When Smashers think of Canadian Smashers, they often times only think of the eastern regions of Ontario and Quebec, home of some of Canada’s strongest smashers. Some smashers who are a little more familiar with Canada’s geography and scene may also know of British Columbia on the west coast, a region that features several world class Falcos. However, there is another reputable region within Canada that is often forgotten or not known of at all. A region rich not only in strong players, but also in Smash history. A little community on the prairie: Alberta.

Let’s get right into it. What makes Alberta such a special region that it’s deserving of its own article? How could this small, seemingly random and secluded region in Canada impact the international community of Smash?

The Punch Crew

The Punch Crew is credited for popularizing the concept of “crews” in the Smash community.

The Punch Crew, comprised of Mike (MikeMonkey), Jarrod (Jrod), Aaron, and Nick, was just a group of kids in 2003 who got together to play Melee like many others who grew up with Smash. However, they did something unique at the time that made them stand out and reach fame within the online gaming community. They made videos and compilations of their gameplay and uploaded them onto the internet for the world to see, something which was a new and emerging concept at the time. Hosted on their own website, their random videos captured all the hilarity and crudeness of a group of friends playing Melee, something that Smash fans around the world were able to laugh along and relate with.

Caution: Contains inappropriate language.

Most significantly, their website and their videos were one of the only places on the internet at that time where Smash related videos were available to download and watch, reaching over 120 000 hits at its peak. As their videos became more and more popular and their skills as competitive Smashers began to develop, their videos and reputations became legendary.

Hosted on Angelfire with a link to the DC++ Hub, truly a relic of the past.

By 2004, MikeMonkey and Jrod began to break out as the top players within the Punch Crew and began travelling and competing internationally, soon earning the reputation as the two best players in Canada with MikeMonkey pulling ahead as number 1. In the summer of 2004 at Melee-FC, MikeMonkey and Jrod represented the West Coast alongside Ken and Isai in the first ever Smash crew battle. Their skills and reputations as Smashers in the international scene soon allowed them to distinguish themselves not only as Punch Crew members, but as the Canadian smashers.

However, these days The Punch Crew have all grown up, retiring from competitive Smash and moving their focus towards their careers, and families. However, these old men do swing by our local community once and a while to say hello.

Many competitive players around the world during the early years of competitive Smash credit their debut into the competitive Smash community to The Punch Crew and their infamous videos.

Randall the Cloud

You might be wondering where your favorite cloud got his name. Surprisingly enough, the cloud on Yoshi’s Story got its name from our community by a now retired smasher named FastFox, Canada’s most technical Fox player at the time, in 2006.

FastFox circa 2005.

The cloud on Yoshi’s Story was referred to as Randall basically at random within Alberta, with the barrel on Kongo Jungle 64 referred to as Marshall by our neighbors in British Columbia. It wasn’t until FastFox made a comment on Smashboards and later a thread, that it started to gain some momentum. Not too much longer, users began making articles dedicated to Randall the Cloud and after many, many, deletions and reverted changes, Randall the Cloud finally found a permanent home on Smashwiki. Not too long after, Randall Facebook pages and profiles started popping up and references to Randall the Cloud were made by Smash commenters around the world.

Somehow, through sheer luck, Randall the Cloud went from a meaningless name made up on a whim, to an international Smash term used by casual and competitive players around the world. FastFox’s Smashboards thread proved to be true. The thread was locked but the legacy of Randall the Cloud lives on.

Bonus: Hidden Bosses

Due to Alberta’s remote location and distance from major regions and tournaments, our experiences with the international scenes are few and far between. Major cities within Alberta are separated by hundreds of miles of empty highway, and neighboring regions are hours of flight time away. However, the accomplishments achieved by many Alberta players when they do travel are not only impressive, but consistent. Here are a few highlighted Alberta hidden bosses.

Mittens (Previously FalseFalco)

Melee Mains: Marth, Falco

Mittens is the strongest smasher in Alberta and arguably the strongest smasher in West Canada. A dual Marth and Falco main with consistent first place finishes at regionals and impressive wins over international level players over the years. His most recent significant win after a 6 year hiatus from his last international appearance was a 2-0 win over Porkchops in the pools stage at APEX 2015, advancing himself as 2^nd seed. Mittens also single handedly took 13 stocks off in an impromptu New Jersey vs Alberta crew battle at APEX 2015, and 10 stocks during the International vs Canada crew battle at Genesis 1.

Notable Melee Placings:
2006: Zero Challenge 2 – 17^th
2008: CAST 4 – 3^rd (Win over Silent Wolf)
2009: Genesis 1 – 33^rd (Win over Scar)
2014: Smash Chronicles 2 – 1^st (Win over Blunted Object)
2014: Otafest 2014 – 2^nd
2014: Canada Cup 2014 – 1^st (Didn’t drop a single game)
2015: APEX 2015 – 113^rd (Win over Porkchops)
2015: OTAFEST 2015 – 2^nd (Win over Blunted Object)

SuPeRbOoMfAn

64 Mains: Falcon, Pikachu
Melee Mains: Marth, Fox
Brawl Mains: Snake, Metaknight

SuPeRbOoMfAn is primarily known as one of the world’s best Smash 64 players and the APEX 2015 Smash 64 World Champion, but SuPeRbOoMfAn is also a strong player across all games. Despite sharing Isai’s lack of interest towards non-64 titles, SuPeRbOoMfAn will often times compete in other games on a whim, relying almost entirely on his fundamentals. SuPeRbOoMfAn is a consistent Top 3 finisher for Melee locally, and took 11 stocks during the International vs Canada Melee crew battle at Genesis 1 during a rare occasion where he played Melee at a National level. SuPeRbOoMfAn often times plays random when competing locally for 64 and Melee, entering under the alias “Dildoking”. At a local event, SuPeRbOoMfAn JV6 stocked 4 players in a row in 64 playing as random. SuPeRbOoMfAn is also credited to be the primary advocate for pivot movement and utilization in 64 which has now begun to transcend across all Smash titles.

Notable 64 Placings:
2011: Genesis 2 – 1^st
2012: APEX 2012 – 1^st
2013: APEX 2013 – 3^rd
2013: Zenith 2013 – 1^st (Played a portion of Grand Finals with a keyboard controller)
2014: APEX 2014 – 3^rd
2014: Zenith 2014 – 1^st (Didn’t drop a single game)
2014: APEX 2015 – 1^st

Alphicans

64 Mains: Pikachu
Melee Mains: Fox, Young Link
Brawl Mains: Metaknight, Mr. Game and Watch
Project M Mains: Fox, Mario
Smash4 mains: Diddy, Lil Mac

Alphicans is known as one of Alberta’s and Canada’s most well-rounded Smashers, capable of competing at a high level across all games and holding several 1st place finishes across all games. At APEX 2015 Alphicans placed 13^th in Brawl with a win over Will, and an upset over Zex in Smash 4 in the pool’s stage and advancing as 2^nd seed. Alphicans has also shown that he can hold his own in Melee against Mew2King at Otafest 2014 where he placed 3rd, and against Mango in Project M at Impulse 2013 where he placed 3rd.

Notable Placings:
2013: Impulse 2013 (Project M) – 3^rd
2014: Otafest 2014 (Melee) – 3^rd
2015: APEX 2015 (Brawl) – 13^rd
2015: APEX 2015 (Smash 4) – 97^th (Win over Zex)
2015: OTAFEST 2015 (Smash 4) – 2^nd
2015: OTAFEST 2015 (Melee) – 4^th (Win over Quaff and Sleak)

Quaff

Melee Mains: Marth, Fox

Quaff is Alberta’s up and coming player with several regional 1^st place finishes. Quaff is primarily known for and gained a lot of notoriety from his immaculate punish game and combos. Although Quaff is an emerging player, he has shown that he was able to keep close games during his set with Hax$ at Otafest 2015. You can expect to see him travel more as he tries to make a splash in the international scene.

Notable Placings:
EVO 2014 – 129^th
OTAFEST 2015 – 4^th

Sleak

Melee Mains: Fox

Sleak is widely considered as Alberta’s most technical player. At his first and only international event EVO 2014, Sleak scored a win over Dudutsai and held his own against Okami on the main stage. Sleak is also a reputable Canadian MVC3 player.

Notable Placings:
EVO 2014 – 65^th (Win over Dudutsai)
OTAFEST 2015 – 7^th

Victra

64 Mains: Falcon
Melee Mains: Falcon

abuse of power. ayy lmao.

Bonus: Fun Facts

– MagnuM, a retired Melee player, was at one time one of the best Bowser’s in the world. He is credited for discovering the Fortress Hogging technique, and was one of the original Bowsers in the infamous Bowser Challenge along with Gimpyfish and Caotic.

– MICH, a retired Melee player, was an Ice Climbers main that stretched the limitations of Ice Climbers’ desyncs at the time with his tutorial Two Climbers Two Hands, exploring the mechanics of continuous desyncs.

– Stevo, an old school player who remains currently active, bested Ken and Isai at Poker during 0C2 in 2006.

– Isai’s signature on Smashboards is a AIM message from SuPeRbOoMfAn asking for 64 Samus dittos at 2:30am.

– When asked for input on the 2015 Smash 64 Tier List, SuPeRbOoMfAn responded with “Lol”.

– NorCal’s Toph’s first out of state tournament (at the time he was in WA) was CAST4 in 2007, run by yours truly.

– The Punch Crew remains retired but continues to visit and keep in touch with friends during Melee’s early years such as SephirothKen, Manacloud, and Arash; a testimony to the community’s intimacy during Melee’s grassroots years.

– FalcoMaster3000 made his first appearance in Edmonton, Alberta.

– During the early years of Melee, Alberta acted as a common meeting place for the few and far in-between Canadian Nationals, bridging the distances between BC on the West, and Ontario and Quebec on the East.

– Over the years, Alberta community members have been involved fairly intimately with the international Smash community, with many members having been involved with, or continue to be involved with the Smashboards Staff, the SmashWiki Staff, the Smashbros Subreddit Team, the Project M Development Team, and the Smash Backrooms.