The news of Project M ceasing development has come as a shock to me. I had been cut from the team due to being too busy with work and left on relatively good terms. I will not hide that I didn’t get along with everyone on the team, but for the most part, I have the utmost respect for the vast majority of the people there. I have not come here with answers. I do not have them. However, I come with good memories.







When I first became a smasher, I did not exactly make the best of impressions. I claimed that tier lists were fake and that wavedashing was dumb and should never be used. I acted high and mighty without the skills to back it up, likely as a result of my complete lack of self-confidence. I was young, but I also was curious at heart and went to a tournament. I got my posterior handed to me, but the young man who defeated me did not gloat as I expected he would. He commented on the unorthodox way I held my controller and called it awesome. He had some time before his next match and decided to sit down with me and play some more, conversing with me, giving me tips and cracking jokes. I don’t even remember that guy’s name, but he left a very strong impression on me. I went back to other small scale tournaments and I’d have other fun encounters like that. It was then that I realized that I wanted to be part of this community. While I was this twitchy, anxious and awkward kid that was heavily bullied elsewhere, this community accepted me and treated me as one of its own. They didn’t mind my quirks; they just enjoyed playing smash with me.







I played Melee for a long while, but later down the line, people started to angrily lash at me when I was seen using advanced techniques. I didn’t understand what was going on; I just played the way that I enjoyed playing. What was wrong with that? Others have begun to express that this was happening and several became frustrated with the constant insults and began to fight back. That may have been the community’s biggest mistake honestly as this has given the anti-competitive crowd ammunition to continue bullying people who just wanted to play games for competitive fun. Nevertheless, this frustration of dealing with these people had affected my enjoyment of anything Smash-related. I kept playing for a while, and then Brawl got announced. Now, keep in mind that yes, I do not enjoy Brawl. That hardly means that I disrespect Brawl players. I have many who are friends of mine and many whom I play Project M with. Nevertheless, my hopes were sky high. Melee was so fun, how could it go wrong? I bought the game day one and frankly, I tried to like it. I tried for over a year. I simply could not muster any enjoyment. Some of the anti-competitive types I spoke of joined the Brawl tourney side (and I want to stress that those were a minority of people in the Brawl community) and started adding animosity to the events. I wanted to have fun, not debate with angry prepubescent people about why I was a “pretendo” for enjoying Melee over Brawl. Tournaments are supposed to be a celebration of a beloved game, not a fan war. I quit the scene entirely.







Later, I learned of Project M. At first, I didn’t actually believe that it was going to go anywhere, but then I saw its implementation of L-canceling and wavedashing and I became cautiously optimistic. I started talking with the developers on the irc and they hit all of the right notes. They were clearly kind, passionate and brilliant people. I decided to boot Melee again for the first time in years and started playing with friends as I once had before my hiatus. In my discussion with the developers, I shared fun and interesting ideas, and ended up applying for the team. I got in and became pretty involved with early Lucario touch-ups, doing various tasks on a multitude of characters, discussing balance, moving on to various crazy projects like being acting out Snake’s forward smash in front of a bad webcam, drawing the rough draft of the turbo booster item in MS Paint, representing the game at tournaments, getting us on various media sites like IGN, responding to major interviews, and being a part of the Roy development team. Shadic was a very interesting leader to work under. He was open-minded to a lot of original ideas, and that was pretty motivating. I was hardly technically talented in coding. Many are much, much more deserving of praise for what they did, but I was part of this, and it was a great honour.







In my time there, I was going through very difficult times, and decided to travel even though I didn’t have much money to waste. I went to meet people like JCaesar, Ryoko, Thunderhorse, Yeroc, cmart, GHNeko, and several more, and I have never expected to be welcomed so warmly. They went out of their way to make me have a good time. Crazy hijinx happened, including one involving spicy chicken wings and me turning Thunderhorse’s bathroom into a smell hazard. In times when I was feeling lower than garbage, I had smiled for the first time in months. That’s the power of community. I even met friends like Androgynus, Billz, Pinkie_Pie and StarWaffle for example.







A lot of people kept asking me if giving us feedback actually mattered and if we actually did care about them. We did. I cannot stress that enough. Every time I went to an event, I would jot down notes about things people would say and bring them to the team, and at the very least, they were considered. Most of us at the very least cared about the community to the point where we’d argue over what was best and fairest to you guys. I won’t deny that we did this in parts for our own enjoyment, but never would I have thought that Project M would get so much love and support. Whenever I played Project M with people and saw them smile, I always felt warm inside, as if I played a small part in that happiness. Having someone hug me over Project M remains one of the sweetest moments I have experienced.







The future of this game is really in your hands. Remember that Melee was a grassroots movement and has existed as such for a very long time. If you keep holding tournaments and keep sharing the game and talking about it, there is no reason that it should die off. A competitive scene is only as solid as its community. You guys are strong, stronger than any community I know. It is fine to be sad right now, but you’re not about to give up. I just know it.







I do want to ask one thing of you guys. The team does not appear to want to talk in detail about the reason for them disbanding. As much as I’d also like to know as well, it is best not to harass them about it. They may have a reason behind it. Let’s just respect that.