One thing is for sure - Crimson loves Smash © © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

In every type of competition, different people play different roles . In basketball, the tall and powerful center holds down the paint, while point guards and forwards attack from the outside. In the case of games like DOTA and League of Legends, some players play support, while others carry or roam the jungle. Even in individual competitions like chess, players are known for their different strategies. Some are attackers – others, patient players.

Smash certainly has these qualities as well, but some players have latent talents that rear their head most prominently outside of the game, and Arian "CrimsonBlur" Fathieh is one of those people. He’s certainly a skilled player, but that is not where is true talent lies. What makes him special is that when he sits down to play the game, other people do too. He has built communities from scratch over and over, and thanks to his efforts, he’s now building up Smash for one of the largest gaming communities on the planet: Twitch.

Start Them Young

Crimson, like many of the veterans of the Smash scene, started playing at a young age. For him, it was the start of a long life of gaming. “I actually started when I was 14, in late 2004. I discovered competitive Smash first through GameFAQs, and then later stumbled on SmashBoards. I didn’t have many friends who played with me, so when I invited a Smasher from Smashboards to my house, it was basically my first real multiplayer experience with the game.” He loved the game, and he loved the idea of competitive play, going to his first tournament the very next year: MLG DC 2005. But as one might imagine, as a young and inexperienced player, he didn’t really make a splash. “Oh yeah, I was horrible,” he chuckled to me. But it didn’t discourage him from competing. “By my second tournament , I’d already drifted to the ‘kid’s corner,’ which was mostly me, this other kid named Rebel, and Redd, who is very good now. We were really close back then. There weren’t many others in our age bracket.”

But where others might have been disappointed with the lack of people their age to play with, Crimson saw opportunity. “I was only 14 when I first started hosting tournaments. My first events were mostly just school events, smashfests, things like that. No real venue owner would let a 14 year old rent a space, after all. But I led my Smash and gaming clubs all through middle and high school, and later in college as well.” Having community was always important to Crimson, but early on his leadership came simply out of necessity: he wouldn’t have had a way to play otherwise. “I did it because I didn’t have a car. I was too young, and the only way to compete was to host tournaments at my school.”

If You’re Not Going To Do It Right…

Crimson’s lack of transportation actually caused him to take a hiatus from Smash, but that didn’t stop his involvement in competitive gaming. “Eventually, in like 2006, I stopped going to tournaments altogether because I didn’t think I could improve without a mode of transportation. I played Guild Wars competitively during that time - Sharks and Penguins, Ectos and Shards, Rubies and Sapphires, Treacherous Empire, Clan KGYU… I was pretty into it.” Crimson may be known as a Smash guy now, but he’s always had a hand in competitive gaming. “Even before Smash, I grew up with Brood War, and followed that game through its lifecycle. Counterstrike, Quake, Dota … I’ve always followed all the scenes.”

But Smash stuck for Crimson. Even as he took extended time away from the game, he always knew he would return. “Not having a car just felt like such a whack reason to stop playing a game I loved. The community and competition of the live event really stuck to me, and Smash let me compete, in an open format, unlike every other eSport. In other eSports, you have to qualify, or you have to be a pro. In Smash, you just show up with a controller and you’re in the bracket.”

“I like that. I like live events. I want to be around people, not grinding online. Having something to look forward to during the week is special to me.”

If a big event is going on Crimson is likely there © © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Rebuilding

Soon after Crimson got back into the Melee scene in 2010, he took a software development job in Southern California, home to one of the biggest and best Smash communities in the world. He was ecstatic… but it didn’t turn out to be what he expected it to be. “I figured I’d get a lot better, but even by 2011’s standards, SoCal was horrible for Smash. We’re talking tournaments once a month, with no A/C, no chairs, and setups on the floor. Top players even stopped showing up. The tournament experience was so bad, I decided I’d either start hosting myself or quit, too.”

The old SoCal guard had dropped off at just the time that Crimson had arrived – experienced TOs like NealDT and Champ were bowing out of the scene, and players were slowly leaving. But Crimson, refusing to be denied the Smash experience he had been looking for, started building communities again. Along with two other out-of-state Smashers, Sung and Dendy, OXY was born. “I started playing together in Dendy’s college common room at Occidental College. We started inviting more people, and made it a weekly thing on Fridays. They slowly grew, and started fostering a new generation of guys like A Rookie, Westballz, and even Sung himself. A lot of the current SoCal superstars were frequent visitors.” The events got big – when Samox came around to film for The Smash Brothers documentary, Crimson even went out of his way to host a Smashfest just for him to film at, facilitating Mango and Hugs’ interviews.

Crimson at the original Kings of Cali © VGBootcamp

Twitch Cop

From there on out, he was always involved. He ran Super Smash Sunday along with several other one-off tournaments for many years under the team name OXY – which, if you haven’t noticed by now, is a shortening of Occidental College. He was even behind Ken’s comeback tournament, which was part of the Kings of Cali series. But more recently, he’s taken on a new mantle: Partnerships Lead for Smash Bros.

The need for a position like this makes sense on several levels. First, Smash has seen unprecedented growth over the past few years, and despite its grassroots beginnings, it has become a game that, as a business opportunity, is impossible to ignore. Second, it’s allowed Twitch to help organize professional opportunities in ways that the Smash community has been unable to do on its own. “I think they picked me because my business experience and expertise would allow Smash to garner the outside traction it needs, and I could consult event and production partners like TOs and streamers to be a part of that next level,” he told me.

What he’s brought to community after community – structure – is what Smash needs the most. “It’s really difficult for even the most seasoned Smasher to know where the content is, and why it matters. Collaboration among TOs and streamers is the future; events are becoming too big to be a one man show. We’re going to need a pooling of talent.” He’s got a long road ahead of him, but if Crimson’s history is any indication, he’s up to the task.

Come back next Tuesday for another installment of Friendlies, our weekly series on the people of Smash.