I left my house super early and showed up when they first opened the place at 11 am. The only other people there was the guy running the place and a kid with long hair. We started playing some friendlies and I schooled him as Fox against his Sheik. It was fun. Later on more people showed up. A young girl showed up and her Sonic was really good. I played her twice and I just couldn't beat her Sonic, and in our second game she barely beat me as Yoshi. Even later CharlieDaKing showed up and schooled us. His Fox is really good and he's made a name for himself as young player but I saw him get whooped later by the guy who won the tournament, in a Marth (someone who goes under the name Nico) vs Fox battle. That guy Nico actually won the tournament but I didn't see finals because I had to head home for work. I was a little worried that this was going to be a kiddies event but later on more people my age showed up, although me and the owner were still the oldest people that showed up that day! My friend that told me about the place and tourneys was there and it was cool connecting with him, chatting, and getting in a bunch of friendlies matches before the actual tournament play. At some point I got some lunch at Subway. I talked to Zenyou there too, he's a super high tier Mario player, but he was there to hang out rather than compete. If he did compete I think he would destroyed everyone there. There wasn't a lot of people that showed up to this tournament because the night before there was a big tournament and a lot of big players were there, even Larry, this really good Fox player that's ranked pretty high in SoCal. I was told that on Thursdays they usually have like 50 people show up, which is an insane amount because I found the place to be small. SoCal has some of the best Smash players in California, I would say maybe even in the United States, check out the SoCal Smash page on Facebook to learn more about who's on the roster for best players in our area. Anyways, let's talk about the tournament.
My first match I got placed against a pretty high ranking player (I would say) named Pluto. He was a Captain Falcon main and he just annihilated me. In one of the matches we played I ended up killing myself twice, which was unfortunate. The reason was because I chose Lyatt Station as our stage, I didn't know the stage turns around a little bit, which fucked me up twice. I was a little mad losing like that but let's face it, I didn't stand a chance against this guy on any stage. He read every move I made like a book. He ended up getting 7th place, which isn't too high but isn't bad either. He was really good, especially picking Captain Falcon, a character I don't think of as high tier. I consider him middle tier at best. But I may be wrong.
My second match was against a Lucario player that went by the name Champion of Light. I think it was his first tournament too. I was weirded out that he played Lucario, a character I consider low tier. As a result, I underestimated him and lost the first round. In the second match I came back with a vengeance and completely wrecked him. Part of why he lost was because he kept charging up energy balls and throwing them at me full blast, and I kept using Fox's reflector against him, hitting him with his own attack. It was pretty awesome. I was really happy that I was able to read him (the reads!) when he did that. When it came to the third match I ended up beating him again just playing my regular Fox style that I would play against my friends. I was really happy that I won and it gave me a lot of confidence for my next and sadly final match.
My third and last match was against a Wario but I don't think he mained Wario, I think he was just playing him against me to go easy on me. Both of the two matches we played were really close and I was a little upset that I lost, especially because it was super close in the second match. One thing I noticed was that he kept using the motorbike against me, which got kind of annoying. I think it rattled me a bit and got me off guard. Another thing about this whole thing was that I had been there since 11 am and it was around 2 30 pm now so I was really tired, especially because I had gone to sleep at 3 am the night before, and woke up at 9 am just to attend this thing. The F&D facebook page said that signups for the tourney was 11 am so I thought I had to be there but apparently this wasn't the case. Anyways, I think being tired had a factor in losing against that guy's Wario because it was a matchup that I could've won.
So after that I was out of the tournament. After you lose two matches you're out, which is awesome because usually you'd think if you lost only one match you'd be out. I was happy that I won against someone and that gave me some confidence in my skills. Losing just makes me want to play more, attend more tourneys, and get better at the game in general, not just as a Fox player, but playing other characters as well. Before I headed to the bus stop to head home and get ready for work, I saw the semifinals match. It was CharlieDaKing versus Nico in a Fox vs Marth game. Charlie just got annihilated. There were many tippers in that game. It was crazy seeing someone I thought was super good just get taken down with ease by this random guy that I didn't talk to. The level of skill these guys had was just insane. That Marth player went on to win the tourney.
Overall it was an amazing experience. I just started playing Smash 4 about five months ago and attending this tournament was so much fun. I enjoyed meeting other people and talking to them. Friendlies was great too because I got some advice by players better than me. In terms of actual tournament game play I think I have to play a lot more and get in a lot more practice to compete at these guys' level. I'm interested in also attending tournaments at other places to get better. One guy told me I'm not going to get better at Smash playing online or against my friends. That the only way to get better was competing in tournaments. He's probably right. I plan on attending more. I look forward to more tourneys in the future.
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