By Jamie “JAMJAR” Jacobs and Josh “BarkSanchez” Brody

The 64 Free For All is a question session with some of the biggest names in Smash 64, plus a bonus section for our own BarkSanchez to voice his thoughts. 6 questions, 4 top personalities. Today we have the three top seeds of Pound 2016 and its TO to give their opinions.

Is there anything you wish would have been in the Pound compendium for 64, either as a goal or in the shop?

Dan “SuPeRbOoMfAn” Hoyt: N64 controllers being sold in the shop haha.

KeroKeroppi: I don’t know what the Pound compendium is.

Eduardo “tacos” Tovar: Any 64 recognition would have been nice. Even if it was pretty cheap to get. Not really sure what they could have put out, though. Top 8 signed controller? Even something as simple as that could help us out a bit.

David “Shears” Shears: Bringing out a top player like they offered for Wii U and Melee, and maybe having custom Pound controller shells or consoles would be nice.

Pound broke 100 attendees, but achieved far less than the 238 of Genesis. Why is this and what can we do to increase numbers in the future?

Boom: Pound feels like an East Coast regional tournament. People probably can’t afford to travel to each bigger tournament so they save up for the BIG ones.

Kero: Genesis was bigger than Pound because Genesis is Genesis and Pound is Pound. It’s that simple. You can’t really compare the two. To me the question implies that we’re losing numbers of entrants which is simply not true. If Genesis had more entrants than SSC, I’d be concerned. But Genesis having more entrants than Pound is expected. Over 100 entrants for a tournament of Pound’s size? I’ll take that.

As far as what we can do to ensure more entrants at tournaments, that’s more or less the same as asking what we can do to grow our scene. Two of the biggest things we can do are:

64 players need to be more active on social media, specifically Twitter. We need more top players making an effort to help the community.

Tacos: Not really sure if I’m one to talk about this, since I honestly have no idea. I guess location could be one thing. Not to mention that there will be better tournaments for 64 (SSC for one). I’m sure everyone is planning to attend that. SSC will probably have more entrants than Genesis did.

Only thing I could say, though, is that most top level players need to try and attend everything available so people have a reason to attend/enter for 64.

Shears: Mimic Genesis by announcing the event with a top player already confirmed and offer t-shirts to the first couple hundred entrants.

Of the top 8 seeds, who would you be most confident in facing and why?

Boom: In terms of least difficult to most difficult would be: Bark/Fireblaster, Kero/LD/Revan, Wizzy, tacos. Bark has pretty good neutral but lacks a lot of knowledge on what to do versus characters and situations, needs to learn how to combo and edgeguard better. Fireblaster is solid but gets overwhelmed by my play and crumbles. Kero has an even worse problem with composition versus me, he needs to work on learning how I move and position himself better versus me. LD has really good reaction time but he lacks reading abilities, so it ends up being me reading his reaction to my movement and punishing him for it or reacting to his reaction. Revan I don’t really know, he has some nice DI but lacks knowledge versus characters. I don’t seem to have too much trouble. Wizzy is efficient and that’s hard to deal with, he can be beaten if you take your time and scout out an approach on him. Tacos does whatever he feels like and that seems like the best way to play this game once you learn how to play.

Kero: SuPeRbOoMfAn is the only player going to this event that could possibly take a set off me. Everybody else is a free win.

Tacos: Put it simply, I’m confident against everyone. But, if you want an answer, it would have to be LD. Because of my set against him at Genesis. Though, anything below Boom I’m extra confident in playing them.

Shears: Kero. His DK is less like the king of the jungle and more like a Hasbro children’s toy barrel of monkeys. Considering I was pretty close to beating his Pika at Shuffle and had I done the intended utilt instead of an accidental usmash at the end of Game 4, I may have won that game. I won’t lose to his Pika again.

If you were to MM someone at the Pound Salty Suite, who would it be and why?

Boom: 12 character battle against USA would be fun. I haven’t had a 12 character battle challenge in a while.

Kero: I have no interest in MMing anybody at the Pound Salty Suite. My priority is the tournament.

Tacos: I’m not really a fan of MMs. Unless I use DK/12 characters. Other than that I’m not too fond of them. After all the tournaments I’ve gone to, I’ve really only done like 6-7 MMs. For this Salty Suite, my DK vs Kero’s Pika would be something I’d be interested in. 12 characters against Boom would also be pretty cool. I’m also always down for DK dittos.

Shears: Kero in a mom banging MM. First one to bang a mom gets to bang the loser’s mom. GGs.

Who is your personal darkhorse candidate to win the tournament?

Boom: There won’t be a dark horse because there’s no surprise on who’s winning.

Kero: I’m done losing to Boom.

Tacos: Can’t see anyone out of the top 3 winning this.

Shears: LD. I don’t think Kero stands a chance against boom and I think with Fox LD has a chance to beat boom if he plays his best.

What is your prediction for Top 8?

Boom: Me, tacos, Kero, LD. The rest would be a toss up for me.

Kero: KeroKeroppi, SuPeRbOoMfAn, tacos, Wizzy, LD, Revan, Fireblaster, Bark the Shark

Tacos: Boom, me, Kero, Wizz, Revan, Fireblaster, Bark, LD is the realistic list in my head. However, I’m planning on taking the whole thing.

Shears: 1. Boom 2. LD 3. Kero 4. Revan 5. tacos 5. Bark 7. Wizzrobe 7. Firo

Free Barking with BarkSanchez

This will be my third realistic opportunity to face Boom in a large tournament. At both Hitstun 3 and Genesis 3 I lost matches I expected to win, missing out on this chance. Clubba is the biggest threat standing in my way, and he is tough on his home territory, so we’ll see. Hopefully when I get the opportunity, Boom somehow forgets how to play, much like he forgot his controllers.

The “Bark beat Kero” jokes aren’t as funny anymore. Kero tends to only lose to international players, which would normally mean just Boom. Tacos is technically on Team Mexico now though, and while I’d still favor Kero, the Tacos that almost beat Boom at Genesis might have something to say about it.

LD finished his Xbox Adapter Version 2.0, and wasted no time showing it off in a convincing sweep at Shots Fired 2. I expect him to get rematches against Wizzrobe and KeroKeroppi, and come out victorious in both efforts. Boom and Tacos might be too much for him still.

Wizzrobe is kind of an enigma to me. I know he’s incredibly talented, but I feel like I don’t see him play enough to gauge his rate of improvement. He has all of the potential in the world, but I’ve gotta believe LD wins the rematch. Sorry Wizzy, but I’m hoping he sends you my way, I want the rematch.

Fire is a beast at majors, but he looks to have a tough path that will likely head through Kero and/or Revan. Both of these players have given him trouble in the past, but neither of these players are out of his reach in my opinion.

Revan is the only player in the top 8 I haven’t had a tournament match against yet, and it’s likely we won’t meet each other in bracket this time either. It’s a shame because I’ve been looking forward to that matchup for a long time.

I never feel truly out of it when playing at the top level anymore, but my track record is fairly abysmal. I only am in the top 8 by virtue of a significant drop-off in talent, but I feel capable of stealing a set from any of these players, besides Boom. It’s a major, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I flame out early, Clubbadubba, Combo Blaze, and lord narwhal all have the potential to send me to the dog pound, but I see myself breaking the curse this time.

I’m getting first.