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The King Interview 07-08-09
Sir 0rion sits down with Genesis host and long time community pro/vertern The King.
Daniel “The King” Hutchinson is no stranger to the competitive tournament scene. Having participated in Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments since 2004 as well as competing in the MLG Pro Circuit with some success, The King is quite familiar with what it takes to play a game competitively.
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On July 10-12, Daniel will be expanding upon his resume, hoping to add wildly successful tournament host alongside his accomplishments as a competitor. Smash players across the country are gearing up for Genesis, a major Super Smash Bros. tournament being run by The King in Antioch, California. *We sat down with him to get his perspective on this fast-approaching event.
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Smashboards: Let’s talk numbers for a second. Given the overall response from the gaming community and the monetary investment that has gone into running this event, what sort of turnout are you expecting?
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The King: Well, what has really taken us aback in the months leading up to Genesis is just how high our conservative attendance expectancy keeps rising. We originally hoped, planned, and budgeted for around 250 people, but as the event approaches we're expecting around 500-600 people to show up!
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Smashboards: Do you feel you will be prepared to meet the needs of the individual players in this event, should it be required?
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The King: First and foremost, we've tried to set up the schedule structure so that it is equal parts time-efficient and competitively satisfactory for anyone who enters. We've tried to set up pools to allow for a generous amount of matches per person, while not making it too harsh to advance. Even those who attend simply for the experience of playing great players will definitely get their money's worth.
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As far as the venue itself, luckily we had enough foresight to arrange for a building to hold twice as many people as we initially expected. We've made reservations for plenty of tables, chairs, and bleacher-seating, all within a building with central A/C to combat any midsummer heat that swings our way. Not to mention we've got a full menu of food & beverage concessions to be sold right on the spot, so nobody has to put their tournament attendance in jeopardy to snag a bite to eat.
Apart from that, we're making as explicit a ruleset as possible and combining that with a decent-sized group of staff & volunteers, so any individual issues which may arise during the tournament should be easily handled.
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Smashboards: With a crowd of 500-600 people, you will almost certainly get a very healthy mixture of not only tournament veterans, but also people relatively new to the competitive scene. This tournament could be the first major competition many players have experienced first-hand. What sort of advice would you give to those players who are new to this sort of environment?
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The King: Basically to just take everything in stride. Especially for anyone going to a tournament for the first time, something you don't want to bring with you are unrealistic personal expectations. At events of this size, even seasoned professionals are often left humbled in the event's wake. Just go into every match knowing it's a learning experience, and take from it everything you can. Take a deep breath, enjoy every match you watch or get the opportunity to participate in, and should you find yourself against Mew2king in a match, don't forget to keep breathing!
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Smashboards: (Laughs)
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The King: For a new player, the first thing they'll realize is that the atmosphere of tournament pressure is unlike anything they've experienced in friendlies. You'll want to stick to your basics, and bring with you into the match only what you truly know; pressure wrings a lot out of you, and flash should only be reserved for friendlies or the professional players.
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I'd say bring some food & drinks with you if you can; especially water. Take it from me, two to three consecutive days of being engulfed in smash for 16+ hours a day will take its toll if you don't bring something to stay energized.
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The one thing I'd suggest is to bring a sharp memory and leave your ego at the door. Every Smasher but one leaves the tournament humbled, and it's those that remember the hows and whys of their losses that will return to the next event a better player.
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Smashboards: You'll obviously have a rather full plate in running this tournament. Do you think you'll be participating in it yourself, or will you simply be too busy?
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The King: I really still haven't decided. (Laughs)
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I'm sure I’ll be entering the Melee events at least, for old time's sake. As for Brawl... words can't describe how rusty I am at that game.
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Smashboards: Now let's talk about the games in general. Melee's metagame has basically been solidified at this point (insofar as any fighting game’s competitive level
can be), and Brawl's is starting to come into focus as well. Do you feel that we'll see any changes in the usage of certain characters/stages/rulesets? Which sort of changes do you expect to take place, if any?
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The King: All I can really say is that I know first-hand how quickly a community can be inspired by just one break-out player. For many, it's hard to grasp a character's potential and the possible ramifications on the metagame until they've seen a stellar example with their own eyes.
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Melee saw players like Bombsoldier revitalizing the nation's interest in Falco; HugS practically re-invented Samus and flip-flopped many of the matchups with his style. Players like Ken, Azen and eventually Mew2king kept showing the nation just how far one could push the envelope with Marth. Even late in Melee's timeline, Bum showed us just how competitive one could be even with a generally scoffed-at character like DK.
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As far as rulesets go, the community did a pretty solid job with giving everything a chance while eliminating the more obvious issues with competitive fairness early on. The current ruleset for Brawl pretty much fits the style and pace of Brawl's gameplay, and like Melee I'm sure amendments will be made later on as new "degenerate" issues arise (Indefinite stall tactics, etc.).
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For the available stages, it has pretty much slowly been filtering down as many expected. The metagame shifts and evolves to a point where suddenly, stages fit for a neutral offer glaring counterpick possibilities and stages acceptable for a counterpick become extremely one-sided; so much so that it becomes impossible to justify its legality. We saw cases of this in Melee with stages such as Onett, and in some sects even Mute City to a degree.
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Smashboards: There are some gamers that don't feel that Smash Bros. in general and Brawl in particular should be considered competitive games. What would you say to these people?
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The King: Well, while I'll be the first to admit that Smash doesn't look very complex on the exterior, this is the one case that proves the age-old axiom that looks can be deceiving. There's a whole lot more to these titles than meets the eye, and I would say that they are some of the most technically-demanding fighters on the market right now. Like any title you're new to, give it a try sometime... you might just find out that Mario fighting Ganondorf isn't just fun & games.
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Smashboards: Do you have any final thoughts that you'd like to give the people that will read this?
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The King: (Laughs) Well, I covered some of my more inspirational pieces earlier on, and I guess all I can iterate now to anyone coming to Genesis is to just sit back, kick up your feet, put your trust in DBR, and enjoy the ride this weekend.
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Smashboards: And finally, if you could be any Smash Bros. character, who would you be and why?
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The King: I'd definitely pick Captain Falcon. Pretty self-explanatory... he's just too amazing to waste the choice on anyone less.
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Genesis will run the weekend of July 10-12, 2009. For more information, you may refer to the following links:
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http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=211141 – Smashboards dedicated topic
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http://norcalsmash.com/forums - Northern California Smash Forums
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvTflvxzpkc – A video tour of the venue
Full Credit goes to Sir 0rion for putting together and doing a great interview and thanks to King for taking some time out of his gotta be hectic tournament prep stuff to do the interview.
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