*I apologize for any hitches that occur in the recording. I tried several takes, and no matter what I did, for some reason I'd end up with a few small skips within the recording.
**Make sure to turn up your volume or put on headphones because the recording also came out rather soft.
**Make sure to turn up your volume or put on headphones because the recording also came out rather soft.
Super Smash Bros. Podcast
What’s up guys and gals? My name is Robert De Dios and I’ll be hosting this sick podcast today. This podcast will about one of my favorite things, video games. I love to play video games, probably like most of you out there. Super Smash Bros. is by far my favorite game to play. I play it almost everyday! So today, I want to take a look at fighting game tournaments, specifically a Super Smash Bros. tournament I went to. What do people typically do at a tournament like this? After going to a tournament myself, I’ve found that the people who attend these tournaments tend to play a lot of friendlies (non-competitive matches), play other video games that aren’t the main focus of the tournament (like Mario Party), and watch tournament matches themselves (that aren’t necessarily for the current tournament being held). Hopefully by the end of this podcast you’ll want to join me at the next tournament!
Before I begin going over my points, I’d like to say that all the observations I made at this tournament were participant observations. This means that I participated and was a part of this particular community while making these observations. I’d also like to point out that this wasn’t the first nor the last Super Smash Bros tournament that I’ve attended.
One of the things that I saw every single person (without exaggeration) do at this tournament was play a lot of non-competitive matches, also known as friendlies. There are two main reasons why people play matches like these, the most important of which (in my opinion) is to warm up before the tournament itself officially begins. If you’ve ever been in any sort of competition before, then you know how important warming up is. Going into these kinds of situations cold is never ideal if you’re trying to perform at your best.
The other reason that many people play friendlies is to simply have fun. I believe that every person that was at the tournament enjoys playing Super Smash Bros. for fun and not just competitively. I could see in people’s smiles and hear in their laughter that they were having a good time and enjoying themselves as they played with other people. Most of the real fun friendlies tend to happen after the tournament is over or after a person is knocked out of the tournament. Before the tournament, people tend to be concentrated on practicing their main (the main character/s that they use competitively) so that they can be ready for the tournament. After they have been knocked out of the tournament, I noticed that people tend to play with a much larger variety of characters instead. I noticed in one instance in particular that four people were all playing as the same character, Ganondorf, which is very infrequently used in competitive play. These people are proof that you don’t have to play the game competitively to enjoy it. We in the Super Smash Bros. community encourage people to join us at tournaments even if they’re just looking to play friendlies. So if you want to play some friendly games with new people and don’t want to compete, than tournaments can still be the perfect place for you!
Apart from playing the intended game of the tournament (Super Smash Bros., in this case), some people also played other kinds of video games with their friends. I saw one group of four playing Mario Party before the tournament had even begun! A friend of mine who attended this tournament, whom I’ll call Rob for the sake of his privacy, even took his entire desktop to the venue just so he could play Dragon Ball Fighterz with other people who also enjoy the game. An article I read stated that “...nearly three-fourths… [of gamers say] that they game with their friends” (Snider). I believe that pretty much everyone at the tournament I went to is part of that three-fourths of gamers, including myself. The individuals at tournaments are always looking to play with new people and make new friends. Almost all of the new friends I’ve made since I moved to Davis for college are people that I met at tournaments. So if you’re an avid video game lover looking to make some friends, a Super Smash Bros. tournament can be an awesome place for you to meet new people and make friends with others who also appreciate video games.
One of the last things I noticed at this particular tournament was that people also enjoy watching the tournament and even watching streams of other tournaments that were happening at the same time. Another article I read said that “online websites like Google-owned YouTube and Amazon-owned Twitch are the most popular places” (Novy-Williams) for people to watch tournaments or matches online. I can definitely attest to this, because all the big Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments I’ve watched are live streamed on Twitch, while all big Super Smash Bros. Project M tournaments I’ve watched are live streamed on YouTube. Before the tournament began, the host of the tournament (whom I’ll call Ben), put a Twitch stream of another Super Smash Bros. tournament on the projector for everyone to watch. Since everyone there was already interested in Super Smash Bros. and the streamed tournament had several “celebrity” players, a large majority of people would occasionally look at the stream to see who was currently in the lead. At one point, I took a break from friendlies to sit and watch the tournament with another friend of mine.
Once Ben began calling names for the current tournament to begin, he switched the projector to instead play a stream of matches that were currently being played. This brought the attention to the current tournament instead of the one with celebrity players and allowed people to cheer for their friends who were playing on stream from wherever they were in the venue. Watching tournaments in person is much more fun and enjoyable than watching them on a stream or a YouTube video because you get to be in the moment and you get the atmosphere of the cheering crowd with you. So if you think you’d be interested in watching a tournament, come through to a local event and watch it live!
Super Smash Bros. tournaments are much more than just competitions. They’re a place play friendlies, play other video games, and watch the best players do their worst (figuratively speaking). If any of these things peaks your interest, I encourage you to attend your local tournaments. Davis host’s monthly tournaments on campus. You can check out the Facebook pages NorCal Project M Community or Official NorCal Melee to get information on other tournaments near you. With that being said, thank you all for listening. Hopefully I’ll see you at next tournament.
Before I begin going over my points, I’d like to say that all the observations I made at this tournament were participant observations. This means that I participated and was a part of this particular community while making these observations. I’d also like to point out that this wasn’t the first nor the last Super Smash Bros tournament that I’ve attended.
One of the things that I saw every single person (without exaggeration) do at this tournament was play a lot of non-competitive matches, also known as friendlies. There are two main reasons why people play matches like these, the most important of which (in my opinion) is to warm up before the tournament itself officially begins. If you’ve ever been in any sort of competition before, then you know how important warming up is. Going into these kinds of situations cold is never ideal if you’re trying to perform at your best.
The other reason that many people play friendlies is to simply have fun. I believe that every person that was at the tournament enjoys playing Super Smash Bros. for fun and not just competitively. I could see in people’s smiles and hear in their laughter that they were having a good time and enjoying themselves as they played with other people. Most of the real fun friendlies tend to happen after the tournament is over or after a person is knocked out of the tournament. Before the tournament, people tend to be concentrated on practicing their main (the main character/s that they use competitively) so that they can be ready for the tournament. After they have been knocked out of the tournament, I noticed that people tend to play with a much larger variety of characters instead. I noticed in one instance in particular that four people were all playing as the same character, Ganondorf, which is very infrequently used in competitive play. These people are proof that you don’t have to play the game competitively to enjoy it. We in the Super Smash Bros. community encourage people to join us at tournaments even if they’re just looking to play friendlies. So if you want to play some friendly games with new people and don’t want to compete, than tournaments can still be the perfect place for you!
Apart from playing the intended game of the tournament (Super Smash Bros., in this case), some people also played other kinds of video games with their friends. I saw one group of four playing Mario Party before the tournament had even begun! A friend of mine who attended this tournament, whom I’ll call Rob for the sake of his privacy, even took his entire desktop to the venue just so he could play Dragon Ball Fighterz with other people who also enjoy the game. An article I read stated that “...nearly three-fourths… [of gamers say] that they game with their friends” (Snider). I believe that pretty much everyone at the tournament I went to is part of that three-fourths of gamers, including myself. The individuals at tournaments are always looking to play with new people and make new friends. Almost all of the new friends I’ve made since I moved to Davis for college are people that I met at tournaments. So if you’re an avid video game lover looking to make some friends, a Super Smash Bros. tournament can be an awesome place for you to meet new people and make friends with others who also appreciate video games.
One of the last things I noticed at this particular tournament was that people also enjoy watching the tournament and even watching streams of other tournaments that were happening at the same time. Another article I read said that “online websites like Google-owned YouTube and Amazon-owned Twitch are the most popular places” (Novy-Williams) for people to watch tournaments or matches online. I can definitely attest to this, because all the big Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments I’ve watched are live streamed on Twitch, while all big Super Smash Bros. Project M tournaments I’ve watched are live streamed on YouTube. Before the tournament began, the host of the tournament (whom I’ll call Ben), put a Twitch stream of another Super Smash Bros. tournament on the projector for everyone to watch. Since everyone there was already interested in Super Smash Bros. and the streamed tournament had several “celebrity” players, a large majority of people would occasionally look at the stream to see who was currently in the lead. At one point, I took a break from friendlies to sit and watch the tournament with another friend of mine.
Once Ben began calling names for the current tournament to begin, he switched the projector to instead play a stream of matches that were currently being played. This brought the attention to the current tournament instead of the one with celebrity players and allowed people to cheer for their friends who were playing on stream from wherever they were in the venue. Watching tournaments in person is much more fun and enjoyable than watching them on a stream or a YouTube video because you get to be in the moment and you get the atmosphere of the cheering crowd with you. So if you think you’d be interested in watching a tournament, come through to a local event and watch it live!
Super Smash Bros. tournaments are much more than just competitions. They’re a place play friendlies, play other video games, and watch the best players do their worst (figuratively speaking). If any of these things peaks your interest, I encourage you to attend your local tournaments. Davis host’s monthly tournaments on campus. You can check out the Facebook pages NorCal Project M Community or Official NorCal Melee to get information on other tournaments near you. With that being said, thank you all for listening. Hopefully I’ll see you at next tournament.
Works Cited
Novy-Williams, Eben. “Why Competitive Video Gaming Is the Hot New Thing.” Bloomberg, 23 June 2017, <www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/ why-competitive-video-gaming-is-the-hot-new-thing-quicktake-q-a>.
Snider, Mike. “Survey: Video Gamers More Social and More Socially Conscious.” USA Today, 5 June 2014, <www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/06/05/ video-game-players-stereotypes-debunked/10008019/>.
Snider, Mike. “Survey: Video Gamers More Social and More Socially Conscious.” USA Today, 5 June 2014, <www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/06/05/ video-game-players-stereotypes-debunked/10008019/>.