By Jason “Nardwell” Mani and Josh “BarkSanchez” Brody

Every Tuesday we will be posting reviews of the past week in Smash 64. This week we look back at the big tournament of the weekend, Frame One, skip over to The Land of 10,000 Lakes to look at the emergence of a new scene, highlight the announcement of what’s shaping up to be an all star tournament in SoCal, and provide brief results for some other events in our scene.

Frame One

The Sunshine State beckons once more, holding its second regional Smash 64 tournament in as many months. The player to beat this weekend was of course Wizzrobe. He made his return to Florida regionals after missing Come to Papa last month. His biggest competition included some of Florida’s best players not named Wizzrobe. MrMarbles, sHEERmADNESS, and nothing were all prepared to attempt to topple the giant of the Smash world.

In the end unfortunately no surprises came to pass in the quest to take down Wizzrobe. He cruised through the bracket all the way to Grand Finals and claimed first place without dropping a single game. However, there were some interesting storylines developing while the rest of the bracket waited for Wizzy to complete his Melee matches and come beat them.

The most impressive run was made by a lower seed they called Deathcpo. He was sent to losers bracket by Bamster during a 2-0 in the second round of winners bracket. Once there he defeated Grapist 2-1. Next he faced Sinbad, one of Wizzrobe’s many victims, and the favorite for this matchup. Deathcpo came out victorious in the end taking the set 2-1. He then took down BT 2-1 to make it to Losers Quarterfinals. Here he met sHEERmADNESS but was unable to emerge victorious and was fated to a 2-0 loss.

BT was sent to losers by the always improving Captain Falcon of nothing. This win set nothing up to be yet another of the many struck down by Wizzy’s Yoshi. Nothing beat out Bamster in Losers Quarterfinals and got a chance at sHEERmADNESS in Losers Semifinals. He was unable to overcome yet another Yoshi and he fell 3-0. This run earned nothing a respectable fourth place finish and showed that he has earned his number five spot on the Florida power rankings.

SHEERmADNESS was in losers bracket due to his loss to MrMarbles in Winners Semifinals. Although sHEER has historically dominated Marbles, in 2016 Marbles has taken multiple sets off sHEER. This time the odds were in Marbles’ favor and he dominated sHEER in a decisive 2-0 sweep. The victory over nothing allowed for a rematch between MrMarbles and sHEERmADNESS when Marbles was cast into Losers Finals by none other than Wizzrobe. The rematch was much closer than their first meeting and sHEERmADNESS clutched it out this time around and emerged with a 3-1 victory.

Grand Finals had finally arrived and sHEERmADNESS had earned his chance to face Wizzrobe. It went about as well as one could expect and Wizzy swept sHEERmADNESS 3-0. This weekend showed that while Florida continues to improve, Wizzrobe is still in a league of his own.

The event was streamed on the Polaritygg Twitch channel and will be posted on the Polaritygg YouTube channel.

Small Scene Spotlight: Minnesota

The Land of 10,000 Lakes is probably the last place you would expect a Smash 64 scene to develop, a small group of friends led by a passionate woman, Sugaaku, has done the seemingly impossible. Rachel “Sugaaku” Vasquez stumbled upon a tournament that was being hosted a local game store by her friend Alex. From this point on she was hooked on Smash 64. There were four more of the local tournaments that Rachel was able to attend. These tournaments allowed her to develop a network with the local Smash players and find those that would keep coming to events in the future. Unfortunately the local events eventually stopped. This was unacceptable to Rachel, the Smash bug had bit her and urged her into action. She knew she could not stand idle so she decided to host her own Smash 64 tournaments. The idea of Rachel hosting her first tournament on her own was laughable to her. Luckily she was able to enlist the help of number two player in Minnesota Danny “Dlens” Lenselink who showed her the ropes of competitive Smash 64. Once the tournament started to gain traction it grabbed the attention of a local event organizer. This organizer already had a monthly that included Project M, Melee, and Smash 4 so he saw it would be a natural progression to add Smash 64 and allow Rachel to TO it. Thus the Minnesota Smash 64 Scene was born.

This Minnesota scene started out with five active players that consistently competed at tournaments and now averages about nine or more per tournament. They host a monthly series and biweeklies, where the biweeklies alternate between causal friendlies to help draw in tentative members and tournaments to drive the competitive scene. They also recently ran an Arcadian that received a positive turnout and helped bring in new faces.

This scene has also made its mark on the Midwest power rankings, with five players currently representing Minnesota. PD, Dlens, annex, Snowstorm, and Bre have all found a home in the rankings with PD possibly being the top player in the Midwest. Having such a high concentration of talent in one scene is extremely beneficial to the community, and should spur extensive growth. One of the up and comers of the scene is Koopahermit, a Captain Falcon main, who is improving with each set and managed to snag second place at their most recent monthly.

Looking to the future this scene aims to shore up its numbers, hoping to do so by encouraging their part time players to play regularly. They feel that their attendance is acceptable but the number of regulars is still much smaller than they’d like.

To support this scene tune in to their weekly “Put A Stock In It” on their SMASH_MN Twitch channel. Be sure to follow them as well to find out when they are streaming.

News

Smash Con International Player Fund

Following the enormous success of the Genesis 3 International Player Fund run by OnlineSSB, another fund is being ran to bring international talent to Super Smash Con 2016. This year, OnlineSSB is looking for assistance in bringing the fabled legends of Peru to SSC, as well as top Chilean player, Shalaka. This would mark the North American debut of Peru, which is said to have numerous players on the level of North America’s best. The fund also aims to fly out Genesis 3 Champion, Wario from Japan alongside the runner up from Kanto 2015, Fukurou, also from Japan. Following the funding of these titans of Smash, OnlineSSB will use additional funds to bring other talented and fun international scenes out to SSC, such as Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and more. If you would like to donate to help get these top players to Super Smash Con you can do so through Online SSB’s Funding Page.

Snosa 2016

Another recent success story, Smash of Ages 2015, has given birth to the next big 64-exclusive event on the West Coast: Snosa 2016. With a unique name born of a graphical design oversight, Snosa 2016 has already taken huge steps to ensure that much like The Godfather, the sequel will be even better than the first. Isai has already confirmed his attendance for Snosa, and LA_Smash is operating a fund to fly out SuPeRbOoMfAn and tacos, 1st and 2nd place at Pound 2016 respectively. With Mariguas confirmed as well, this incredibly stacked West Coast regional is loaded with talented players anxious to take down the titans Isai and SuPeRbOoMfAn.

The event will be held the weekend of June 18-19 at No Future Cafe, a local non-profit artistic hub. Snosa will include 64 Singles and Doubles, a YOLO Tournament benefiting the SSC International Fund, as well as an official Amateur Bracket for those who drown in pools. LA_Smash will be hosting a Snosa Salty Suite at their “LAS House” as a send-off to their long-time weekly venue and smash house. Be sure to follow LA_Smash to keep an eye out for their impromptu fundraising streams in the coming months.

The Rest

Smash 64 @ The Darkhouse

This week, after the abrupt cancellation of Xanadu following the festivities of Pound 2016 the Baltimore weekly was skillfully relocated to the fabled Darkhouse. The Darkhouse is residence to local SSBL member and Top Smash 64 commentator Jason “Darkhorse” Brody, brother of Josh “BarkSanchez” Brody. It will serve as the meeting place of the Baltimore SSBL weeklies after the Smash 64 community in Baltimore and VGBootcamp, owners of the Xanadu venue, mutually parted ways. The first meeting at the Darkhouse saw impressive attendance numbers thanks to a boost from players attending Pound. Twenty players in all came out to the inaugural tourney at the Darkhouse. Darkhorse managed to run a great stream while also going fairly deep in the bracket. He faced off against SuPeRbOoMfAn, who was making his rounds to East Coast locals after Pound, in Winners Semis where he was sent to losers bracket after a 2-0 rout. Once there he faced off against Combo Blaze, where he took the set the distance, but was unable to close out game 3 leaving him with a 2-1 loss and a respectable 5th placed ranking at a well stacked weekly. The first playing at the Darkhouse gave birth to its own theme song, courtesy of Dasit Mane Indy 64. Combo Blaze came out with an impressive fourth place finish, being double-eliminated by the imposing LD. Combo was sent to losers bracket by LD after falling 2-1 in Winners Quarter Finals. He then fought his way back through losers bracket defeating Shears, MasterHandjob, and Darkhorse to make it to Losers Semifinals where he would meet LD again. He fared no better during this set, unfortunately. He was unable to dent LD, but his run through loser’s was spectacular. BarkSanchez had a nice run as well, riding the high of his superb performance at Pound 2016. He sailed through the winners side of the bracket where he defeated LD once again in Winners Semis to earn a chance against the powerhouse of Boom in Winners Finals. Boom did what he did best though, making BarkSanchez look like he just picked up the game that day, like so many Boom challengers before him. This put Bark into losers bracket where he met LD once more. Bark ran out of steam, as LD got his revenge in the rematch, leaving Bark with a third place finish. LD had made it to Grand Finals and finally had his shot to have a crack at Boom the Uncrackable. LD fought with all his might, hands darting deftly about his Xbox 360 controller. This effort was all for naught as Boom manhandled LD on his way to a 2-0 victory taking it all at the first Darkhouse. Boom dropped only one game that night to KnitePhox, while admittedly playing with his food. KnitePhox joins the short list of North Americans to take games off of Boom in competition. The replays of this tournament can be found on the Darkhorse YouTube channel and you can catch future streams every Monday on ThatsADarkhorse on Twitch.

Game Night at the Center #2

Game Night at the Center is an event run by a burgeoning around the North Bay of California. This event drew an unexpected 14 competitors to the bracket. The tournament experienced a multitude of upsets from two surprisingly low seeded entrants. Kronos2560, the 9 seed, was sent to losers bracket by YAM$ after a 2-0 loss in round 2 of winners bracket. He then left a trail of destruction in the wake of his losers run. He defeated cr0ak, the 4 seed, and muse, the 3 seed, only to encounter YAM$ once more in Losers Quarterfinals. This set saw YAM$ bloodied a bit before Kronos2560 ultimately fell to him in the end 3-2. The other epic low seed run was produced by the 12 seed D-Tek. He burned through winners bracket defeating the top seeded player YAM$ 2-1 in Winners Quarterfinals, sending him to losers bracket. He then took out Press the 2 seed 3-1 in Winners Finals to make it to Grand Finals. Once here YAM$ seemed to do the impossible. He defeated D-Tek 3-1 to reset the bracket. On the run back he achieved the feat once more taking D-Tek down again 3-1 to prove his worthiness as the top seed. D-Tek’s run was one for the ages. Was it a fluke? Maybe. Was he seeded incorrectly? Possibly. One thing is certain though he has made his mark on the NorCal Smash 64 community and he won’t be seeded 12th in the future.

Cafil Cup 7

This week takes us on an adventure to our first Smash 64 event outside of North America. We fly down to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to present to you the seventh edition of the Cafil Cup. Lorenzo fought hard but had to settle with a 4th place finish after being sent to losers bracket by Jab Air. After sending Lorenzo to losers bracket Jab Air faced off against the top seeded Kort in Winners Finals. Jab Air gave it his all but was unable to prevail and was sent to losers finals after a 3-1 loss. In losers he met the surprise of the day Demolidor, the 4th seed. Demolidor had been sent to losers bracket by Kort after a 2-0 loss. Once there he defeated Afro and then upset Lorenzo the 2 seed 2-0 to advance to Losers Finals against Jab Air. He made quick work of Jab Air in another surprising upset to get a second chance against Kort in Grand Finals. Despite Demolidor’s great losers bracket run and taking Grand Finals the distance against Kort he was unable to clutch out the win and had to settle for second after a 3-2 loss. The future looks bright for Demolidor as his rank may be increasing in the coming weeks after an impressive showing at the Cafil Cup.

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Want to be included in The Weekly Smashback results, have a small scene you want to see in the spotlight? Shoot us an email at thesmashwriter@gmail.com and we’ll be sure to make you a part of a future edition.