By: ZentainMH

Twitter: @Fat_Sad_and_Rad

When it comes to Super Smash Bros Melee, there are many strong regions around the world. Along the West Coast, we have Socal, considered the strongest region in the world, but not many people know about their neighbors in the south, the Tijuana Smash Community. Located in Mexico, across the border, the Tijuana Smash Community doesn’t have much exposure, and most people only know about Melee in Tijuana because of one of their strongest players, XTR | Eddy Mexico. It’s no surprise though that Eddy is the pride and joy of this region; He is after all the one player from TJ that does extremely well outside of the region and also ranked 36 in the MIOM Top 100 for the past year. Yet, Tijuana has some hidden bosses, and the skill level is slowly, but surely rising. Not only that, but the community has seen immense growth when it comes to Melee. The tournaments have gotten bigger, out of region players come down just to play! It’s something that is truly amazing.

Eddy Mexico, 36th on the 2015 SSBMRank

The year 2015 was huge for Tijuana Melee. New players started coming out to more events (I was one of them), and there was a surge of tournaments, way more than before. New organizations gave people what they wanted: more events and exciting matches – Fun fact, did you know that Eddy Mexico got second at most of these events? But how? Eddy is a top 50 player WORLDWIDE. As mentioned before, Tijuana has some bosses, and one of them is Bimbo Mexico, a prominent Falco main. You may have heard of him before if you’re from California. In 2013, Bimbo was a top 15 player in Socal, ranked as high as 10th, but didn’t go to many Socal events after that. He shined the most in his region though, only losing around three sets to Eddy in the past year. Bimbo’s Falco has even made Eddy switch to Marth which is a rare thing to see from the Luigi main!

The Low Point

At one point after Brawl’s release, Melee in Tijuana was almost completely dead. There were less than ten people playing the game, while most others moved on to play Brawl. It’s amazing to see that this is not the case anymore in 2016, with Tijuana boasting over 50 active members. The release of Smash 4 didn’t impede Melee’s growth this time around; In fact, Smash 4 made Melee in TJ bigger. Also with the growth of the scene, there were many eyes on Tijuana, mainly the eyes of San Diego players. San Diego and Arizona players came down to Tijuana to compete with the locals for the first time in December 2015, and it was amazing to see. While Bimbo took the tournament over Eddy Mexico in grand finals, we also saw Medz get 3rd, and a San Diego player TpFox get 4th at his first Tijuana event, losing only to 3-0 to Eddy in winners and 3-1 to Medz in losers. This event was huge for Tijuana with attendance from all around the region, but it seems like the next upcoming tournament will be be even bigger, with an expected appearance from top Socal players.

Super Smash League

One of the most anticipated events in Mexican Smash history, Super Smash League Baja California is a tournament that no one will want to miss, with special guests Lucky, HugS and S2J (and possibly a few others). This will be a true test for the likes of Eddy and Bimbo Mexico, who are expected to defend Tijuana from the Socal invaders. This time around Eddy and bimbo will have home field advantage. Not only will Socal be in attendance, but players from San Diego, Mexicali, and maybe Arizona will also be attending. You can watch the tournament at home on www.twitch.tv/xtrtj on February 6th.

The event will be a true test to see how Tijuana can do as a region. Can Tijuana pull through even with Socal in attendance? This event will also be another step in Tijuana’s history. It’s not often where we see top players come down to compete. No matter who wins, at the end of the day we are a community and we just want to play the games and make friends, chill with cool people, etc. That’s what it’s all about. Can’t wait to see everyone at the event!