Texas pulled out all the stops and experimented with a new way of presenting Smash Bros. Melee to the community. The stage had a fresh esports-like feel with high end production, gorgeous graphics and professional camera work. Not only this, they also tried changing over to new monitors. With CRT televisions being a necessity to Melee, due to lag reasons, Low Tier City 7 introduced 'lagless monitors' and initiated thoughts to potential change. Naturally, some players condemned these monitors and others praised them. We spoke to Lucky about his view on these monitors, whether they affect gameplay, and what his thoughts were on Low Tier City's production, matches, his own journey through the bracket, and reaching Top 8.

Fans tuned in to watch LTC and were taken by surprise at the fantastic production quality, the staging, and the high level of Melee! Did you enjoy the event as a whole?

Lucky: Yeah, 100%! It actually had the best security to get into a Smash event that I’ve ever seen. It was really solid, they actually took away my tri-wing screwdrivers so I couldn’t open my controller but I felt safe.





You had some magnificent wins against n0ne and hometown hero Arc. After a great bracket run, you landed in Losers Top 8, losing to Albert who had achieved a massive underdog streak in his own bracket run. How did you feel you were playing on the day and do you wish you had done anything differently to prepare?

Lucky: Overall, I was pretty happy with my play from that day. I’ve been working a lot on nerve stuff as always, I know I say that a lot but I think I’ve been making some big strides on it. N0ne has beaten me the last few times we had played so I was pretty happy about that. With Arc, I was a little shaky on as I had just lost to Albert. The only one I wish I’d done differently was Albert; I was playing fantastic but then I underestimated him and he definitely caught me off guard, but I’d be ready next time.





Top 8 was the following day, how did you take your loss from the previous day and turn it into positive energy for the Top 8 bracket?

Lucky: I think I was just happy to be in Top 8; that feeling made me lose any negative energy from that day and instantly turned it positive energy. After making Top 8, I hung out with friends and relaxed, went back to the hotel and relaxed more. I just wanted to get the loss out of my mind and have a fresh start the next day.

Sadly, you lost to Shroomed in Top 8. You were very close to nailing the reverse 3-0 but couldn’t reach the final hurdle. What was going through your mind when you’d lost the second match that made you power up and push through the next two matches?



Lucky: When I went down 0-2 against Shroomed, I just told myself that I was my own worst enemy. I just decided to tell myself “Relax, breathe, stretch out the shoulders; you’re a better player than what you’re showing.” I won't say I’m a better player than him. That’s a little rude, but I knew I could play closer to my potential and sure enough, I almost got it. I fell a little short on Game 5, but it shows that I could have done it if I had just been doing that from the beginning.





With reflection each and every tournament, is there anything that you’ve been wanting to change about your playstyle and mentality or do you believe you’re working through them well, step by step and what would you do differently for the next event?



Lucky: Honestly, with the way the year started off for me, it went really, really bad. I think productively and progressively, I’ve been getting better at my mentality and my understanding of my own playstyle, habits inside and outside of the tournament, with each tournament that goes by. I think I’m on a steady pace and picking it up really well. There’s some other things that I want to try at the next tournament but some things stay secret, so nobody steals my ideas!





On a higher note, you and n0ne placed 2nd in Melee Doubles! Defeating S2J and Shroomed and losing to SFAT and MikeHaze but defeating them once in a close game previously in the bracket. You don’t regularly team with n0ne ,so how do you feel it went and what were the pros and cons of a non-static teammate?

Lucky: For me and n0ne, it was actually our first time teaming. It was a completely new ballgame; we didn’t know how we were going to work together. I’ve teamed with Captain Falcon before and he’s teamed with Fox before, but with Melee being so unique with different playstyles, it was hard to say what would happen. So as far as the pros and cons go, we really don’t know. It’s like a flip of a coin and see how it works, if you can make it far enough, you learn from each other and play better off of each other. Overall, I think it went really well and each set that went by just got better and better.





How do you create a synergy with a non-static teammate and what do you need to work on to compete with teams that regularly work on strategies and codewords to help their gameplay?



Lucky: It probably depends on the team. N0ne was actually very vocal and he would try and pick apart the opponent’s game plan and trying to figure out how to work against it. Usually, I just think about how their playing in my head so I’m not used to the teamwork aspect. It just depends. N0ne was calling on the shots and I would just listen to him like a little guard dog and we made it work!





LTC 7 was also the first to start using monitors instead of CRT televisions. This caused mixed feelings with some players praising them and others condemning them. How did you feel about the change in display? Do you feel it affected gameplay at all?

Lucky: To start, I do think it changed the game play a tiny bit. I understand why people complained about it. When I sat down, for about 30 minutes, it felt really weird. After 30 minutes, I completely forgot about it. Towards the end of the weekend, I made sure to not play on a CRT and at the end of it all, I couldn’t tell the difference. It is a little weird but it’s a very small change but as a professional player, you can make small adjustments to your timings and it's not that big of a deal. I think people blew it out of proportion on how bad or good it was.





Which sets did you enjoy playing the most and which sets did you enjoy watching the most?

Lucky: Playing would be a mix of the doubles matches with n0ne! I had a lot of fun teaming with n0ne, especially in the Winner’s side against MikeHaze and SFAT. As far as watching goes, Zain vs. Hungrybox was really fun to watch! I wanted Zain to win but it was a really good set to watch and learn from.





If you would like to keep up with Lucky's livestream, daily updates and Melee career, you can follow him on Twitch and Twitter!