Northern NM Melee Top 10

Northern New Mexico Melee Top 10

The cities that had players considered for this include Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos and surrounding areas of those cities.

10) Mac - Fox

9) Gil - Jigglypuff

8) Z Rock - Fox

7) Wave Trash - Jigglypuff

6) Goop - Sheik/Peach

5) Twin 1 - Jigglypuff

Twin 1 is the gatekeeper for the top 5 in the state. Despite his lack of technical skill, he uses Puffs defensive capabilities and tricks to defeat his opponents. Playing against him may be one of the most frustrating things you ever experience at our locals. Yet he can keep up with the best and still manage to always place just outside of the top 3.

At Evo 2015 he put his skills on display by placing 65th after losing to Wizrobe and Fat Goku.

4) Wretched - Fox/Falco

Wretched is a high tech skill Fox and Falco main who moved here from Missouri within the last year. After coming to Santa Fe, he has begun building up their melee scene. Regularly traveling to Albuquerque, he has yet to drop a set to anyone outside of the top 5. He has even gone so far to defeat Filthy Casual in tournament in a nail biting match up. 

If you ever have the chance, play a set against him. The fast paced movement and amazing fundamentals is rare to find in this state.

"Dollar ice tea money match?!"

3) Twin A - Sheik

A powerful Sheik main who almost always lands in the top 3 at locals. One of the few who have taken sets off of both Light and Filthy Casual. Although Sheik is his main, he has defeated people with a wide slew of characters including, Fox, Falco, Marth and even Peach, 

Wide known and respected in the professional melee community, he has shown zero signs of slowing down any time soon. Taking the top 3 spot from him will not come easily.

He and Light make up the best melee team in the state. Together they have even defeated many of the top teams in Arizona and around the U.S.

2) Filthy Casual - Fox

Neil is by far the most technical player in the state. You would be hard pressed to find anyone here who will disagree. He can use nearly any character successfully in tournament with style and speed. Yet it is his Fox that will show you what he can do. Being the only player in the state who can truly go even with the best. 

Although he is more known for his Project M prowess (see pic above), everyone hopes that he will start travelling for melee as well. 

With his hard punishes and flashy play, Neil will always be a crowd favorite.

1) Light - Peach

Originally coming here from Arizona, this Peach main is truly someone to learn from. Although his technical skills are rather low, his knowledge and patience have defeated many players who rank in the top 100 in the world (including Axe, Tai, Wobbles, Lucky, Scar and more). At Evo 2015, he showcased these abilities by making one of the largest upsets at the whole event when he defeated Amsa. He placed 49th at the event by slamming through Chroma, DizzKidBoogie and many more before losing to Hugz and Frootloop.

After just the one event, he was given the MIOM rank of 112. 

Even with these great accomplishments, he is still being pushed by our local scene. 

Speaking Through Your Playstyle

I've had a thought on my mind for the last few weeks and I've decided to write on it.

A line from the Matrix, "You do not truly know someone until you fight them."

This is very true. But not only in real life, but also through video games. Is the person aggressive, defensive, humble, methodical, fast acting, easy going or look for a way to win at any cost?
In some ways, you can figure out how a person is by watching them play as well as play against them. Everyone is unique in some way. Especially once they hit that level where they are no loner mimicking someone else's playstyle. When they truly become unique and one of a kind.

So here is my write up of a few of the players that I know the best both in Smash and out of it.

Light:
Why not start with the best, right?
He is quick to be defensive and almost always fights as though his back is to a corner. But he is methodical and effective. He will do what it takes to advance. He is frustrating and hard headed. But dedicated, determined and quick to figure out the flaws in others play. In both real life and in smash, he is smart, effective and very defensive. These are all compliments.

Twin A:
Effective and tactical. He plays simple enough to get the job done. If he has to move quickly to beat you, he will. If he has to stand back and let you hurt yourself, expect just that. He is always advancing and willing to find that next moment to take advantage of the situation. He will break down someones bad habits and exploit them. This is especially true when you actually fight him in real life. Trust me. But he is also nurturing and careful. He will help out any opponent even mid match. He is also loud and outgoing. His Sheik truly embodies this part of his life.

Sack:
As dedicated and fun loving as it comes. Saying he is dedicated to Mewtwo is an obvious thing. But his playstyle is dedicated on a deeper level. He is dedicated to this scene as well as video games in general. Yet his Mewtwo is even more fun loving on a level few can realize. No matter what the situation, Jon will be laughing and enjoying himself. All the while, his Mewtwo is beating you senseless and you are loving every moment the two of you share a screen. He is precise and sticks to his tactics above all else. Not easily flustered and quick to  put you in that awkward situation that leaves you speechless.

Roro:
Brilliant and effective. His Diddy and Charizard match his play through and through. He knows what works. He knows what does not. He is quick, calculated, fast and hard to see through. Sometimes you do not even realize how badly you are losing. He can react accordingly and have situations under control in a matter of moments. He takes charge and never loses his cool.

Filthy Casual:
Scrub. Deserter. Try hard! Of course those first three were jokes. Fast and brilliant are the only things that come to mind. Like life, he is always moving at a fast pace. He is always finding that next opening and taking the opportunities where they are. He will know exactly what you are thinking as though it were a game of chess and you barely finished reading a How To guide. He is an educator and a student at the same time. Willing to show others what he knows, but always looking to gain more knowledge along the way.

Twin 1:
This one may confuse some of you. Especially those who have played me in both melee and PM.
In PM, I am an aggressive and fast acting player. Always on the move and never giving you a moment to breathe, In melee I am very campy and defensive. Waiting for you to approach and make a mistake. But it really boils down to this. Trickster. I will do what it takes to advance to the next goal on the shortest path possible (within reason of course... jeez). My Squirtle relies on gimmicky tricks lack of character knowledge to succeed. My Puff relies on gimping characters and going for easy rest set ups. Juist tricking the opponents into being flustered and confused. Those who have realized this have found relatively easy ways to get around it. But, like in life, I am adaptive and fun loving. I will either find a way to beat you or accept the loss and enjoy the game that we both love.


That is my write up. I would love to do more, but it is dinner time haha. There are a few people who I may write about soon.

But I will leave you with a question. How are you similar to your playstyle? It may be a deeper understanding than you even realized.

Gym Battles!

So people have been asking for a full explanation of the gym challenges so here you go :D

This is based off of the Pokemon gym goals. Collect 8 gym badges and face the Elite 4! Beat the Elite 4 and face the Champion! Boom!

There you go. Hope that answers everything...

If not then here is the rest of it.

We have 8 gym leaders. They can change, so I will not list them here. But you can ask at any tournament and we will point them out.

Each day, you can challenge up to 4 gym leaders. You only get 1 match against any gym leader each day. So to put it simply, you only get one shot to beat that gym leader until the next day!

If you challenge a gym leader on a tournament day, they cannot refuse. So long as it does not interfere with the tournament in any way. So most challenges happen before the tournaments or right after.

Each gym leader is unique. They have their own stages (not always tournament legal) with certain items on! That should even the playing field a bit :)

But to add more to it; the stocks are not even! You have five stocks versus the gym leaders three!

So they have an uphill battle the whole way!

So what happens when you finally collect all eight?

ELITE 4!

Who are the Elite 4? Roro, Twin 1, Twin A and Light! In that order. We use our mains and we show no mercy!
You must choose you character. No changing it up. And you fight them one after another!
Here is how we even it out a bit.

You pick the stage! You may choose from any of the bottom 7 stages on the first page. You may change the stage against any of the Elite 4. Just not your character.

You have 6 stocks versus our 3! A 2:1 ratio should help you out a bit. But here is a bonus for you!
You have 2 free additional stocks to use one any 1 Elite for member or do 1 additional stock versus 2 different gym leaders! You must announce before that match that you are going to use the additional stock.

Now here is the catch. Your badges are up for grabs when you challenge the Elite 4. Once you challenge, 4 of your badges are drawn at random by the elite 4. You do not know what we take. But you can win them back. For each Elite 4 member you beat, you win that badge back. But if you fail to defeat all 4, you keep what you won.

The other 4 badges also play an important role. You can sacrifice the other 4 badges for 1 more additional free stock! But you must make the decision to sacrifice the 4 badges before you begin the challenge! The only other rule is that you cannot use all 3 freebie stocks against 1 Elite 4 member. Only a max of 2.

If you end up losing the challenge, those 4 badges are lost. Tough luck. But you can start rematching the gym leaders and give it another round!

What happens if you win?! Congratulations! You would be the second person to do so!

That's right! We have a champion already! Buck aka Joey!
If you win, you get to challenge him. You pick the stage. Any of the bottom seven on page one. 4 stocks each. No items. Best of 1! Winner is the champion.

Loser must defeat the Elite 4 again to face the champion. But at least you have all 8 badges haha.

Best of luck.


Additional Fun facts

We have had 4 people challenge the Elite 4.

Gekko - Challenged first. Almost beat Light... One hit away from winning. So close. He then earned a rematch a few months after. But Roro was able to work his magic and win right out the gate.

Buck XI - The only person to win the challenge and earn the title of champion!

Bun-E - Fought very hard out the gate, until Twin 1 pulled off a miracle win and stopped him short! But due to a fund raising special, he was given a rematch! He faced Twin A and was defeated.

JoboNoobDude - The last challenger we had. At the last tournament he butchered his way through the first three opponents. Only to barely lose to Light.

Who will be next?

November's tournament

How should the November tournament be run?

Some people have requested us trying out a pools tournament system at one of our locals. We have more than enough people to do it. But I want the community to give me their input. With the release of Smash 4 right around the corner, November will be the only month we will ever be able to do this. Here are some pros and cons to it.

Note: some of this info will assume a 64 person tournament and 8 pools of 8 people.

Pros:
Everyone is guaranteed to play at least 7 people in sets. That is more than most do in any tournament. Even if they are winning a lot.
It will give people that feeling of a major tournament (where pools are very common).
We can do top 2 or top 3 advance out of each pool. Giving many players better odds of advancing to the top 16 or top 24 person bracket.
People will get to play higher skilled opponents without the fear of being knocked out of the tournament.

Cons:
We would not have an amateurs or pro bracket. It would all be one event. Because....
Time. It will take longer than the standard amateurs tournament. Here are some numbers to show why.
A 64 man bracket will have 126 sets in it. 127 if Grand Finals goes to the final set.
8 pools of 8 people will have a total of 224 sets played. That does not include the final bracket.
Teams would be "if time allows".
No bounty system.

I will be making a poll asking for peoples votes/opinions.
Pools are a lot of fun. Guaranteed number of matches no matter what your win/loss ratio is. A lot of hype and a lot of fun. Please let us know what you think.

Thank you :)

New Ideas For Our Events

So with the announcement of beginner's going away, we started to receive a lot of advice, contructive criticism and general sadness from many members of our scene.

We want to make everyone happy. But that may very well be impossible. Actually, I will put money down saying that it IS impossible. We can't make everyone happy. But we can try our best.

Here are two ideas pitched to us that we really like. Please keep in mind, these are not final. We are still working out some potential issues with each,

Bounty Rule - Provided by C0w.

Each player pays $3 to compete (nothing new). But each person is given two raffle tickets. A red and a blue one. You write your name on each ticket. Those are now like money. The red one (winners side) is worth $2 and the blue one (losers side) is worth $1.
When you play a tournament set, you each are wagering your ticket with your name on it. Winner keeps the other persons ticket. Any tickets you have won are yours to keep. You only wager those two tickets through the tournament.

After you have lost both sets, you will turn in any tickets you have won. Red tickets are worth $2 and blue are worth $1. So if you win one round in winners and one round in losers, you break even. If you lose your first set and then win the next three, you break even, You have a chance to win some of your money back or make a profit, even if you don't place top 10 at the event!

Pros:
Everyone has a chance to make some money. Not just the top 3.
       
Cons:
Still not an amateurs tournament.
Top 3 make much much less than normal.



Qualifications Tournament - Provided by Cameron

We keep the beginners tournament as is! But All-Skills becomes an invite only event. The banned from beginners people are in their own tournament that has a few open slots.

To make it into that event, you must place in the top 4, 8 or 16 (pending what we decide prior to that day) to fill in the remaining slots available in the Pro bracket.

Top 3 in beginners still make money, but it will not be as high as in the past. Part of it will go to the Pro bracket to make up for the small amount of entrants.NOTE!!! As I said above. This is not final. ESPECIALLY THIS PART! We may very well leave the funds alone as is.

Pros:
We still have amateurs!
It's not 2 full tournaments and won't take as long. So we can manage this time wise.

Cons:
All skills is no closed to the majority who enter all skills currently :(
Potentially less money for top 3 in both events.


These are the ideas we are currently tossing around.
C0w's idea may be implemented in November's tournament just for the heck of it. It sounds like fun! And might as well test it out before December's Smash 4 event.

Also, Smash 4 will not have either of these rules. Smash 4 is a clean start. It will be a normal tournament.

Please give us your feedback guys.