

@ZeRo tries some Japanese BBQ (Yakiniku) with the Kansai Smash 4 Community.



@ZeRo and @Komorikiri play through Classic Mode together after a long three days of EVO preparation.



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Zero's last night at the 9B Smash House (left to right): @9B, @FILIP, @ZeRo, @You3, @Komorikiri

At Umebura 23 I was asked if I could help with getting as many top names from outside of Japan to this August's Umebura S.A.T. (Second Anniversary Tournament). When I contacted @ZeRo about the tournament he surprised me by saying that he wanted to go to Japan, but he wanted to do it as soon as possible to train for EVO. He wanted to spend three days playing against the best in Eastern Japan (Kanto) and three days playing against the best in Western Japan (Kansai) and it had to be kept under wraps until after EVO had concluded. I immediately got to work with @Ayuha and we were able to give ZeRo the intense one week Smash 4 boot camp he asked for.ZeRo began his training in Kanto where he stayed with @Nietono for three days. There he was able to meet and play against all of the best players in Kanto who could make it out to see him. Players such as @Raito @Keron , and the player he said he had the most trouble with, @Kirihara . ZeRo tried to do as many first to 10s against Japan's best and Kirihara was the only one to take one from ZeRo. ZeRo lost 10-5 with Cloud against Kirihara's Rosalina, but ZeRo was able to take it back 10-8 with his Diddy Kong. ZeRo told me every single match was down to the last hit and it was one of the most difficult sets he has ever had to do. Unfortunately, @Kameme was unable to meet up with ZeRo as he had prior work obligations and ZeRo was only in Kanto during the week. He would spend the weekend in Kansai at the 9B Smash House.9B and myself went out to pick ZeRo up from the shinkansen (bullet train) station in Osaka and we immediately started asking him about how he did against everyone in Tokyo. "I came out very positive overall in every friendly I played, but Kirihara was so good I am almost convinced Rosalina is the best character in the game," ZeRo told us during the drive back from the train station. We had a lot of work to do if we were going to live up to Kanto's standards and so we rounded up every single player we could think of: @9B @OCEAN , and more. We played for three straight days, only taking breaks to go out to eat and sleep. The first to ten matches were insane, but unfortunately no one came close to Kirihara.Komorikiri lost with Cloud to ZeRo's Diddy Kong 10-3 and lost with Sonic 10-6. Ranai lost to ZeRo 10-5 but every match nearly went to time and it was last hit last stock almost every single game. When you watch players at this high of a level play against each other in such a long set you start to see the nuances of the match up very clearly. I think the sole difference between winning and losing between ZeRo and Ranai is Diddy has many more kill confirms and can close out stocks much more easily than Villager can. I could watch ZeRo and Ranai play Smash 4 for hours and never get bored of it. It is truly the most enjoyable match up to watch I have seen so far.It was after midnight of ZeRo's last night in Japan and he asked Komorikiri if he would run through Classic mode with him because everyone was too exhausted to train any more for EVO. This is the part that got to me the most. Everyone always gets to see these players in their serious tournament mode and rarely get to see them outside of that. We had an absolute blast getting to know the real ZeRo, and watching two of the best Smashers in the world run through Classic mode with smiles on their faces was one of the most memorable moments of my Smash career.As we were packing everything up on his last night in Japan, ZeRo was able to reflect on his training in a short interview with me.So now that you have trained here for an entire week, who do you think is better, the US or Japan?I definitely agree and have been telling every one that since I arrived. Is there anything else about the Japanese Smash Community that you noticed?That is the way it is here in Japan and everyone will be ecstatic to hear that. Would you consider coming back to Japan to train again for other majors?Well you came here to prepare for EVO. Do you feel like you can take the title again this year?I am glad this all came together in time for EVO. ZeRo left Japan only a few short days before EVO so we cut it really close. We were able to facilitate an amazing collaboration between ZeRo and everyone in Japan, and I hope many more top players will make their way over here in the future. Due to the Japanese community being unable to give out prize money or raise enough money to fly out top talent, it is very difficult to get players here more than a few times a year. I am working very hard at trying to bring Japanese players to the US and I also want to give back to the Japanese community by bringing more players here. If you are interested please let me know!Sayonara until next week.