chillindude829
Smash Master
Part XIV – Tournament Go 6
The TG series had already become unquestionably the greatest Smash tourney series to date. TG4 was the decisive battle of NorCal vs SoCal, and TG5 was to settle the score between the East Coast and West Coast; Ken took it for both SoCal and WC.
With TG6 and Captain Jack visiting, along with a couple of European players and Canadians, the first international tourney was here. Although there was still very limited representation of other countries, having one of Japan’s top players was extremely exciting, considering how good Japan was rumored to be at Smash. Thus TG6 also had a riveting storyline: USA vs Japan. Undoubtedly Ken was looking to take this one home as well, and going into the event was still the favorite to do so. At this point, I was still the only person to take a set off Ken in a tournament match, and of course he still ended up besting me in that tournament and winning. His tourney dominance was becoming impressive, so naturally at TG6 everyone would be gunning for him.
California would be the best represented state at the event for obvious reasons. Ken and Isai were their best, but they also had several other top-notch players attending: Recipherus, who had beaten Azen in Sheik dittos at the item-on TG5; Samitude, who was slipping from his spot as a top Cali player but was still one of the best Falcos of the time; and DieSuperFly or DSF, who had gotten considerably better since his trip to Game Over. There was also of course the host of the event Mattdeezie who was still a decent player at the time; luckily for us he decided to finally make TG into a non-item event, thanks in strong part to Isai supporting no items.
H2YL only had two representatives present, but luckily for us they were our two best: Azen and Chu Dat. Chu’s skills with Ice Climbers had developed considerably since Game Over and he was ready to test them at a national; meanwhile, Azen was increasingly confident in his Marth and was no doubt fueled by the rivalry that he and Ken had started at Game Over and continued at FC.
Eddie from the Midwest would be attending as usual, as well as several members of DA including Wes, Dave and Mike G. Texas’ finest, Rob$ and Caveman, would also be in attendance, as well as the best players from Washington state, such as Sastopher and Kei among others. Pretty much any region of smashers that had made a name for itself would be represented, except perhaps the Fall River, Massachusetts crew (Hayato and KrazyJones). Once again, Smash’s biggest tournament got even bigger and more diverse, and it would be a fitting end for the TG series, one of the best Smash tourney series of all time.
I spent the better part of the weekend trying to call anyone I could for updates, mainly Azen and Chu. I believe it was a two day event, and teams and singles pools were taken care of on the first day; Azen and Chu did fine in pools and were seeded well heading into the bracket, which was full of killers.
Azen advanced through his bracket: Manacloud, Kei, some guy named J-Dawg that took out Caveman. Meanwhile, Chu had beaten a strong Washington player named Blair and was going to be taking on Isai.
Ice Climbers were still considered low tier before TG6; Chu’s performance at this tournament was perhaps the single most influential on the tier list ever. He beat Isai 2-0, which shocked nearly everyone considering people had never even seen a competent Ice Climbers, let alone one good enough to sweep Isai’s Falcon. The winner’s bracket was becoming increasingly filled with upsets, but none could top what happened next.
Azen was waiting on the winner of Ken and Sastopher, a Peach player from Washington state. He was relatively unknown at the time, at least over on the EC. Peach vs Marth was a horrible matchup for Peach, and Azen was no doubt mentally preparing himself for a rematch with Ken. But one of the biggest upsets ever took place as Sastopher defeated Ken 2-1 to put Ken in loser’s. This was still only Ken’s 2nd loss in a tourney set ever, and most people still expected him to come back in loser’s.
Meanwhile, Captain Jack, the Japanese prodigy, was also performing extremely well. After beating Rob$’s Falco and Eddie’s Ganon, he also took out Sam’s Falco. I’m unsure about what character CJ was using, but I know he used Sheik, Ganon and Doc among others; he was the first person we’d seen since Azen who could perform at such a high level with several characters.
When Chu continued his excellent run by beating Wes, the winner’s bracket was down to two matches: Chu vs Captain Jack, and Azen vs Sastopher. Fortunately for H2YL, Sastopher was unable to repeat his shocking win and fell to Azen; meanwhile, CJ’s Ganon proved to be too much for Chu’s ICs and CJ sent Chu to loser’s.
The loser’s bracket was becoming increasingly difficult at this point; Wes once again lost to Isai and Dave fell to Rob$, who had one of his best performances at a national. His crewmate Caveman didn’t do as well, losing to DSF in loser’s, setting up DSF vs Ken as Ken’s first losers match.
Undoubtedly Ken was still the favorite to win despite Sheik having the advantage in the matchup against Marth and DSF being fresh off his win against Caveman. Nevertheless, DSF barely won 2-1; this was arguably the greatest upset of all time. A relatively new Sheik player had just eliminated the undisputed top player in the country from the tournament. In just one tournament, Ken went from 1 tourney set loss ever to 3 and ended in 9th place.
This was a huge opportunity for Azen. He wasn’t sure if he could beat Ken, but with Ken out of the picture he had a great chance to win the tourney. He set himself up nicely by beating CJ in winner’s finals; their matches had a ton of character switching. At this point Azen was guaranteed top 2, making him top 2 for 3 straight national tournies, an incredible feat.
DSF’s great run ended when he lost to Rob$; Rob$ was eliminated shortly thereafter by Sastopher. Meanwhile, Isai was tearing through his side of losers until he had to fight Chu again. Shockingly, Isai once again lost 2-0 to Chu’s ICs, and the tourney of upsets continued.
All of us in H2YL knew Chu was good, but none of us could have expected his monstrous performance at TG6. He beat Wes, swept Isai twice, and after beating him in loser’s he went on to take out Sastopher in an incredibly disadvantaged matchup (ICs against Peach). He made it all the way to loser’s finals and put on a great show vs Captain Jack’s Ganondorf but ended up losing in the final match.
This set up the grand finals: Azen vs Captain Jack. USA vs Japan, what everyone had been looking forward to, and with an impressive display of characters to boot. I was on the phone with Chu during this set and I remember being shocked that the crowd seemed to be on Captain Jack’s side. I figured this was out of WC pride since Azen was from EC, so I was upset by this, but regardless after two long sets Azen ended up defeating Captain Jack and finally was crowned 1st place at a major national tournament.
H2YL was ecstatic. Our two representatives placed 1st and 3rd at a national, practically international tourney. If there was any doubt before, this pretty much solidified us as the top Smash crew around. The boards were erupting because of the number of upsets that took place in the tourney and suddenly Ken was no longer the King of Smash. For at least the time being, Azen was the best Smash player around.
The TG series had already become unquestionably the greatest Smash tourney series to date. TG4 was the decisive battle of NorCal vs SoCal, and TG5 was to settle the score between the East Coast and West Coast; Ken took it for both SoCal and WC.
With TG6 and Captain Jack visiting, along with a couple of European players and Canadians, the first international tourney was here. Although there was still very limited representation of other countries, having one of Japan’s top players was extremely exciting, considering how good Japan was rumored to be at Smash. Thus TG6 also had a riveting storyline: USA vs Japan. Undoubtedly Ken was looking to take this one home as well, and going into the event was still the favorite to do so. At this point, I was still the only person to take a set off Ken in a tournament match, and of course he still ended up besting me in that tournament and winning. His tourney dominance was becoming impressive, so naturally at TG6 everyone would be gunning for him.
California would be the best represented state at the event for obvious reasons. Ken and Isai were their best, but they also had several other top-notch players attending: Recipherus, who had beaten Azen in Sheik dittos at the item-on TG5; Samitude, who was slipping from his spot as a top Cali player but was still one of the best Falcos of the time; and DieSuperFly or DSF, who had gotten considerably better since his trip to Game Over. There was also of course the host of the event Mattdeezie who was still a decent player at the time; luckily for us he decided to finally make TG into a non-item event, thanks in strong part to Isai supporting no items.
H2YL only had two representatives present, but luckily for us they were our two best: Azen and Chu Dat. Chu’s skills with Ice Climbers had developed considerably since Game Over and he was ready to test them at a national; meanwhile, Azen was increasingly confident in his Marth and was no doubt fueled by the rivalry that he and Ken had started at Game Over and continued at FC.
Eddie from the Midwest would be attending as usual, as well as several members of DA including Wes, Dave and Mike G. Texas’ finest, Rob$ and Caveman, would also be in attendance, as well as the best players from Washington state, such as Sastopher and Kei among others. Pretty much any region of smashers that had made a name for itself would be represented, except perhaps the Fall River, Massachusetts crew (Hayato and KrazyJones). Once again, Smash’s biggest tournament got even bigger and more diverse, and it would be a fitting end for the TG series, one of the best Smash tourney series of all time.
I spent the better part of the weekend trying to call anyone I could for updates, mainly Azen and Chu. I believe it was a two day event, and teams and singles pools were taken care of on the first day; Azen and Chu did fine in pools and were seeded well heading into the bracket, which was full of killers.
Azen advanced through his bracket: Manacloud, Kei, some guy named J-Dawg that took out Caveman. Meanwhile, Chu had beaten a strong Washington player named Blair and was going to be taking on Isai.
Ice Climbers were still considered low tier before TG6; Chu’s performance at this tournament was perhaps the single most influential on the tier list ever. He beat Isai 2-0, which shocked nearly everyone considering people had never even seen a competent Ice Climbers, let alone one good enough to sweep Isai’s Falcon. The winner’s bracket was becoming increasingly filled with upsets, but none could top what happened next.
Azen was waiting on the winner of Ken and Sastopher, a Peach player from Washington state. He was relatively unknown at the time, at least over on the EC. Peach vs Marth was a horrible matchup for Peach, and Azen was no doubt mentally preparing himself for a rematch with Ken. But one of the biggest upsets ever took place as Sastopher defeated Ken 2-1 to put Ken in loser’s. This was still only Ken’s 2nd loss in a tourney set ever, and most people still expected him to come back in loser’s.
Meanwhile, Captain Jack, the Japanese prodigy, was also performing extremely well. After beating Rob$’s Falco and Eddie’s Ganon, he also took out Sam’s Falco. I’m unsure about what character CJ was using, but I know he used Sheik, Ganon and Doc among others; he was the first person we’d seen since Azen who could perform at such a high level with several characters.
When Chu continued his excellent run by beating Wes, the winner’s bracket was down to two matches: Chu vs Captain Jack, and Azen vs Sastopher. Fortunately for H2YL, Sastopher was unable to repeat his shocking win and fell to Azen; meanwhile, CJ’s Ganon proved to be too much for Chu’s ICs and CJ sent Chu to loser’s.
The loser’s bracket was becoming increasingly difficult at this point; Wes once again lost to Isai and Dave fell to Rob$, who had one of his best performances at a national. His crewmate Caveman didn’t do as well, losing to DSF in loser’s, setting up DSF vs Ken as Ken’s first losers match.
Undoubtedly Ken was still the favorite to win despite Sheik having the advantage in the matchup against Marth and DSF being fresh off his win against Caveman. Nevertheless, DSF barely won 2-1; this was arguably the greatest upset of all time. A relatively new Sheik player had just eliminated the undisputed top player in the country from the tournament. In just one tournament, Ken went from 1 tourney set loss ever to 3 and ended in 9th place.
This was a huge opportunity for Azen. He wasn’t sure if he could beat Ken, but with Ken out of the picture he had a great chance to win the tourney. He set himself up nicely by beating CJ in winner’s finals; their matches had a ton of character switching. At this point Azen was guaranteed top 2, making him top 2 for 3 straight national tournies, an incredible feat.
DSF’s great run ended when he lost to Rob$; Rob$ was eliminated shortly thereafter by Sastopher. Meanwhile, Isai was tearing through his side of losers until he had to fight Chu again. Shockingly, Isai once again lost 2-0 to Chu’s ICs, and the tourney of upsets continued.
All of us in H2YL knew Chu was good, but none of us could have expected his monstrous performance at TG6. He beat Wes, swept Isai twice, and after beating him in loser’s he went on to take out Sastopher in an incredibly disadvantaged matchup (ICs against Peach). He made it all the way to loser’s finals and put on a great show vs Captain Jack’s Ganondorf but ended up losing in the final match.
This set up the grand finals: Azen vs Captain Jack. USA vs Japan, what everyone had been looking forward to, and with an impressive display of characters to boot. I was on the phone with Chu during this set and I remember being shocked that the crowd seemed to be on Captain Jack’s side. I figured this was out of WC pride since Azen was from EC, so I was upset by this, but regardless after two long sets Azen ended up defeating Captain Jack and finally was crowned 1st place at a major national tournament.
H2YL was ecstatic. Our two representatives placed 1st and 3rd at a national, practically international tourney. If there was any doubt before, this pretty much solidified us as the top Smash crew around. The boards were erupting because of the number of upsets that took place in the tourney and suddenly Ken was no longer the King of Smash. For at least the time being, Azen was the best Smash player around.
You missed out on the creation of the Wes/"The man" team. lol
