Smash Brothers Tournament Brings Successful Turn-out

The sun was shining and the skies were a brilliant shade of blue on Saturday July 21^st 2012.  The clouds floated by and the birds flew through the air, but the real excitement, for New England gamers anyway, could be found inside Game Underground in Framingham, Massachusetts.  There Smash Brothers gamers from the area converged for 2 v 2 and 1 v 1 matches in epic battle after epic battle throughout the day.

Mega Mass Madness was organized by Dylan Hayes and sponsored by Game Underground.  Matches were live streamed over twitch.tv with commentary by Hayes and Fats,  Bizkit, Bloodcross, Almo, and Boxman provided.

Hayes initially announced the event back in May after another Mega Mass Madness tournament.  But planning the rules, the stream, and other logistics meant the event didn’t start advertising until early June.  The choice to use Game Underground as a venue for the tournament came with many perks.  In addition to the great centralized location for most of the New England Smash Brothers scene, Hayes said, “GameUnderground has a long history with the New England Smash community, in both Melee and Brawl. GU has hosted Smash events since 2007 under a handful of different tournament organizers, myself included. The owner of the venue, Jamie, is a blast to work with, supplying us with CRT TVs (a necessity, as flat screen, LCD, etc. TVs all tend to carry input lag with Wii games), room to work with, and internet to livestream the event with.”  Store owner Jamie York hosts tournaments of this sort nearly every weekend.

York said his favorite part of hosting tournaments is meeting new people, and that he’s made friends through hosting, since most of the people who come have met through the gaming community.  He also added that there’s a lot to be said for playing in person versus online.  The lack of lag is a big deal in fighting games such as Smash Brothers.  Hayes said his goal for the tournament was “To host a tournament that people would not only enjoy, but wish to attend future events.”

A typical tournament day at Game Underground can bring in 20-50 people, and the Smash Brothers tournament day on the 21^st did not disappoint.  When asked if this event met or exceeded Hayes’s expectations he said:

“It exceeded my expectations in spades! The last event we hosted had a meager turnout (only 17 players entered the 1v1 tournament), but this one more than doubled our previous figure, bringing in 40. I knew turnout was going to be better than our previous event when Rhode Island (previously absent) announced they’d be bringing a large group, but then we had few players from New York suddenly announce attendance as well. I actually had no idea our events had this potential – the Brawl scene in New England has been on kind of a slump for the past year, and it’s usually the same group of 15 people or so at each event. This one had at least 20 faces I’ve never seen before.”

Of all the competitors present, there would of course be those whose performances would shine, hurtling them into the finals.  The event opened with a 2v2 tournament, and closed with a 1v1 event. Doubles went to Koolaid and Pelca, and 1v1 was won by Fatal.  While the winners of the main categories were not a surprise, Hayes says his favorite part was the “grudge match” held between the 2 v 2 and 1 v 1 portions of the tournament. “Almo and Joe ST …settled it in a $20 money match, best of 5. It went all the way to game 5, but Almo ended up winning, which was quite an upset,” Hayes says.

The archive of the live stream can be found by clicking http://www.twitch.tv/wwwsmash/videos.  It is separated into segments for easier viewing.  And for fans looking to compete in further New England area Smash Brothers tournaments, Game Underground will be hosting the Game Underground Tournament Spectacular from September 28^th to the 30^th.  The event takes place in Somerville, MA, at the Holiday Inn.  Details are available by clicking http://www.facebook.com/events/119746354833872/.