Tafokints putting his money where his mouth is © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Daniel ‘tafokints’ Lee is a rare breed in the Melee community. As a grass-roots scene, most people have made their name via one of three things: their gameplay, their commentary or their ability to organize tournaments. While tafokints can do all three of those things, he’s not known for any one of them. Instead, he built his rep as the premier content creator in the Melee scene. Whether it’s statistics, analysis or player matchups, tafokints has a hand in every major storyline in Smash — and by sharing these stories, he’s expanded the lore of the scene in ways no one else has.

Higher priorities

Tafokints has been playing Melee since the early days, but unlike many of players featured in "Friendlies," his priorities early in life laid elsewhere. “Growing up in a stereotypical Asian suburban family, I had the importance of academics instilled in me from the get-go: no video games on weeknights, always had to get my homework done first, and school was essentially my ‘job’ growing up.”

He learned about advanced techniques and high-level play from Smashboards, and did his best to play when he could, but wasn’t able to keep up with the community consistently, even through college. “During school, I always had a final or a problem set to deal with, so it was difficult to even go to tournaments that were on my own campus!”

Tafokints may be silly, but he's a very smart guy © [unknown]

After graduating from undergraduate, however, tafokints spent more time on Melee. The way he sees it, his academic mindset helped him learn the game in a unique way. “It's kind of interesting how a competitive mindset can carry over from academics to gaming. I think understanding tough concepts and breaking them down into bite-sized chunks is something that has given me the confidence and discipline to unravel deeper concepts in Smash.” Given the way he learned, he has a deep analytical sense of the game that few share. “I think many people are really quick to give up if and dismiss difficulties with shallow excuses, but there is a certain joy to figuring out a matchup or a player.

“I always had the attitude of ‘there must be some sort of solution to this.’ ”

SSBMRank

Tafokints brought this analytical eye to Melee not only as a player but also as a content creator. “I always wondered what made me excited to watch the NBA or NFL or even other eSports such as League or Starcraft. I concluded that narratives and storytelling are what make people really excited about the players, the tournaments and the results. I felt that there were stories that were really well known in the inner cloisters of the Smash community that many outsiders were clueless about, and that's where I felt my role could be for growing the community.”

Tafokints started by bringing one of his best talents to Melee — statistics. “As a content creator, I started with SSBMrank2014 after seeing similar things on ESPN.com with NBARank. I did it because we didn't have a global rank ever since the early days of Chillindude and company doing the US national rank.” Tafokints also happened to keep some company that could lend his project some much-needed visibility: Scar, of Melee It on Me . SSBMrank2014 was posted on Melee It on Me’s website, and from there tafokints joined the organization full time. “Joining MIOM gave me the creative space to write guides, articles, narratives and other helpful things to the community — something that was lacking after most people began to use Facebook as the main medium of content and communication.”

Let’s discuss

SSBMrank2014 may have been tafokints' first project for the Melee community, but it wasn’t his last. He’s been hard at work ever since, regularly writing analytical content for Melee It on Me , addressing facets of the community with his two YouTube shows Tafo Talks and Zero to Hero , and is constantly adding to TafoStats, his pet project. Tafokints has recorded the win/loss rate, stage selection statistics and character choices of every head-to-head match between Top 6 players, but he wants to expand. “Currently, #tafostats includes the Top 6 players, but I would like to extend this to the Top 20 to 25. Most viewers will not be able to recall two players' match history and giving them info about what player loves which stages and what situations they feel strong in gives a level of insight that is sorely missed.”

Tafokints believes this is one area in which eSports can draw from traditional sports. “A sports commentator may talk about how a batter in baseball doesn't like left-handed pitchers, or how a player in basketball shoots 55 percent from the free throw line. All of this is seamless in sports. Likewise, telling somebody that Armada has won the last four out of five sets against Mango or that Mango is particularly dominant on Fountain of Dreams adds to the viewership experience.”

Last Stock Legends is tafokints' latest project © Last Stock Legends

"Last"-est and greatest

Tafokints has helped bring Melee into the modern era through his hard work. His latest project, however, involves a very different type of analysis. Last Stock Legends , on Kickstarter, aims to break down some of the most meaningful moments in Smash. “The Smash Documentary did a solid job of giving a four-hour summary of a 10-year history. However, we felt that many cool sub-stories needed to be shared to people who are more recent players in the community.” By teaming up with 'progducto' and several others in the Melee community, tafokints hopes that Last Stock Legends will build a comprehensive history of his beloved game, moment by moment.

Tafokints is well-known for his contributions © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Just as he’s always taken a different route in Melee, tafokints hopes the same for Smash. He, of course, wants Melee to thrive, not just as a competition but as a community. “When I look at Smash, there are many things that put it at a disadvantage when compared to other gaming scenes. We don't have lavish sponsors or a large financial support network to pay writers, videographers and content creators like a League of Legends or Dota 2 can.”

But even though that framework hasn’t materialized yet, tafokints will do everything he can to create it. “I’ve always asked myself, ‘What can I do in a small amount of time to give meaningful information to the audience?’ Although I don't think I can sustain all of this as I phase into later phases of adulthood, I hope to continue to provide as much as I can just because I love the game and community so much and want to see it succeed.”

Check back next Tuesday for another installation of Friendlies, our weekly series profiling the Smash Bros. community.

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