My Smash Past, Part 2: College

Jake and I played Smash all the time. It was on a much lower evolutionary scale when compared to the Community, of course, so another four years or so obviously didn't give rise to great improvement. But we had great grounding in the fundamentals and knew the ins and outs of everything (or so we thought). But the day Soup graduated high school, it didn't even occur to me that my Smash days might be numbered. In eighth grade, sheltered within the walls of an extremely small private school (I'm talking twenty-five kids from third to eighth grade here), I was only just scratching the surface when it came to understanding what high school would be like. No, graduation only seemed like another birthday or Christmas at this point: loads of shouting, food, and people wearing funny hats. But as soon as Soup would get on his flight and leave for Boston, I'd be short my only Smash comrade.

Soup's brother, John, played with me now and then, but it was nothing like the floaty, Sheik-playing dude I was used to. I soon picked up the pace in the Fox matchup, though, and was wiping the floor with "Jamn" every step of the way. He soon got discouraged and also quit for less mind-exercising video games. Now he and my brother were in the same boat in the respect that neither would play 1v1's. And FFA's/Teams were out of the question unless Soup was playing. I take full responsibility for Jamn backing away from the game. I had a lot of growing to do and all I was focused on was winning all the time. I thought, "If I'm winning, I'm obviously doing something right." But what I failed see was Jamn's need for help. He was a great player, especially for his age. It's a shame he quit when he did.

All of this simply lead me to the conclusion that more Soup meant more Smash, so obviously I was overjoyed when I heard he was coming to visit during the upcoming summer.

I called Soup right as the end of my Freshman year came to a close, worried to see if he wouldn't be "into" Smash anymore. But to my bewildered gratitude, Soup seemed more excited than I was! The next day, he popped in through the door without even letting us know that he was coming, bounced in the easy chair, and challenged me to a game. I agreed, and I soon found out that this Soup was not the Soup I once knew. This Soup, even with Sheik, was producing crazy movements and he just seemed so much faster! I was appalled when, after the first game, he had four stars beneath his name... next to my zero. Nothing seemed to compute. How was this even possible? Every game, he seemed to know exactly what I was going to do! I was so mesmerized by the movement of his character that on top of my mediocrity, I lost focus. After a few matches, I asked him how he got so freakin' good! He told me that he met this guy up in Boston, Julien, who showed him all this stuff. (Julien's gamer handle was MoFo. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm referring to PC-Chris's-good-friend-MoFo. First-person-to-implement-the-drillshine-infinite-consistently-MoFo.) I begged him to show me what he knew and he was happy to teach me what he referred to as "tech skill."

I didn't understand any of it. L-Cancelling? Wavedashing? Short Hopping? What was all of this nonsense? Soup tried showing me button imputs, but I just didn't get it. Then he wrote it down and told me to practice some more before his next visit... And practice I did. I played for so long that I had a big, fat blister on my thumb from trying to wavedash. This was the most adequate experience of "practicing in my room, with the lights off" that I've ever had. When Soup returned some time later, I was only slightly better at wavedashing then I was to start off with. But not too far down the road, I actually learned to L-Cancel consistently before he did. This had me plummeting down the plateau of tech skill, seeing as it was the only thing I was better at than he was (Fox was my character of choice around this time). And before I knew what happened, Soup dropped out of college, for numerous reasons, giving me the most Smash-centered year I've ever had.

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After I discovered others' abilities over Youtube, I was hooked more than ever. I soon located Smashboards, surfing up and down threads, trying to understand the umpteen amounts of information it had to offer. Eventually I ended up teaching Soup! A few months of this went by before MoFo came down to Sarasota to stay at Soup's house. They were close friends up north, so him and Soup pulled some money together to make an well-overdue visit happen. Once MoFo made his way here, they both agreed upon a visit before he left. They were heading to my house! I was rediculously excited. An actual pro smasher coming to our house? For once, the untouched world that lay beyond those Youtube videos would soon be in my bedroom, playing my gamecube. Yes, I know. I made far too big of a deal out of this than most would. But then again, I never really played Smash on the competitive level with anyone besides Soup.

MoFo's Ness was rediculous. I lost every time to it and Soup was only just grazing by with Sheik. So far as I've witnessed, he has the most advanced Ness to this day. He told me he was just recently trying to get decent with Falcon too, who he three-stocked me in dittos with... And I had been playing Falcon for many months. I was never more proud to get owned. I asked MoFo exactly how he could beat me all the time. His response was more or less, "I've seen it all before."

Since then, MoFo's long gone, I'm very educated in the game now, and Soup has actually ended up moving up north and is staying with MoFo as I type this. They've both visited PC's place several times and I couldn't be more jealous. But that's exactly why I plan to travel and get my own memories of probably the deepest game I'll ever play (before I get too old to where it becomes socially inappropriate...).

Hopefully the Smash Community will hear from me soon.

My Smash Past, Part 1: How It All Began

My interest in the game Super Smash Bros.: Melee (SSBM) goes back to a time before I even owned a single disk. This didn't last long, however. As far back as I can recall, my brother and I visited my cousin's house only recently after he and his best friend Mike had nabbed a copy for themselves. Little did I know just how much of an impact this "children's game" would have on my life.

I can't recall the day in particular (I was only seven), but I know for a fact that Mike walked over to his best friend's house soon after I dropped the controller. For whatever reason I had, the game didn't interest me that much initially: it was too hard, I hated losing, blah blah blah. So I felt content floating in and out of the room, at times overhearing fierce johning between Mike and Jake. (My brother was waiting his turn due to an insufficient number of controllers.) These two kids had egos fit for billionaires. Like Bill Gates... only cooler.

At some point along the way, Jake and Mike discovered the value of cool gamer handles and made some for themselves. Jake told me of this event in clear detail: he and Mike were arguing--as usual--over some cool name the two both felt pleased with. But in came Mom to interrupt the quarrel saying how it was time for dinner; tomato soup and grilled cheese to be specific. So, to settle the issue, Jake entered "SOUP" as his tag. Mike found this hilarious, but it wasn't until the following day that they found a name suitable for Mike. His handle became "SOAP," playing off of Jake's use of an inanimate object, while remaining only a single letter different. My previous gamer handle was OPUS. For a long time, too. An anagram in tribute to the one who introduced me to--and kept me going at--this game.

I looked up to Jake in more ways than one. So far that, due to the developmental period in my life when he and my brother hung out the most (I was simply along for the ride), I've been told we even talk in the same manner... Hmm.... Well, as a high-priority figure in my youth, the game the three preteens drooled over grew on me too, and soon I began joining the fights on a regular basis.

Sheik was my specialty when it came to not losing. I played Sheik for so many years that I was maining her before I even knew what maining was. Not a bad choice when it comes to a beginner's selection, either. I would never win, for Mike and Jake seemed lightyears ahead of my brother and I; they played practically every day after school. Not to mention my brain being five years smaller than the lot of 'em. However, after a copy found its way under our roof, my brother and I played non-stop. And soon I was knocking Mike off the stage and toying around against my brother. This didn't suit well with my sibling and around five years into our little extravaganza, different games (mostly single-player) caught my brother's eye and it didn't take long before my pleads for a few matches with him were struck down with bewildering consistency. And for reasons I won't state here, Mike soon drifted out of our lives, let alone the Smash scene.

The one thing that frustrates me to this day is how I can't seem to recall, despite some astounding details I seem to remember of my past, the character I first used. With my personality, this character would no doubt hold tremendous nostalgia; I would most likely still be using them today. But alas, I must continue to rely on pure judgment. I no longer main Sheik, for complaints from others I've played with, on top of a bit of educated bias through Smashboards, I hate her as a character. Her low-skill-high-reward play style is something I regret ever being a part of. Leaving a trail of success behind me, Jake leaped on the Sheik freight train and still mains her to this day, to my utter despondency. We accumulated at total of 10,500+ K.O.'s with Sheik, alone. And that was just my memory card...

(Continued in Part 2)...