This was actually our fourth time attending the Indiana Smash Brothers Tournament (MELEE:FC), but my first time writing about it. I figured I had to document the experience at least once.
So here's the deal- MELEE:FC is one of the largest smash tourneys you're going to find. Hundreds of competitors come from around the world (although mainly the US) to compete for thousands of dollars in prize money. The event runs a full three days, consisting of singles, teams, and crew battles. Basically, it's non-stop smash for the weekend. If at any point you ever thought you were good at Smash Brothers, then please come to this tournament and get proven wrong. First up is the car ride. Luckily, the tournament is located about five hours away, so the ride is pretty bearable. It could be much worse.
Ben is pumped
The only mosque I've ever seen
We arrive, check in, and start playing. The teams tourney starts almost immediately, so we get some matches in and then get ready to go to our pools. We actually did really good in our first round of pools. 8 teams per pool, top two advance. We (Matt and I) went 6-1 in the rounds, meaning we got to advance. Unfortunately, Ben and Emily didn't do so good :(
Barely eeking out a victory against AZ and Overswarm
Losing to Darkrain and Tink in style
Before we went to the next round of teams pools though, they started up singles. I actually had high hopes for my pool, the only person I had heard of previously was PC Chris (aka one of the top players around). I was incredibly wrong. I went 2-5 in the pool. Decent, but definitely not enough to advance. Same went for everyone else.
PC asks what stage I'm good on. Like it matters
Losing to PC.... in style
Emily, in serious concentration
Matt gets rock-crocked
We still had some high hopes. After all, we advanced to the next round of teams pools! Well, that was short lived. We were pretty tired, and we were facing a pool of much higher competition. The end result? we got molested like sad little babies, 0-7.
Team Over 9000 (losses)
Us deciding on a counterpick stage. Like it matters
One day into the tournament, we were all but knocked out. All we had left was our double-elimination crew battle. A crew battle basically pits one team against another, with a set amount of lives to divide up equally among the members. We got a surprise late addition to the team (Jeremy), but it still wasn't enough. The first crew battle we lost pretty badly, but the second we kept it MUCH closer. Damn Fox and Marth.
THE NEWARK CREW. And Jeremy
After the crew battles
Needless to say, our smash spirit was dwindling. We spent the next several hours playing DS by ourselves. Later that night we mustered some strength to play a few more friendly matches before hitting the sack. The last notable achievement of the night was taking pictures of the gross shower area.
Why is there a server back here?
I wouldn't go in there...
Saturday. Final day of the tournament. The word 'smash' brings a sickening feeling to our stomachs. We spend a majority of the day playing DS and solving sudoku puzzles. Oh and for some reason, they were giving away kittens outside. That made Emily happy for a couple minutes.
DS party
KITTY
The hardest sudoku puzzle ever?
One final look at the tournament
After that we set out for Ohio, to return to the real world. We made our traditional stop at Burger King, where Emily consumes several cows worth of Hamburger.
These four layers of beef didn't stand a chance
Ben enjoys his Oreo Sundae
You might wonder why we even go to the tournament, if we lose so badly. Well, the only way to explain it is as an 'experience.' You still get to have fun playing a bunch of different people, and observe those who have completely dedicated their lives to it. In the very least, it's quite entertaining. And it gives us and excuse to make awesome CDs for the car ride. Team Newark will return again!
Posted to: Adventures