month to come to Houston, so the turnout was a bit lower than normal. Winning this one was Razer, back on top, who beat first-timer to Houston RedHalberd, and with Gnes coming in third. In teams, Fliphop and Razer won, Esca and RedHalberd come in second, and Gnes and Trela came in third.

VIDEOS OF THE TOURNAMENT - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJD8jafClgM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCJn_IjNsQ

GUESTS OF HONOR - As you may have noticed in reading the results above, RedHalberd came to this tournament, all the way from Florida. Greatly hyped by his entire state, he didn't disappoint, only losing to Razer. In addition to RedHalberd, Trent, a Sonic player from Nebraska, flew in for this. Trent placed 17th in singles. In addition, YOSH and Kirby came again, from Arkansas, and part of the Louisiana crew came.

RAZER vs REDHALBERD - The grand finals of tournaments are usually intense, and HOBO 23 was no exception. After losing to RedHalberd in winner's finals, Razer beat Gnes in loser's finals to face Red again. Razer then proceeded to beat Red two sets in a row to win the tournament. Some highlights include a Snake ditto on Pictochat which went to the timer, Red getting stuck under Frigate Orpheon while the stage was transforming, and Razer delivering the final blow by b-airing Red's Meta Knight out of his tornado move. And in the midst of it all, Xyro delivered his trademarked trash talk. Definitely one of the better sets I've seen to end a tournament.

Well, thanks for reading, and this now brings us up to the present. If you are reading this immediately after posting, the epic WHOBO 2 will be going on as you read this. Check back soon to see a writeup of WHOBO 2, complete with videos and stories from the tournament.

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!

Welcome back to my look back at the HOBO (Houston's Official Brawl Ordeal) series, one of the most popular monthly series around. We last left off just before Xyro's biggest tournament to date: World HOBO, or WHOBO. Let's look at this and the tournaments following it.

Continue reading A Look Back at the HOBO Series, Part IV

Welcome back to the history of the HOBO series! When we last left off, HOBOs had just started to gain national recognition, and we had gotten our first out of state attendees, Mew2King, Azen, DSF, and a few others, and we have just had our first Meta Knight-banned tournament. We now continue on, with more people around the country paying attention to the series. Our journey brings us to HOBO XIII, and a few other tournaments where other players stepped up to organize their own tournaments.

Continue reading A Look Back at the HOBO Series, Part III

In the three months since Brawl's release, Houston has seen 6 tournaments. At this point, our tournaments are mainly local, with only a few people coming in from out-of-city. Our top three players are RoyR (Marth), Sethlon (Falco), and Stiltz (Olimar/Meta Knight), taking the top three spots in random order each tournament, so it seems. As we continue on our journey through the history of the HOBO series, you'll see some big changes, and new faces begin to dominate these events.

Continue reading A look back at the HOBO Series, Part II

Mew2King, Azen, DSF, Lain, Inui, MikeHaze, Tyrant, and Praxis. What do all these names have in common? They have all traveled, at one point or another, across half the country to the great city of Houston, Texas to attend a HOBO. What is a HOBO, you may ask? HOBO is not, as some people would believe, a smelly man who lives under a bridge and lives off quarters a day, but rather, an acronym standing for Houston's Official Brawl Ordeal, and it's one of the most successful and popular tournament series out there. Don't believe me? Just look at the numbers. 3 of our monthly tournaments have hit at least 100 entrants, a steady stream of players from across Texas and from neighboring states come down regularly, and a 40-player turnout is considered disappointingly low for us. Ask several big-name players such as Anti, CO18, Atomsk, and ADHD, and they'll all respond in the same way: that they all want to come down here for one of our tournaments. So, what makes this series so popular? Well, here's a look back at the past tournaments in the HOBO series.

Continue reading A Look Back at the HOBO Series, Part I