Competitors come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities, but in Smash, there is most certainly a template. As witnessed by the recent ‘beef’ between Leffen and Westballz, even the most heated rivalry results in little more than a third grade pushing match. Twitter fingers occasionally run rampant, but players who are willing to truly get in the face of an opponent are pretty hard to come by these days.

That hasn’t always been true, however. Antoine Lewis-Hall, better known as Wes in the Smash community, has always been a fierce competitor since the beginning of competitive Melee. Unafraid of using his words - or sometimes a practical joke - to make his presence known, he's been a force in the scene throughout the years. And while he hasn’t been in the spotlight recently, he’s still working in his community to make a better place for everyone, in and outside of the gaming arena.

Best in New York

Like many players, Wes started off as a casual player who couldn’t shake the buzz of competition. Beating friends and family members eventually wasn’t enough - Wes wanted a bigger challenge, and after learning about tournaments, he thought he had found it. “This tournament called B.I.N, or Best in New York, was the first Super Smash Bros. tournament to be hosted in New York City. So I wanted to be on my A-game.”

The first B.I.N tournament was hosted in 2002, the year after the game's release, and featured a very different ruleset than exists today. The tournament ruleset was 10 stocks per game, no stages banned, and best-of-three sets. Players could also only use a single character in the tournament. And the players who played there would go down in history as veterans of the game later on down the road: outside of Wes, long-time veteran DJ Nintendo would be there as well, along with several of Wes' future cohorts.

Wes trained his Samus hard for the tournament, afraid that he and his friends would get trounced by the competition. “We were worried that we would get destroyed by Japanese players because at the time we admired their skills in the gaming realm, and felt that almost every game they touched, they dominated.” But that day, much to their surprise, Wes and his friends were the dominators. “The funny thing about us competing at BIN was that we were [looked at that way]. We all got top the top 5 spots at the first BIN.”

The tournament would also be the meeting spot of one of the most well-known crews of that era. Wes met Kamal, a Luigi main, and KillaOR, a Jigglypuff main. After BIN 2, the group started playing together. Both are famous for their own reasons as well; Kamal is widely credited as the player who popularized wavedashing, while KillaOR was featured on MTV True Life: I’m a Pro Gamer, featured above. The three were also joined by Jason, Wes’ friend and teammate at the time.

Wes and his new friends played regularly at smashfests, always training up for the next big competition. But up until then, they were just a group of guys playing together. One night after a session at KillaOR’s house, they all decided it was time to formalize the crew with a name. “We were throwing around names, and one name that was thrown in the online chat was Deadly Alliance. It was meant to be joke because back in our day there was a nighttime place for people to demo Nintendo games called Cube club and they had Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance there. So we just threw that name out there to call our crew. And from there we stuck with it because we thought it was funny. But it actually made sense - we were really a deadly alliance.”

All in Good Fun

Wes was a fierce competitor, but he was also known as a joker. Anyone who has watched the Smash Brothers documentary has heard about The Man sauce, but that was far from the only trick in Wes’ book. “Me and Compton, a former DA member, would tell people who were waiting for a match to be called that they have to play me - even though they didn’t - and beat them. I would then wait to see their facial expression and then a few minutes later they would find out that the match didn't count.”

He was also known as a big trash talker. This fact, combined with his height and clear athleticism, made him an intimidating force at tournaments. Wes embodied the East Coast mentality - if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. He had no problem heckling a friend’s opponent or talking trash during a match, as witnessed during the famous FC3 East Coast vs. West Coast crew battle. But at the end of the day, it was all love. “I’m a nice guy that genuinely likes to have fun and spice things up. None of my trash talk is meant to take a shot at anyone personally. And I like when people also talk trash back - it adds excitement to things.”

And for those who thought his antics sometimes went too far, they haven’t seen the half of it. “As far as pranking goes, in my family me and my uncles that lived with me pranked each other to no end, and the pranks were 10 times worse than the ones I’ve done to Smashers.”

New Kids on the Block

Deadly Alliance was an impressive East Coast crew - so impressive, that they caught the attention of a dominant East Coast organization by the name of Empire Arcadia. At the time, Empire Arcadia, or EMP for short, was a powerhouse of the FGC. Players like Sanford Kelly, Yipes, NuckleDu and Dieminion have all played for EMP at one point or another - and after a strong DA performance at an EMP tournament, the two groups officially joined up. “It only made sense. We were the best Smash crew in the United States. During that time we had PC Chris, Bum, Mofo, Killa OR, Mike G, D1 Papa Dave, Dire, Kubuu, Ninjalink… the list just went on. With the partnership we had with EMP we graduated from being a crew to being the first professional Smash Brothers team.”

Wes' crew, DA, and EMP are partnered © Deadly Alliance

And at the time, that was no joke. In the mid 2000s, Empire literally was an empire. Their gaming team spanned just about every fighting game on the scene, and was dozens strong of some of the best players on the East Coast, and mainstream media was taking notice. “We were on about 3 MTV shows , and we won MLGs and other large events. We were ahead of our time when the ‘esports era’ was still being cultivated.”

A large portion of the initial EMP has since dissolved or gone to other teams. There have also been several claims of mismanagement from former players directed at EMP’s owner, Triforce: Mew2King claims that EMP owes him upwards of $6,000 dollars, while most recently Triforce dine-and-dashed on NuckleDu when the two had lunch together. But Wes still remains loyal to Triforce and EMP, and doesn’t see things quite the way that the public does. “Triforce, like any person, didn't make the best decisions all the time. All of his dirty laundry is all over the Internet, everyone has seen it. But overall he made EMP and a lot of players like Justin Wong, Sanford Kelly, Perfect Legend and even people like myself the people they are today. He taught and preached to players 'Its not always about winning, its about what you do with your win.' If EMP was so terrible why have so many legendary players like D1, PC Chris, M2K, Armada, and Justin Wong been a part of it?

“The funny thing is that EMP and DA as a whole were ahead of our time. People laughed at us, telling Triforce to get a job and stop trying to do this EMP endeavor. Those same people that were making fun of EMP are now doing the same thing as EMP. Building multi genre esports teams.”

Giving Back

While Wes isn’t known as a top player today, he’s still making his voice heard by other means. Around the time of Smash 4’s release, he put out a series of videos titled Smash on Blast . Initially just Wes giving his thoughts on community issues, the series grew into video shorts which have touched topics such as in-game bans. For Wes, it was a way to face up against some of the big issues of the day on his own terms. “I got tired of a lot of issues in the community being swept under the rug. But I wanted to address these issues in a comical way.”

S.O.S. Gamers looks to enrich lives through gaming © S.O.S. Gamers

He’s also helped to improve the people around him. Wes and his DA crew know what it’s like to have their lives changed for the better by Smash. So outside of competing themselves, they have also started programs in their communities dedicated to helping kids better themselves through video games. “S.O.S. Gamers is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bridging the gap in technology and information for lower income residents living in New York City. In the past we’ve done events with Nintendo such as food drives for City Harvest. We went to nursing homes and played Wii games with the elderly, went to hospitals and played with kids, and done community events with the NYPD. Right now, we are conducting a Cyber League program for kids in a community center. this program we are teaching them Super Smash Bros. along with life learned lessons such as teamwork, communication, and health.”

Wes is still the rambunctious character he was in the early days of the Deadly Alliance and East Coast Smash, but over time he’s also matured into an old veteran of the scene who recognizes its worth - not just at an esports level, but as a tool to teach success as well. It’s something he’s experienced first-hand. And while not everyone agrees with his outspokenness, he’s unwilling to say anything less than what he feels is right to help the community grow. “I learned a lot from being in Deadly Alliance and EMP, and being a member of the community. It helped me grow socially as a person and player. Smash has no face, no race, no gender, no age. I love that about the community: anyone can come in and feel like they have been welcomed into a family.”