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End of an era - RIP Gigabits

Fenrir VII

Fenrir VII

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
3,506
Today, the power was shut off at Gigabits. They are officially closed, and will be getting the stuff out of there tomorrow.

Gigabits has served as a central hub for FL smash, especially central Florida, and has been home to a large number of incredible matches. On a personal note, it also introduced me to many of my current friends.

The owner and staff put their all into the store, but in the end, it just wasn't enough. The market just isn't that profitable. My thanks goes out in large amounts to everybody who has ever been responsible for Gigs.

I was honored to be there at Gigabits' first tournament and their last. in fact, I was at their first Melee tournament, their first Brawl tournament, their last Melee tournament (didn't enter), and their last Brawl tournament. I don't know anybody else who can say that...

Anyway, this came as a pretty huge shock, and I'm sure a lot of you agree with that. Thanks for all the memories, Gigs. You will be missed.

Now with all that said, there will be a large void in central Florida smash... how are we going to get around that?
 
PB&J

PB&J

Smash Hero
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
5,758
Location
lawrenceville, GA
i will def miss gigs..looks like hbox tournies will be getting bigger until someone finds another tourny..so many stories too..time to move on
 
harriettheguy

harriettheguy

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 1, 2005
Messages
1,167
Location
On ya shield 20-fo-7
WATO and Gainesville grassroot tournies every month, and hopefully big VSA tournies every 2 months to attract OOS! Gainesville is doing $1 weeklies, but raising it to $10-$15 like once every 6 weeks + me and Oscar housing sounds reasonable to me, I'll see what the rest of Gville thinks.

"If you host, they will come."
-Noucles
 
vZakat

vZakat

Half Genie
Joined
Aug 24, 2005
Messages
2,262
Location
Scuttle Town
Gigs is GONE?!? WHAT?!? That's crazy. Most of my tourney experience is from Gigs. I will miss it dearly. So many great memories. :(
 
Zoro

Zoro

Smash Champion
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Messages
2,610
Location
Orlando, FL
I been going to these tournaments since the very first tournament where they planned it to be FFA me an hiroshi introduced mlg ruleset and they changed it that very day. I rarely missed a melee tournament there since that day. I am deeply saddened by this news.

Thank you so much gigabits crew for all you have done for the FL scene
I believe that you guys are the reason why our scene is as good as it is today
I feel like i owe alot to this place and i think this is hitting me harder than most people

Ill miss you :(
 
exarch

exarch

doot doot doot
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Messages
3,333
Location
Usually not playing Brawl. Location: Enterprise
I was so stunned with Mwarhead called me with the news this afternoon...
Did you drop by today to check it out Darrel?

There's been so many memories...

I remember when Gigabits first started hosting, it was the first tournament in like 6 months in Florida; they provided a monthly tournament venue to the great benefit of the state, especially the Central area; it's the only place where the initial 8 Cake Eaters have been at once.

Thnks fr th Mmrs

Otherwise I'm at a loss for words...


Back to the drawing board.
 
Pritch

Pritch

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 5, 2005
Messages
1,052
Location
New Orleans
Man. Gigs is a large part of what turned me from competitive scrub to actually competitive. Like everyone else, there's sooo many good memories from that place. Met so many awesome people there, ggs, and etc.

Makes me really sad I haven't been able to make the drive down to any of the more recent melee tournaments. Now I won't get that chance.
 
Fenrir VII

Fenrir VII

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
3,506
I did stop by...

There was a sticky on the door that said "closed for the day", confirming the "power getting shut off" rumor
 
<π

<π

BRoomer
BRoomer
Joined
Jul 30, 2004
Messages
7,878
Location
Woodstock, GA
NNID
LessThanPi
Just goes to show you shouldn't take things for granted...

Man... I really can't put into words how bad I feel and how shocked I am about the closing. Crazy...
 
OTRU...

OTRU...

Smash Champion
Joined
Nov 24, 2006
Messages
2,390
Location
Orlando, FL(UCF) truuuu
This is so sad, i guess its time to move on, gigs will always remind me of my best times in college...

I remember going to my first gigabits tournament in fall of 2005 to see skrach compete, I didnt even have a controller on me and thought spending money on tourneys was the dumbest thing, so I stuck to friendlies that day w a borrowed controller, I didnt even know how to wavedash or anything. Im not sure if this was the gigs before MLG orlando or after, but I know for certain that it was a really big one when Helios from Sweden came, I also recall he met in brackets with Fenrir and everyone hyped the match a lot since fenrir was one of the best in orlando at the time... haha good times

Soon enough, I got really into melee and gigabits always hosted a monthly tourny so I started entering and before i knew it, me and Skrach were holding huge smashfests at my apartment the night before, this was college for me in 2006 among a bunch of other fun things, but gigabits will always remind me of a great time in my life.
 
[GB]Cecil

[GB]Cecil

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
176
Location
Orlando, FL
Ok,

The meeting took -forever- today. However we did cover a lot of stuff. First and foremost, the Gigabits name will no longer exist. The company will sell all of it's assets. The good part about this is that we have two potential local buyers (relatives of two regulars at Giga) who are willing to buy off all the equipment and move into a new location in the UCF-Fullsail area. Just about ALL of the Giga staff will be working at this place and it will save all of the tournament and user data from Gigabits. This is at least what we are aiming to do. As always I will keep you guys informed right as information passes my way that I am allowed to disclose. On the bright side I will still be hosting all of the events for Otronicon this year AND for the new center whenever it opens up. So long story short Gigabits is most likely changing name, location, and management if our Orlando investors pull through. If that doesn't pull through then most of the equipment will go towards some centers out in Lakeland and other areas that are about 30m-1h away from Gigs. Orlando smash must go on!
 
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