tofucake Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Hyrule 17807 Posts Last Edited: 2014-05-01 21:16:44 #1 NSA2 Recap The Journey of a Bulldozer, a Train, and a Spirit Bomb



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13: 1:CTRL | DJ Nintendo2:wWw Dazwa3:Gravy4:Liquid`KDJ5:Zoso5:CTRL | The Moon7:FLOW | Jesiah7:Tian9:SUNYO | The Mana Lord9:Swiftbass9:Spawn9:Dudutsai13:QC | MattDotZeb13:MIT | ycz613:Stratford13:Andy





DJ Nintendo Bulldozes His Way to the Singles Crown

by ]343[

Team Grab & Go ( Mario, miraculously turning the tide as his team closed out the last three games.



In Singles, however, DJ Nintendo's confidence in his Fox seemed fully restored. He didn't have much trouble on the Winners' side of the bracket, knocking out eventual Top 8





DJ Nintendo vs Liquid`KDJ



In Winners' Semifinals, DJ Nintendo faced his teammate, The Moon. The Moon's Marth dominated the first game on Battlefield with better spacing and combos, but DJ Nintendo's mastery of edgeguarding Marth sealed his victory in the second and third games, also on Battlefield.



Winners' Finals pitted DJ Nintendo against Dazwa. By then, the tournament had run into the wee hours of the morning, and it showed in Dazwa's uncharacteristic mistakes in the neutral game and missed combos. DJ Nintendo, however, seemed less affected by fatigue, and employed his Fox vs Sheik combos and tricks to full effect in a relatively one-sided 3-0 series. Grand Finals was looking to be more of the same, but Dazwa managed to take the second game thanks to some incredibly precise up-B's to the ledge and a forward-tilt -> dash attack -> dash attack -> up-smash -> forward-air combo taking DJ Nintendo from 62% to getting strong back-aired to death. DJ Nintendo, unfazed, finished Dazwa off with a JV 3 stock on Dream Land and a 2 stock on Yoshi's Story to take the tournament.







All Aboard the Gravy Train

by ]343[





Gravy plowed a path through four skilled New England players—UnknownForce (of Samox documentary fame), Andy, Dudutsai, and Tian—before entering a rematch with The Moon. Like Gravy, The Moon was relatively unrecognized only a year ago, but his high placings at New York / Tri-state tournaments (where he made strong showings against Mew2King and Hax) and his decent placings at nationals brought him modest fame; especially after The Moon's earlier win and Gravy's loss of game 1 against Tian, few spectators expected the obscure Captain Falcon player to take the runback.





Gravy vs The Moon



The players spawned at Fountain of Dreams — usually considered a poor Captain Falcon stage due to the low platform heights — for their first game. The Moon maintained a lead the whole game, until Gravy successfully edgehogged a low recovery by The Moon to bring the game to 1 stock apiece, 0% each. The Moon, however, responded by comboing Gravy all around the stage, eventually landing a down-tilt edgeguard to finish off game 1.



Gravy counterpicked Pokemon Stadium for the second game, and exploited Falcon's propensity for wide stages to the fullest on the neutral transformation. Using careful dash-dancing, Gravy spaced neutral-airs against Marth's shield, following up hits with quick two or three-hit combos. He then mixed up his approaches with grabs followed by accurate tech-chase aerials, allowing him to quickly run down The Moon's first two stocks. The Moon scored his first kill with an up-tilt on the Earth transformation, but a smart up-smash on a transforming platform returned Gravy's lead to two stocks. A slick tech-chase, ending in a jaw-dropping charged forward smash predicting The Moon's dropped shield, gave Gravy the 3 stock in game 2.



The Moon chose Battlefield for the final game. The players traded their first stocks quickly, but Gravy managed to take The Moon's second stock first with a down-throw -> knee. After another throw combo by Gravy, The Moon unfortunately missed a wavedash and air-dodged off the edge, but Gravy returned the favor during a "Hax-dash" attempt. Undeterred, Gravy threw out another forward smash, again catching The Moon releasing his shield with no DI. Gravy advanced to Losers' Semifinals to play against our very own Liquid`KDJ.





Gravy vs Liquid`KDJ







KDJ responded with what seemed to many a strange counterpick: Dream Land. Dream Land is considered poor for Marth due to his lessened ability to cover the lower platforms that are on other stages, while Captain Falcon gains the maneuvering room he so desires on such a large stage. Unfazed by this seeming disadvantage, KDJ proceeded to outplay Gravy for three stocks repeatedly comboing and out-spacing the Captain Falcon while surviving to over 150%. Gravy exacerbated his bleak situation by suiciding as he attempted a down-throw -> knee edgeguard. Shaking it off, Gravy finished off KDJ's first stock with a down-throw -> light knee.



KDJ continued to play his spacing game, but Gravy took the second stock with an up-throw -> reverse up-air -> knee. (Gravy was now at 70%.) After some more good grabs and an up-air -> knee, Gravy was able to get an extended edgeguard ending in a reverse knee from the edge. (Gravy was now at 167%.) KDJ scored another 54% of damage on his last stock without getting hit, but by this point, it was becoming clear that any of Marth's hits would send Falcon moderately far away, making it impossible for KDJ to combo Gravy effectively. The high ceiling of Dream Land also saved Gravy from dying to a tippered up-air; KDJ would have to either continue hitting Falcon with safe but weak moves until he could get an edgeguard, or throw out a strong but punishable move and hope for the best. KDJ chose the former, opting for forward-airs and grabs.



Finally, having sustained 241% of damage, Gravy did the only thing he could—try to death combo KDJ without getting hit. Starting from the ledge, Gravy landed an up-air -> grab, followed by another up-air -> grab, followed by another up-air. KDJ dodged the next back-air on the left platform, but was immediately caught by a falling reverse up-air chained into another up-air. KDJ again dodged the next back-air, but was at 79% by this point. After resetting to the neutral game, Gravy took advantage of the fact that KDJ was closer to the edge—therefore having less room to dash-dance—and landed a neutral-air. KDJ, DIing for survival instead of to avoid a combo, ate the follow-up knee to the face, completing Gravy's epic 4 stock comeback for the 2-0 victory. Gravy would face Dazwa next in Losers' Finals in a Bo5.





Gravy vs Dazwa



Gravy's momentum continued as he comfortably defeated



Gravy chose Final Destination for his last counterpick; Dazwa's missed reverse forward-air edgeguard, followed by Gravy's successful edgeguard, closed out an extremely close game to bring the series back to 2-2. For match point, Dazwa chose to go to Yoshi's Story. Though the match was initially close, a self-destruct by Gravy put Dazwa up a full stock. Though Gravy almost completed the comeback, Dazwa was able to convert his 74% advantage on each of Gravy's last two stocks with some tricky ledge work to take the game and the set, ending Gravy's incredible tournament.







An Accurate Depiction of Gravy





I Don't Hate 2v2 Anymore

by motbob

I'm a member of the "Documentary Generation." My biggest achievement in SSBM is completing all 51 event challenges; I don't even know how to wavedash. It's fun to watch Melee singles without any kind of playing experience, but whenever I tried to watch doubles, my eyes sort of glazed over after a few minutes. "This is just a clusterfuck," I'd think. The commentators I was listening to always seemed to be able to follow the action, but I never could. I figured there was some secret knowledge of the way doubles worked that I needed but didn't have. If I was watching Melee, and doubles came on, I just put the Twitch stream in the background and did something else.





?????



Because I'm a Liquid` fanboy, I made an exception to my "No 2v2" rule when KDJ + Dazwa were playing their





Hitting your teammate... on purpose???



For the first time, I was able to see the coordination between teammates. The saves, the grab combos. The commentators helped; they were focused on the teamplay aspect of the match, and every time someone would make a save, they'd point it out. To show just how nooby I was at watching 2v2, before this match I didn't really understand why having friendly fire on was important. Now I do.



After KDJ and Dazwa won, I watched the grand finals on the edge of my seat. The Sheik + Sheik strat paid dividends early, but in the second match, DJ Nintendo's Mario play stole the show. Definitely worth watching.



I dunno if the matches that day were special, or whether I'd just happened to hit the critical mass of spectator knowledge needed to appreciate 2v2. Whatever the reason, I feel like a changed man.





The Moon + DJ Nintendo vs Dazwa + Liquid`KDJ





The Melee Games – UMB vs. MIT

by Kyuukyuu

NSA 2 saw the culmination of the Melee Games, an intercollegiate Smash crew battle circuit started by MattDotZeb in New England. Ten schools in the Boston area sent out representative teams of 5-10 players each in a single elimination bracket that took place over several weeks. Teams consisted of newer or less experienced players, and as such Liquid`KDJ was barred from entering. His school, the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB) had arrived in the finals after an





crew battles

The format was the crew battle: a popular side event at many tournaments which features two teams of players with set characters and four stocks each, pitted against each other in a series of one-on-one matches. Much like StarCraft's Winner's League, the winner of each match would stay on to face the next player, but would not have his or her stocks replenished. The lineups are not set in stone, aside from the first player, and both matchup and stage counterpicks are often used by the losing player's team to regain an advantage.





the lineups







UMB











VudooTropicoKaijuxXx1337SnipaHaxorxXxSingCrow



MIT











MetlwingTrogdorRndlXPilot343ycz6











the match





The match begins with the two appointed starters in a matchup almost never seen in competitive Melee: Vudoo's Jigglypuff, a strong but not very popular character, against Metlwing's Yoshi, a mid tier that is almost never seen. What followed was a methodical match between the two as they tried to figure out each other's tendencies and went for safer, spacing-oriented approaches. Vudoo's aerial game brought him to a 2-1 stock advantage, but a technical flub led to a missed Rest opportunity that cost him the stock. The final stock went to the last hit with both characters at death percentage, but Vudoo cinched it, bringing UMB to an early 1 stock lead.



Behind by just one stock, MIT sent out Trogdor, hoping for an early kill off the top against the light, floaty Jigglypuff. Additionally, Fox's lack of bad matchups would minimize the disadvantage of being character-counterpicked the next match. After trading some hits, Trogdor was sent off stage in a scary situation, but was able to make it back and bring MIT even with a well timed up smash.



Tropico was sent out next in a space animal match on Dream Land. Both players were feeling the pressure of playing technical characters in a high intensity match, with multiple missed L-cancels, fastfalls, and other technical flubs. Nonetheless, the crowd energy was high. The support for Tropico was not enough, however, and good dash-dance grabs from Trogdor brought MIT to a 2 stock lead, and Trogdor's personal killcount up to 5 stocks.



Down by two, UMB sent out Kaiju, playing another good character who isn't very popular. Luigi's floatiness doesn't lend itself to being combo'd, but it played to Trogdor's patient dash-dancing style. A safe, slower match ensued, including a kill from a non-misfire Luigi Missile. Trogdor was able to punish a second one with an upsmash kill, but finally went down, after taking 6 UMB stocks.





awwwww yiss





Rndl was up next, continuing with a third consecutive match on Dream Land. Through a combination of a safe laser game and respecting Luigi's nair-out-of-combo options, Rndl maintained small leads in stock and big leads in percentage. Behind on last stock, 120% to 50% and off stage, the situation looked grim for Kaiju. This time, however, the gods of RNG were in his favour. A misfire followed by a forward tilt sent Rndl off-stage, and the crowd to their feet.







Riding his momentum, Kaiju went in against MIT's XPilot, with the crowd behind him. Cheers for UMB, MattDotZeb, and "One More Stock" almost drowned out the commentary as yet another Dream Land match began. The two went even in percentage until a crucial misstep sent XPilot dropping off the side of the stage in a self destruct. Kaiju attempted to take one more stock with several attempted edgeguards, but could not capitalize. The Luigi main would finally lose his stock after a failed recovery attempt, having taken 6 stocks from MIT.



Down to their last three players, UMB sent out xXx1337SnipaHaxorxXx, aka BOYZ, in a Falco ditto on Battlefield. Right off the bat, he paid XPilot's mistake back in kind with a self destruct of his own, accidentally airdodging off the left side. The difference in XPilot's comfort level between facing a Luigi and a space animal was clear, however, and the MIT Falco took control of the match, clearing out xXx1337SnipaHaxorxXx with just one stock lost.



After XPilot's strong performance in the previous match, MIT was now up in the set. Given the Samus and Ganondorf players left on the UMB bench, it was an obvious choice for them to send the Samus, SING, against Falco. XPilot built up high damage early on, but was unable to finish first. The heavy Samus, with her excellent recovery, had no fear on the stage with the game's largest blast zones, but the same could not be said for Falco's linear, gimped recovery. SING would take the game, though not without losing a stock.



Back on the MIT bench, just two players remained – TL's very own ]343[, and team captain ycz6. Both were Samuses, so the ditto was unavoidable. The crowd bunkered down in preparation for a potential 5+ minute match, as 343 took the stage.



The match opened with both players immediately spamming missiles, with percentage being traded evenly for a while before 343 took SING's 2nd stock, bringing the match to 2-4. SING came back and the two traded stocks, bringing it to 1-3. Then SING graduated Hogwarts and busted out some magic, taking 343's 3rd stock without receiving any damage, landing the killing blow with a missile. He then proceeded missile and neutral air spam his way into 343's 2nd stock, taking that with a charge shot. He then repeated the feat, taking 343's last stock with another charge shot.





so many juicy power shots





Down to their last player but with just a 1-stock deficit, MIT sent in their captain and best player, ycz6. Because of MIT's dominance in prior matchups, this was ycz6's first ever appearance in a crew battle, and he quickly showed everyone why. The percentages were close, but ycz6 closed it out, bringing it to a final 4-stock against 4-stock match.





"We Shall Represent You"



Faced with the pressure of facing perhaps the best player in the match, Crow stepped up to the mic, promising to avenge the players UMB had beaten on their way to the finals. With Liquid`KDJ's advice in his ears and the crowd's Spirit Bomb behind him, he sat down to play in the final game of the match, on Battlefield.



The mind games began early on with ycz6 performing the



The intimidating mind games continued on the second stock. Ycz6 executed a series of Super Wavedashes off the bat, but Crow was unfazed. Confident with his fresh stock, it only took one opening for Ganon's powerful hitboxes to take effect. A missed DI on a forward tilt sent ycz6 too low to grapple the ledge directly, and he ended up trapped beneath the stage, losing his life.



The two then exchanged stocks again. Projectiles and a sweet-spot back air took Crow down first, but he came back and with a swift series of strong hits and great edgeguarding evened it up at 2 stocks apiece, 0%.



The pair went blow for blow until a series of uncharacteristic missteps from ycz6. First, he mispaced his wavedash off the left platform, thinking it would carry him off it. Instead, Samus stayed on, and his follow-up missile hit nothing but empty space. He would eat an up air for his trouble, but came back with an attempted forward air into up air. However, by inputting the buttons too quickly, Samus did a jump cancelled up smash instead of the up air – one of Samus's worst moves. This time, he would take a Ganon forward air to the face. ycz6 tried a recovery trick with Samus's rising grapple, but Crow took the opportunity to up air him, then finishing the stock with a back air, pulling into the lead for the first time.





Such a close fight...until that happened



Even after all this, though, Crow was still at a high percent. It was only a matter of a trivial edgeguard to even up the stocks once again, though MIT's ycz6 was still behind by 42%. The



Northeastern Smash Attack 2, held at Northeastern University in Boston, MA and hosted by MattDotZeb on March 29th, was the largest ever Super Smash Bros. tournament held in New England. It featured Melee singles (227 entrants) and doubles (79 teams) and Project M singles (64 entrants), along with the Grand Finals of "The Melee Games", a series of crew battles between players from ten New England universities.Melee Singles results: ( Bracket link Team Grab & Go (DJ Nintendo +The Moon) had gone into Grand Finals of Melee Doubles againstKDJ +Dazwa coming from the winners' side. KDJ and Dazwa managed to take an extremely close first set, 3-2, and proceeded to win the first game after the bracket reset on Battlefield. DJ Nintendo decided that his Fox wasn't working out... and switched to, miraculously turning the tide as his team closed out the last three games.In Singles, however, DJ Nintendo's confidence in his Fox seemed fully restored. He didn't have much trouble on the Winners' side of the bracket, knocking out eventual Top 8Tian before facing KDJ in Winners' Quarterfinals. A few quick gimps by KDJ's Marth on Dream Land resulted in a decisive 3 stock, but DJ Nintendo repaid the favor with strong edgeguarding on Battlefield in game 2, scoring a 3 stock of his own. KDJ counterpicked Sheik on Dream Land for the final game of the set; DJ Nintendo switched to a more defensive playstyle and used his strong punishes to eke out a close 1 stock win despite accidentally jumping offstage.In Winners' Semifinals, DJ Nintendo faced his teammate, The Moon. The Moon's Marth dominated the first game on Battlefield with better spacing and combos, but DJ Nintendo's mastery of edgeguarding Marth sealed his victory in the second and third games, also on Battlefield.Winners' Finals pitted DJ Nintendo against Dazwa. By then, the tournament had run into the wee hours of the morning, and it showed in Dazwa's uncharacteristic mistakes in the neutral game and missed combos. DJ Nintendo, however, seemed less affected by fatigue, and employed his Fox vs Sheik combos and tricks to full effect in a relatively one-sided 3-0 series. Grand Finals was looking to be more of the same, but Dazwa managed to take the second game thanks to some incredibly precise up-B's to the ledge and a forward-tilt -> dash attack -> dash attack -> up-smash -> forward-air combo taking DJ Nintendo from 62% to getting strong back-aired to death. DJ Nintendo, unfazed, finished Dazwa off with a JV 3 stock on Dream Land and a 2 stock on Yoshi's Story to take the tournament.Gravy has long been one of the top players in upstate New York, but was an unknown outside his region—until now. After a solid 3rd place finish in doubles with his teammateJesiah, Gravy easily dispatched his singles pool. But The Moon defeated him in Winners' round 3, setting the stage for Gravy's monster run through Losers' bracket.Gravy plowed a path through four skilled New England players—UnknownForce (of Samox documentary fame), Andy, Dudutsai, and Tian—before entering a rematch with The Moon. Like Gravy, The Moon was relatively unrecognized only a year ago, but his high placings at New York / Tri-state tournaments (where he made strong showings against Mew2King and Hax) and his decent placings at nationals brought him modest fame; especially after The Moon's earlier win and Gravy's loss of game 1 against Tian, few spectators expected the obscure Captain Falcon player to take the runback.The players spawned at Fountain of Dreams — usually considered a poor Captain Falcon stage due to the low platform heights — for their first game. The Moon maintained a lead the whole game, until Gravy successfully edgehogged a low recovery by The Moon to bring the game to 1 stock apiece, 0% each. The Moon, however, responded by comboing Gravy all around the stage, eventually landing a down-tilt edgeguard to finish off game 1.Gravy counterpicked Pokemon Stadium for the second game, and exploited Falcon's propensity for wide stages to the fullest on the neutral transformation. Using careful dash-dancing, Gravy spaced neutral-airs against Marth's shield, following up hits with quick two or three-hit combos. He then mixed up his approaches with grabs followed by accurate tech-chase aerials, allowing him to quickly run down The Moon's first two stocks. The Moon scored his first kill with an up-tilt on the Earth transformation, but a smart up-smash on a transforming platform returned Gravy's lead to two stocks. A slick tech-chase, ending in a jaw-dropping charged forward smash predicting The Moon's dropped shield, gave Gravy the 3 stock in game 2.The Moon chose Battlefield for the final game. The players traded their first stocks quickly, but Gravy managed to take The Moon's second stock first with a down-throw -> knee. After another throw combo by Gravy, The Moon unfortunately missed a wavedash and air-dodged off the edge, but Gravy returned the favor during a "Hax-dash" attempt. Undeterred, Gravy threw out another forward smash, again catching The Moon releasing his shield with no DI. Gravy advanced to Losers' Semifinals to play against our very own Liquid`KDJ.KDJ opened game 1 on Battlefield with an early forward-air gimp underneath the notoriously unforgiving ledge. After trading their next stocks—Gravy taking advantage of KDJ being on a platform with up-airs, and KDJ spacing some money forward smashes—KDJ made himself a victim of the same ledge, up-b'ing in the wrong position. Gravy seized the momentum shift to death-combo KDJ with an up-air -> up-air -> reverse knee and gain the lead. His good fortunes continued into the next stock as he landed practically the same combo (without the first up-air), but as a true Captain Falcon player, he tried a fancy moonwalk -> back-air instead of a simple edge-hog, giving away his stock for free. Still confident and holding the lead, however, Gravy punished an attempted counter by KDJ with a down-throw -> knee, securing the first game.KDJ responded with what seemed to many a strange counterpick: Dream Land. Dream Land is considered poor for Marth due to his lessened ability to cover the lower platforms that are on other stages, while Captain Falcon gains the maneuvering room he so desires on such a large stage. Unfazed by this seeming disadvantage, KDJ proceeded to outplay Gravy for three stocks repeatedly comboing and out-spacing the Captain Falcon while surviving to over 150%. Gravy exacerbated his bleak situation by suiciding as he attempted a down-throw -> knee edgeguard. Shaking it off, Gravy finished off KDJ's first stock with a down-throw -> light knee.KDJ continued to play his spacing game, but Gravy took the second stock with an up-throw -> reverse up-air -> knee. (Gravy was now at 70%.) After some more good grabs and an up-air -> knee, Gravy was able to get an extended edgeguard ending in a reverse knee from the edge. (Gravy was now at 167%.) KDJ scored another 54% of damage on his last stock without getting hit, but by this point, it was becoming clear that any of Marth's hits would send Falcon moderately far away, making it impossible for KDJ to combo Gravy effectively. The high ceiling of Dream Land also saved Gravy from dying to a tippered up-air; KDJ would have to either continue hitting Falcon with safe but weak moves until he could get an edgeguard, or throw out a strong but punishable move and hope for the best. KDJ chose the former, opting for forward-airs and grabs.Finally, having sustained 241% of damage, Gravy did the only thing he could—try to death combo KDJ without getting hit. Starting from the ledge, Gravy landed an up-air -> grab, followed by another up-air -> grab, followed by another up-air. KDJ dodged the next back-air on the left platform, but was immediately caught by a falling reverse up-air chained into another up-air. KDJ again dodged the next back-air, but was at 79% by this point. After resetting to the neutral game, Gravy took advantage of the fact that KDJ was closer to the edge—therefore having less room to dash-dance—and landed a neutral-air. KDJ, DIing for survival instead of to avoid a combo, ate the follow-up knee to the face, completing Gravy's epic 4 stock comeback for the 2-0 victory. Gravy would face Dazwa next in Losers' Finals in a Bo5.Gravy's momentum continued as he comfortably defeatedDazwa in their first game on Battlefield. Dazwa, however, was able to cool Gravy down with some long grab tech-chases and effective edgeguards on Fountain of Dreams, taking the next game. He continued his excellent tech-chasing on Gravy's Dream Land counterpick, maintaining a lead the whole game and preventing a repeat miracle by Gravy.Gravy chose Final Destination for his last counterpick; Dazwa's missed reverse forward-air edgeguard, followed by Gravy's successful edgeguard, closed out an extremely close game to bring the series back to 2-2. For match point, Dazwa chose to go to Yoshi's Story. Though the match was initially close, a self-destruct by Gravy put Dazwa up a full stock. Though Gravy almost completed the comeback, Dazwa was able to convert his 74% advantage on each of Gravy's last two stocks with some tricky ledge work to take the game and the set, ending Gravy's incredible tournament.I'm a member of the "Documentary Generation." My biggest achievement in SSBM is completing all 51 event challenges; I don't even know how to wavedash. It's fun to watch Melee singles without any kind of playing experience, but whenever I tried to watch doubles, my eyes sort of glazed over after a few minutes. "This is just a clusterfuck," I'd think. The commentators I was listening to always seemed to be able to follow the action, but I never could. I figured there was some secret knowledge of the way doubles worked that I needed but didn't have. If I was watching Melee, and doubles came on, I just put the Twitch stream in the background and did something else.Because I'm a Liquid` fanboy, I made an exception to my "No 2v2" rule when KDJ + Dazwa were playing their losers finals match against Gravy + Jesiah. After an underwhelming team performance in Game 2, KDJ switched his character to Sheik, making his team Sheik + Sheik. I think I can pinpoint the exact moment 2v2 became something special to me:For the first time, I was able to see the coordination between teammates. The saves, the grab combos. The commentators helped; they were focused on the teamplay aspect of the match, and every time someone would make a save, they'd point it out. To show just how nooby I was at watching 2v2, before this match I didn't really understand why having friendly fire on was important. Now I do.After KDJ and Dazwa won, I watched the grand finals on the edge of my seat. The Sheik + Sheik strat paid dividends early, but in the second match, DJ Nintendo's Mario play stole the show. Definitely worth watching.I dunno if the matches that day were special, or whether I'd just happened to hit the critical mass of spectator knowledge needed to appreciate 2v2. Whatever the reason, I feel like a changed man.NSA 2 saw the culmination of the Melee Games, an intercollegiate Smash crew battle circuit started by MattDotZeb in New England. Ten schools in the Boston area sent out representative teams of 5-10 players each in a single elimination bracket that took place over several weeks. Teams consisted of newer or less experienced players, and as such Liquid`KDJ was barred from entering. His school, the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB) had arrived in the finals after an extremely tight contest against UMass Amherst in the quarterfinals, and a 17-stock drubbing of Northeastern University in the semis. Their opponent, MIT, had taken out Harvard and Tufts on their way to this clash of collegiate titans.The format was the crew battle: a popular side event at many tournaments which features two teams of players with set characters and four stocks each, pitted against each other in a series of one-on-one matches. Much like StarCraft's Winner's League, the winner of each match would stay on to face the next player, but would not have his or her stocks replenished. The lineups are not set in stone, aside from the first player, and both matchup and stage counterpicks are often used by the losing player's team to regain an advantage.The match begins with the two appointed starters in a matchup almost never seen in competitive Melee: Vudoo's Jigglypuff, a strong but not very popular character, against Metlwing's Yoshi, a mid tier that is almost never seen. What followed was a methodical match between the two as they tried to figure out each other's tendencies and went for safer, spacing-oriented approaches. Vudoo's aerial game brought him to a 2-1 stock advantage, but a technical flub led to a missed Rest opportunity that cost him the stock. The final stock went to the last hit with both characters at death percentage, but Vudoo cinched it, bringing UMB to an early 1 stock lead.Behind by just one stock, MIT sent out Trogdor, hoping for an early kill off the top against the light, floaty Jigglypuff. Additionally, Fox's lack of bad matchups would minimize the disadvantage of being character-counterpicked the next match. After trading some hits, Trogdor was sent off stage in a scary situation, but was able to make it back and bring MIT even with a well timed up smash.Tropico was sent out next in a space animal match on Dream Land. Both players were feeling the pressure of playing technical characters in a high intensity match, with multiple missed L-cancels, fastfalls, and other technical flubs. Nonetheless, the crowd energy was high. The support for Tropico was not enough, however, and good dash-dance grabs from Trogdor brought MIT to a 2 stock lead, and Trogdor's personal killcount up to 5 stocks.Down by two, UMB sent out Kaiju, playing another good character who isn't very popular. Luigi's floatiness doesn't lend itself to being combo'd, but it played to Trogdor's patient dash-dancing style. A safe, slower match ensued, including a kill from a non-misfire Luigi Missile. Trogdor was able to punish a second one with an upsmash kill, but finally went down, after taking 6 UMB stocks.Rndl was up next, continuing with a third consecutive match on Dream Land. Through a combination of a safe laser game and respecting Luigi's nair-out-of-combo options, Rndl maintained small leads in stock and big leads in percentage. Behind on last stock, 120% to 50% and off stage, the situation looked grim for Kaiju. This time, however, the gods of RNG were in his favour. A misfire followed by a forward tilt sent Rndl off-stage, and the crowd to their feet.Riding his momentum, Kaiju went in against MIT's XPilot, with the crowd behind him. Cheers for UMB, MattDotZeb, and "One More Stock" almost drowned out the commentary as yet another Dream Land match began. The two went even in percentage until a crucial misstep sent XPilot dropping off the side of the stage in a self destruct. Kaiju attempted to take one more stock with several attempted edgeguards, but could not capitalize. The Luigi main would finally lose his stock after a failed recovery attempt, having taken 6 stocks from MIT.Down to their last three players, UMB sent out xXx1337SnipaHaxorxXx, aka BOYZ, in a Falco ditto on Battlefield. Right off the bat, he paid XPilot's mistake back in kind with a self destruct of his own, accidentally airdodging off the left side. The difference in XPilot's comfort level between facing a Luigi and a space animal was clear, however, and the MIT Falco took control of the match, clearing out xXx1337SnipaHaxorxXx with just one stock lost.After XPilot's strong performance in the previous match, MIT was now up in the set. Given the Samus and Ganondorf players left on the UMB bench, it was an obvious choice for them to send the Samus, SING, against Falco. XPilot built up high damage early on, but was unable to finish first. The heavy Samus, with her excellent recovery, had no fear on the stage with the game's largest blast zones, but the same could not be said for Falco's linear, gimped recovery. SING would take the game, though not without losing a stock.Back on the MIT bench, just two players remained – TL's very own ]343[, and team captain ycz6. Both were Samuses, so the ditto was unavoidable. The crowd bunkered down in preparation for a potential 5+ minute match, as 343 took the stage.The match opened with both players immediately spamming missiles, with percentage being traded evenly for a while before 343 took SING's 2nd stock, bringing the match to 2-4. SING came back and the two traded stocks, bringing it to 1-3. Then SING graduated Hogwarts and busted out some magic, taking 343's 3rd stock without receiving any damage, landing the killing blow with a missile. He then proceeded missile and neutral air spam his way into 343's 2nd stock, taking that with a charge shot. He then repeated the feat, taking 343's last stock with another charge shot.Down to their last player but with just a 1-stock deficit, MIT sent in their captain and best player, ycz6. Because of MIT's dominance in prior matchups, this was ycz6's first ever appearance in a crew battle, and he quickly showed everyone why. The percentages were close, but ycz6 closed it out, bringing it to a final 4-stock against 4-stock match.Faced with the pressure of facing perhaps the best player in the match, Crow stepped up to the mic, promising to avenge the players UMB had beaten on their way to the finals. With Liquid`KDJ's advice in his ears and the crowd's Spirit Bomb behind him, he sat down to play in the final game of the match, on Battlefield.The mind games began early on with ycz6 performing the Stock Glitch , changing his stock icons to white Kirby. Crow's low mobility with Ganondorf had a difficult time getting around Samus's projectile options, and a misstep sent him off the stage, beginning an extended edgeguard from ycz6, ending Crow's first stock.The intimidating mind games continued on the second stock. Ycz6 executed a series of Super Wavedashes off the bat, but Crow was unfazed. Confident with his fresh stock, it only took one opening for Ganon's powerful hitboxes to take effect. A missed DI on a forward tilt sent ycz6 too low to grapple the ledge directly, and he ended up trapped beneath the stage, losing his life.The two then exchanged stocks again. Projectiles and a sweet-spot back air took Crow down first, but he came back and with a swift series of strong hits and great edgeguarding evened it up at 2 stocks apiece, 0%.The pair went blow for blow until a series of uncharacteristic missteps from ycz6. First, he mispaced his wavedash off the left platform, thinking it would carry him off it. Instead, Samus stayed on, and his follow-up missile hit nothing but empty space. He would eat an up air for his trouble, but came back with an attempted forward air into up air. However, by inputting the buttons too quickly, Samus did a jump cancelled up smash instead of the up air – one of Samus's worst moves. This time, he would take a Ganon forward air to the face. ycz6 tried a recovery trick with Samus's rising grapple, but Crow took the opportunity to up air him, then finishing the stock with a back air, pulling into the lead for the first time.Even after all this, though, Crow was still at a high percent. It was only a matter of a trivial edgeguard to even up the stocks once again, though MIT's ycz6 was still behind by 42%. The final stock of both players sent the crowd into a frenzy as cheers for Ganondorf and MattDotZeb broke out once again. The two played carefully, aware of the stakes and determined not to be the one to mess up first. It was ycz6 with a full Charge Shot tech chase that broke the tie, but he could not capitalize on the edgeguard. Nerves were clearly in play as the two exchanged positions with ycz6 off stage. Crow went for the back air, but a crucial airdodge reversed the situation once more, and for the last time. He would not miss again. With 88% on his final stock, MIT's ycz6 took the game, and the Melee Games' first championship. Liquipedia asante sana squash banana