There’s no doubt about it: Super Smash Brothers is undergoing a revival. It hasn’t even been a year since Smash returned to Evo in style, and we’ve seen an amazing documentary inject new blood and hype into the scene, established eSports teams bring longtime legends out of retirement, and even Nintendo indicate support for their competitive community with the For Glory mode in Smash 4 and E3 invitational tournament.

To me, it looks kind of like what the Capcom fighting game community went through with the release of Street Fighter IV — but I’m a Smash scrub. So I reached out to longtime competitor, commentator, and community figure Wynton “Prog” Smith to tell me more about what the Smash community is going through.

Note that we’re trying something slightly different with the format of this article — it’s presented as an email exchange instead of a regular interview. I think it’s neat and worth trying, but it is a bit longer than usual. Let me know if the format works for you in the comments!

From: Patrick Miller

To: Wynton Smith

Subject: What’s the deal with Smash, anyway?

Hey Wynton,

What the heck is going on with Smash? I thought it was cute and all that you all showed up in full force for Evo last year, but I didn’t expect y’all to go quite this far.

One minute I’m watching The Smash Brothers documentary, the next I’m seeing the guys from that show get picked up by eSports teams, and now I see Nintendo actually gave you your own No Items, Final Destination (maybe they’re saving Fox Only for DLC?) mode. Sounds like it’s a good time to be a Smasher. It reminds me a bit of how Third Strike went from being the SFxTK of early-2000s fighting games to The Main Event, like, immediately after the Daigo Parry happened.

I’ll fully admit ignorance when it comes to Smash — I played just enough Smash in college to see what the execution demands were like and dip out gracefully — but it seems like y’all are in kind of a strange position.

On one hand, the Smash Brothers makes it clear that the Smash community is, for the most part, just like the rest of the fighting game communities out there. The NorCal/SoCal, East Coast/West Coast, and U.S./Japan storylines pretty much directly mirror most of the 2000s for the rest of us. We’ve had our differences in the past, but for the most part it seems like we’re getting along (as well as anyone does in fighting games, anyway), and we routinely see Smash represented well in most majors.

On the other hand, the Smash community’s historic connections to MLG and interest from established eSports teams Team Liquid and Curse Gaming give you an avenue into further growth that the rest of us don’t really have. It’s easy to be skeptical of MLG and other eSports orgs when they’re not looking at you, but it’s a different thing entirely when their people are coming to you and saying, “Hey, we’re interested in what you’re doing.”

And heck, your community seems to be large and robust enough to grow in whichever direction they want — to continue to build and grow on your own terms. Nintendo doesn’t have the best track record about being supportive of…well, anything, really, but maybe they’ll pitch in and help out.

So: Where do you want to go?

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From: Wynton Smith

To: Patrick Miller

Subject: Re: What’s the deal with Smash, anyway?

Hey Patrick,

To be honest, I don’t think anyone expected us to go this far, I certainly didn’t. To put things in perspective, prior to EVO the largest major we had topped out at 347 entrants. EVO had 696 pre register, and I hear we topped out at over 700 which is mind numbing to say the least. Melee has had this huge resurgence, but it feels like all of the Smash titles are receiving second looks, whether from individuals looking to build the infrastructure of events, to increasing the longevity of what’s out there as well as preparation for the next title.

I loved “I Got Next,” “King of Chinatown,” and “Thanks for Playing,” so of course, when Travis “Samox” Beauchamp first mentioned the production of the documentary, I knew I had to support it. Originally, I was going to be interviewed in January 2013, but he ended up having a stomach bug. Funny how things work out, we met up in June, a couple of weeks before EVO and with a lot more to discuss than we ever could have expected back in January. The response to the documentary itself has been fantastic, a lot of people in various aspects of gaming understand the struggles of making it to the top, getting so close and faltering, the work ethic, the people behind the players…it’s not just a compelling tale being woven together, it’s people recounting on a part of their life that matters. Now, seeing all of these groups that are revered in gaming show interest in Smash long after the expiration date, it’s humbling.

A lot of people say the golden age of Melee was the original MLG era, including Ken’s EVO win in 2007. However, a lot of individuals say that this not just rivals it, but surpasses it, so we’re looking at a platinum era, they’d say. The EVO donation drive, and especially the “Spirit Bomb” did a lot of community building that I don’t think we realized until months after. Smashers, not just Melee players, but Brawl/64/Project M all helped that happen. And not just Smashers, we’ve seen support from all sides of the FGC, and that’s incredible. Now, we’re seeing another victory lap with EVO this year, MLG again, and both with Nintendo’s blessing? Smash 4 has a lot of people wary about the “For Glory” mode, but I know plenty of people, competitive and casual, who went to FD without items to settle things.

Melee’s technical difficulty and different style from traditional fighters have kind of dissuaded a lot of interested parties from giving it a fair shot. However, just like with anything in life, the dedicated have stuck with it for the past 12 years, giving everything they’ve got. We certainly mirror the traditional fighting game scene in terms of rivalries. California is split in two, each side proud of their home grown. East and West Coast has been bubbling up again recently, and the Japanese scene putting everyone on notice, and then returning again as a force? Not just that, but we’re also seeing our international stars, players from Mexico, Chile, all over Europe, plus scenes that are growing, especially in Saudi Arabia.

As someone who started playing fighters seriously with Virtua Fighter 4, and later couldn’t wait for new MVC2 videos from zachd, seeing Smash alongside traditional fighters is amazing. A lot of talented players got their start in the Smash scene, and its great to cheer them on in whatever new title they’re playing. As for the interest from Liquid and Curse, I see that as following in the footsteps of the traditional FGC once more, as those guys in EG have been doing well in many different genres. However, again, a lot of it is home grown. We’ve got our Team Spooky/Level Up Live in the scene in VGBootcamp and Clash Tournaments, but its also amazing to see titans like Alex and Spooky give our scene some light.

The big question that is on most people’s minds is one you certainly have to know well: how do we continue with all of this without selling or losing our soul? The growth caught everyone by surprise, especially the fairly recent developments with those eSports teams, and a lot of people feel like the scene is being neutered or sterilized. Most people who are entrenched in a scene do it for the love, and they want to display something that they feel is special to the world. That’s where I want to go, and that’s a path that I like traversing down. EVO gave a lot of people their first glimpse at this scene, or a second look after we’ve all matured, and well, I want to continue to display this scene at our very best. All of this is a victory lap, who knows what tomorrow will bring? But for now, I’m going to enjoy the ride and see where it takes us.

[hr]

From: Patrick Miller

To: Wynton Smith

Subject: Re: What’s the deal with Smash, anyway?

Ah yes — getting paid without selling out. I think if you want to retain the grassroots soul of your community, you need to make sure that community people are the ones in charge. We wouldn’t have gotten what we have today without Level|Up or Team Spooky, or the few remaining fighting game-centered arcades, or countless long-suffering tournament organizers. And now we have even games coming from community developers, like Divekick and Skullgirls, and a longtime community leader and player helping guide Ultra Street Fighter IV’s development.

Again, my Smash scene ignorance is showing; who are the elder statesmen of the community? Who are the OG TOs, the streamers, the community organizers? Who makes your t-shirts? And are you seeing any significant cross-pollination? Are we ever all just gonna be one big happy family?

And, on a related note — how much does support from Nintendo even matter, anyway? I can’t imagine you rely on Nintendo a whole lot of support, considering your community has gone so far as to make their own modification, Project M, because it wasn’t happy with how Brawl turned out. On our end, we’re starting to see Capcom make more-serious efforts to support the scene — do you think we’ll see Nintendo get similarly involved? (Do you even want to see Nintendo get involved?)

I had no idea you played Virtua Fighter! (I’m one of those guys that bought the Greatest Hits edition of VF4: Evolution, played it for a few days, and never touched it again.) Do Smash players’ skills tend to transfer over to any other fighting games reasonably well? I feel like I see a lot of ex-Melee players in Marvel these days…

From: Wynton Smith

To: Patrick Miller

Subject: Re: What’s the deal with Smash, anyway?

Yeah, I think a lot of people feel like with the interest from MLG again, new groups etc. that things are being torn from us, when its completely the opposite. I’d say that with all of these new groups, we’re seeing a necessity in the grassroots to continue to work hard, and improve. MLG works with our own, SolidJake has been in the community for ages, he’s recruited community leaders to guide him through the whole process and of course, our big two streamers (VGBootCamp and Clash Tournaments) are doing a majority of the streams for the MLG events. Everyone involved is home grown for the most part, even Project M was Brawl modified by Smashers, and we’ve seen a few people take the initiative to work on their own original content as well.

The elder statesmen are still involved in various aspects. The Kishes may not run many events anymore, but they stay involved, AlphaZealot still runs Smashboards, Matt Deezie (the organizer of the Tournament Go series) as far as I know still works at Capcom. We’ve seen a rise recently in the group of players who started playing between 2005-2008 really start taking off and take those community leadership roles. HomeMadeWaffles, the guy I call the IFC Yipes of the Melee scene, has started returning and playing at more events, commentating again. A lot of the old guard of players have returned in various degrees, whether making rare appearances on streams, or even returning to the game full time, like Husband, Wife, Chillin, Chudat, KoreanDJ and of course Ken. Our t-shirts, we’ve got a couple of groups like DoubleJump, who are also starting to sponsor events, and maybe with a couple of signings, something a bit more standard, they could become the Smash Brokentier. But why, we’ve seen Brokentier join forces with Clash Tournaments for a couple of shirts now.

The cross-pollination is certainly real. I point at APEX, inviting the traditional FGC into the home of Smash, and well, we’ve seen what’s happened. A lot of Smashers just stick to the Smash series, and I’ve noticed since EVO a lot of Smashers have picked up games like KoF, BBCP, AE 2012, UMVC3, Divekick, etc. and I think that is crucial to the growth of anyone as a player. I know when my Abel was leveling up, everything mental transferred back over to Smash as well. And of course, we look at Alukard, Forward, Falcomist, Apologyman, Juicebox, Lord Knight, the list goes on and on of players who’ve been involved in Smash and have taken their talents to other games. Even now, I look on twitter, I see people asking questions about Melee, about Project M, Brawl, even Justin Wong entered 64 at APEX this year. A lot of Smashers have felt like the execution in other games is the hardest part to attain, but when it comes to neutral, the importance of movement, that’s stressed constantly. Are we going to be one big happy family? Probably not, but, but family is family.

It wasn’t that long ago I was streaming, thanking everyone for their support in the EVO fundraiser, asking for people to do what they can, to let Nintendo know how much this mattered to us. Now, we know they know. We’ve heard a few employees have seen the documentary, and well, EVO and MLG both happening with Nintendo’s support is something that none of us could ever have imagined. Capcom has taken strides, especially with the Pro Tour, hiring legends in the community, looking for feedback, etc. Meanwhile, in the past, we’ve been met with the EVO shutdown, displeasure at how we play the game, etc. I’m hoping this is the first step for something more, especially with Smash 4 on the horizon.

[hr]

From: Patrick Miller

To: Wynton Smith

Subject: Re: What’s the deal with Smash, anyway?

I should probably start wrapping this up so you can have your day back — but I did want to ask you about one more thing.

You’ve mentioned how hard it is to get new players into the competitive Smash scene, particularly for Melee. How do new players learn Smash? Who is making the tutorials and videos that people need to see to learn how to play?

I ask because this is something I think we’re still working on for the communities around other fighting games. We want our scenes to grow, but part of that means making it easier for people to immediately get involved — and that means teaching people how to play our games better. Frankly, it’s the kind of thing I wish the devs and publishers were doing themselves (and certainly some are doing it better — Skullgirls’s tutorial mode gets frequent shoutouts for being good at introducing overall fighting game concepts), but this is our community, not theirs, and that means we need to own the ways we bring new people in.

How do you all do this? Got any tech we can borrow? Melee is so crazy-hard to learn that I’m surprised you have new blood at all; it’s like the fighting game equivalent of someone waking up tomorrow morning and thinking, “Man, I’m gonna go learn how to play Brood War.”

And: Thanks again for your time!

From: Wynton Smith

To: Patrick Miller

Subject: Re: What’s the deal with Smash, anyway?

With a 12 year old game, there are tons of tutorials still out there. We have the old ones by Wak, Cosmo made one last summer before EVO. VGBootCamp is working on producing one for Cross Counter as well. Alternatively, there are a few people who stream match analysis regularly, do Q&A etc. and all of that certainly helps.

That said, I want to give a major shoutout to — of course — UltraChen, I’ve heard countless Smashers who felt overwhelmed by a traditional fighter who found solace in what they do. Also, Angelic. He streams often, doesn’t matter the size, does Q&A and you really get to see his thought process. RayRay’s new series shows promise, too.

Then again, a lot has changed since we started these emails, just over the course of a week. Nintendo’s support…wow. They used the word “smash-fest.” They’re talking about getting 16 pros, what? I think we’re all ecstatic about this recognition, because as much as all of the Melee players blew up over EVO and MLG, the excitement among all smashers for this is palpable. Everyone wants to be a part, everyone is looking to gain support, I know I’m checking my e-mail/phone/Twitter/Facebook/Smashboards account/Linked In daily, because this is history for the scene, and anyone involved has to recognize that and realize what kind of honor that is. I have my fingers crossed that they’ll knock on my door, but I don’t envy anyone making the decisions over there. Do they go for the competitive scene in total, internet personalities?

A lot of us hope that Nintendo will stay involved afterwards, I’m certainly one of them, however, if they don’t, we’ve got an infrastructure in place. We’ve been running events as a scene since 2002, we know what we’re doing by now. Hopefully we can show Nintendo more than just heart and soul.

[hr]

You can find Smith on Twitter at @progducto as well as @meleeitonme.