There was something magical about Pat’s House.

Nearly a decade ago, when most Melee players were shifting their focus towards playing Super Smash Bros Brawl, Patrick “Pat” Jose San Pablo’s home in North Hills, California, became the epicenter of SoCal Melee’s most memorable smashfests.

I don’t remember the exact date for the first smashfest. But, it was definitely after a Pomona or San Bernardino tournament which was held at a church. MaNg0 was going with Irvine and they wanted a place to rest/hangout after the tournament. I offered, and it basically became a norm for people to come over after tournaments. At the time, Brawl had just come out and was taking a lot of Melee players away from the scene. Also, since tournaments were so hard to come by, I wanted people to have a place to play without worrying about tournament/venue fees.

In order for Pat to execute his vision, he had to post on the Smash World Forums.

Before Facebook Groups, Discord Servers, and subreddits, all pertinent competitive Smash Bros discussion happened on Smashboards.com, or “Smash World Forums”. Geographic regions were grouped and packed into subforums, where local tournaments, regional gossip, and weekly smashfests would be shared. PacWest was the home of all Southern California chatter, and that’s where Pat, who also went by the gamer handles “Noble” and “Seraph”, would post all the info his guests would need.

Pat made sure to be as detailed as possible with his “Pat’s House” post. He included a list of rules and pointed at buddies that would field questions or concerns while everyone was at the house. The post would be updated every single time there was a new smashfest or a new visitor, and people would RSVP via thread replies. After years of hosting smashfests, the original thread reached 69 pages of 40 replies each.

You can read the whole post here

With a friendly approach, no fees and a heavy dose of “homie-ness”, many SoCal players would take the pilgrimage to North Hills, California, and play friendlies against each other, late into the night.

A few of the original regulars are now some of Melee’s most recognizable names.

There were a lot of regulars. I can try to name them by region. From 818, it was: Miguel Contreras (Atlus), Jesson Martinez (J666), Mike Haze, Romeo Castillo (Romeo), Hugo Gonzalez (HugS), Nestor (Nes), Steven Martinez (Morb), Weston Dennis (Westballz), Camillo Gabriel (Tofu), Rob West, and Mark (Resident Waffle). 805 was Brendan Johannes (TheGreaterLeon), Oscar Nilsson (Lovage), Steven Bailon (Embrace the 12) and Sheridan (Sherigami) From Irvine: Cameron Lombardi (PsychoMidget), Jenny Huynh, Connor Nguyen (ConnorTheKid), Dave Kim (Kira) and McCain LaVelle (MacD). And Norwalk was Joseph Marquez (MaNg0), Joey Aldama (Lucky), Cathy Silva (Gummy Octopus) and Alex Ruvalcaba (Alex19). I’m sure there are a lot more. But, that was from the top of my head [laughs].

Despite being the Melee Homie Mecca of SoCal, Pat’s house was also memorable for non-Smash reasons. On any given weekend, MaNg0 would go over by himself, or with a couple of friends, and they would play DoTA all night. It would not be uncommon for MaNg0 to not play a single set of Melee while spending an evening at Pat’s House.

Every two hours, he’d grace us with one match

For Pat, one of the nights that stuck out most didn’t even involve Melee.

I had purchased the first Rock Band game, and we all played it all night and into the early morning. I’m pretty sure we got the cops called on us because we were so loud.

It wasn’t long before Pat’s house built a strong reputation for being the place to practice Smash and make memorable Melee memories while in SoCal. Even players from out-of-state would hear about Pat’s house and they would specifically request housing there while visiting.

With that much notoriety, it was only a matter of time until Pat would try to partner up with the biggest and best SoCal TOs at the time: Champ and Neal.

Champ, who is now the driving force behind the esports team, 2GG, used to work with Neal, the mastermind programmer behind AllisBrawl and legendary bracket software, TIO. Together, as “NCT”, they hosted Mango Juice and other SoCal regional-sized tournaments, and both contributed heavily to national events such as Genesis. It is no secret that Champ’s narrative-style approach to tournament themes has strong roots in his work from the early SoCal days — the Champ Combo series, Zero Challenge series, and Mango Juice can all be seen as “proto-sagas”.

In 2008–2009 when Melee was narratively “dry and starving”, tournaments needed to be built on top of the community’s strong bonds in order to drive attendance. Enter “Pat’s House”, the tournament.

I think the first time the idea of a Pat’s House tournament was brought up, was during one of the tournaments Champ and Neal hosted. I jokingly said to the both of them “Host a Pat’s House tournament!” It then became a running gag, that every time I saw them, I would ask them once more, and they would either decline or say “Maybe”. Some time later, when I jokingly asked again, they actually made it happen.

After reviewing a few locations, NCT decided to host “Pat’s House” at the University of California, San Diego, home of the longest-running SoCal tournament series at the time: the UCSD Tri-Weeklies. They recruited, AzN Lep (who, coincedentally, was also named Patrick), San Diego’s premiere TO at the time, and the event was hosted at the storied and cozy, Sixth College Lodge. And in an attempt to deliver the most “homie” experience possible, they scheduled a beach bonfire after the tourney was over.

Pat’s House Compilation video, filmed by Atlus

With 111 entrants from around the country and over $1,660 in prize money, Pat’s House was a resounding success. People had a fantastic time at the venue and outside the venue (Tafokints even dropped MAAAD bars at the bonfire; he must have practiced) and memories and friendships were made that would last a lifetime.

The event was so successful that Pat’s House 2 would eventually happen five year laters as a part of the 2014 MLG Melee Circuit, and in a week or so, Pat’s House 3 will go live and continue to carry the spirit of “homie-ness”.

As for the event’s namesake, Pat eventually drifted away from hosting smashfests and attending events to focus on himself and his goals.

I don’t really plan too far ahead in my life (I’m a very go with the flow kind of person). But, I recently got married, and would like to start a family at some point. Career wise, I’m going down a very promising road, and in the future who knows, when I purchase a big house, Smashfests might happen again. […] After all, one does not simply stop playing Melee.

Here’s hoping he brings back the couch. You know the one. In the front, near the piano. Oh yeah. That one.