School is just weeks away from starting up again and with it comes The Melee Games. Now in its 4th season, TMG can proudly say we are working with 24 states, 2 provinces, and D.C. to level up college melee. With the help of SmashGG we’ll have everything consolidated in one place: schedules, results, brackets, sign ups, payment, and VODs. Registration for your school can be done at smash.gg/TMG

History

UMass Boston vs UMass Amherst! A 10 vs 10 Crew Battle in Spring 2014

Spring 2014. Boston began a new weekly series with plenty of previously unseen college smashers. To help their progress, TMG was born. A crew battle bracket became the most obvious choice to unite players to fight as a team and promote camaraderie, offering a supportive team environment and much-deserved exposure for many collegiate Smashers. University of Connecticut became the first school to qualify, and our low expectations for participants were shattered as 10 schools in total joined the circuit with 137 players between them.

Champion – MIT [Finals]
Runner Up – UMass Boston
3rd – Tufts University, Northeastern University

Fall 2014. Following the success of TMG in New England, we were interested in regional expansion. A classic question naturally emerged: “What could be better than a Boston vs New York rivalry?” With the cooperation of the now-renowned organizer, KillaHertz, often considered a savior of the New York City Melee scene, we set up TMG in Tri-state. Ultimately, a whopping total of 50 schools and 800 players participated in the New England and Tri-state circuits, with our season culminating with a climactic showdown during Apex 2015. Fittingly enough, the final two schools were from NYC and Boston. Although their match was intended to be a part of the Salty Suite, the crew battle was moved and the matches took place before the Apex venue was closing out on Saturday. VGBootCamp recorded it locally, but the match has been lost in time… or has it? For now, this image and a very detailed interview of both regional winners by TL | [343] is all we have.

Columbia’s Captain, Cheezpuff, pops-off to an empty venue at Apex 2015 after defeating UMass Boston

New England:
Champion – UMass Boston [Finals]
Runner Up – MIT
3rd – UConn, UMass Amherst

Tri-State:
Champion – Columbia University [Finals]
Runner Up – Rutgers University
3rd – Cornell, University of Pittsburgh

Overall Winner: Columbia University

Spring 2015. Once more looking to expand, we set our sights out west. With the wonderful help of @SDAshkon (NorCal), and V$ (SoCal) we were able to establish TMG California! And back East, with tdude51 (Mid-ATL) and TO Joe (Ontario), we were able to establish two more divisions. We had a final count of 107 schools and 1354 players signed up across all divisions. To host the first ever national finals for college smash, KillaHertz organized Super Nebulous 3 in NYC. Thanks to incredible community efforts, we were able to turn this into quite an event, the likes of which have never been seen before in NYC. Utilizing SmashGG’s platform, we succeeded in raising over $7,500 to fly out the entire winning team of the TMG California circuit, as well as all-stars Jeapie, n0ne, Lucky, s2j, Wizzrobe, Alan, and HMW, to New York.

National Championship Results:
Champion – University of California Berkeley (NorCal) [Finals]
Runner Up – University of Maryland (Mid-ATL)
3rd – University of California Irvine (SoCal), York University (Ontario)
5th – Stony Brook University (Tri-state), UMass Amherst (representing UMass Boston, New England)

UC Berkeley after becoming national champions at Super Nebulous 3. Left to right: Ralph, Wavebringer, Warwick Foe, Nimzo, Glitter, Delphiki

Fall 2015. And here we are! Our team has grown even more. A full list of all our team members can be found at smash.gg/tmg/contact. We’ve added Arizona, British Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin to an already expansive roster. This is promising to be an interesting season, with new powerhouse schools entering the fray (Georgia Tech – Baka4Moe, KPan, DruggedFox), as well as buffs (Kirby Kaze to York University, joining RaynEX) and nerfs (Crow leaving UMass Boston. Who is Crow? Spare 15 minutes and see for yourself.) for returning schools. With more schools than ever there’s even more pride on the line. Represent your school and show you’ve got what it takes to be crowned the next national champion at GENESIS 3!

What’s new?

• Stages

  • We are no longer running just Battlefield, Final Destination, and Dreamland 64. All tournament legal stages (including Pokemon) will be allowed.
  • There are still no bans after the opening match. (The opening stage is determined via 1-2-1 striking.)

• Dues

  • As thankful as we are to the community for helping us raise $7,500 in two weeks to make national finals happen in April, we don’t want to do that again!
  • Each school, after qualifying with a minimum of 5 players, will be prompted for a $50 due. This is not per person, just per school.
  • We will be transparent about where this money is going. While TMG has been in the off-season, up in Boston our TO/Stream team formed Big Blue eSports, LLC. The money will be held securely by BBeS – not in my sock drawer – and will be managed responsibly.
    • We expect the bulk, if not all, of the money to be utilized to facilitate Conference and National Finals. We plan to fly out teams to certain events. Play well and you might land your team a free flight out to sunny California in the middle of winter!

• Conferences and Divisions

  • As we grow we need to increase the structure within TMG. This has led to the creation of 10 different divisions within 4 conferences.
  • This season, the winner of each conference will be brought out by The Melee Games to participate in a 4-school single elimination bracket at GENESIS 3.
  • East Coast Conference
    • New England, Tri-state, Mid-ATL, Atlantic South
      • New England – CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT
      • Tri-state – NJ, NY, PA
      • Mid-ATL – DC, DE, MD, VA, WV
      • Atlantic South – FL, GA, NC, SC
  • South Conference
    •  Texas, Southwest
      • Southwest – AZ, NM
  • West Coast Conference
    • California, PacNW
      • California – NorCal, SoCal
      • PacNW – British Columbia, OR, WA
  • North Conference
    • MidWest, Ontario
      • MidWest – IL, WI

Sign-ups for The Melee Games are now live over at smash.gg/TMG. Are you a college student, and know at least four other fellow students who love Melee? You should think about entering your school for The Melee Games! It only takes 5 people to form a team, and without a player cap, the more teammates you have, the lower your school dues will be for all. Payment options will be up within the next few days, and those who have already registered will receive an email about it.

That’s all for now! Feel free to reach out to us on social media at facebook.com/TheMeleeGames or at twitter.com/TheMeleeGames! If you are interested in more details about involving your school please reach out to your regional director (found at smash.gg/tmg/contact), or if you’d like to discuss TMG coming to your region in the future we’d be happy to hear from you!

As The Melee Games continues to grow, new bonds are formed and strengthened between schools, and storied rivalries begin to form between players, all of which is unified under our shared love of Smash Brothers. We hope to see you at our upcoming TMG events!

Something tells me he doesn’t play for BC