Read part 1 here.

The Smash community, especially the Melee scene, is on an undeniable upswing right now. It has been for some time, first with the donation drive that led to EVO 2013 followed closely by the release of The Smash Brothers documentary, and the surge shows no real signs of slowing down. I would venture to guess that there are more active competitive players just in the San Francisco Bay area right now than there were in the entire USA back in 2003, which is sort of outrageous to think about. As the scene continues to evolve, it is paramount to remember that the success of the scene we enjoy today was borne of the hard work of countless individuals spanning several years. In this article I would like to discuss my thoughts on this concept, using some personal experiences and observations of others’ accomplishments to illustrate why one of the most important traits in fostering the Melee scene or any other gaming community is Dedication.

A Rocky Beginning

It is hard to imagine now, but in the earliest days of Smash finding people to play was difficult, especially if you did not live in a major population center like Washington D.C., NYC, or either end of California. Residing in North Carolina for most of my life, I was not one of those lucky ones as far as Smash went. Sure, I had the group of friends I mentioned in the first article to play with when Melee first came out, but when they did not share my enthusiasm for tournaments and competitive play, that pretty much left me on my own. To be completely honest there were a lot of other things going on in my life that are irrelevant to the story right around this time period, and as a result I was rather cut off from most other people I knew that played the game. The closest people to me at the time that also played competitively were a solid hour’s drive if traffic was good. The next closest group was between two and three hours. There were 15-person tournaments maybe once every month or two. The goings were tough and slow.

Early photographic evidence of smashers travelling out of region in search of tournaments.

Early on, I traveled out of state regardless of my prospects of winning money. Not that there ever were any (at least in singles), because without regular practice partners my skills were probably average at best. I went because I was invested in the community that I wanted to see continue to grow, and to meet new people and share in the experiences of being part of competitive Melee. But realistically, what I was doing was not sustainable. I was unable to keep travelling to events as far as I was forever, so when I could not go in person I stayed involved in other ways. The forums became a lifeline to activity in the scene, a bridge by which I could stay connected to the happenings in the Melee world across the country. I was something of a keyboard warrior by necessity. But I think this allowed me to gain both a much deeper understanding of the game and a further scope of vision than I might otherwise have achieved.

At the same time, the community eventually started to come to me as well. More people started to show up in areas that were closer to me, and my practice with those people became more and more regular. Local events started happening again even though I was unable to host them myself. Some of this I think is fair to attribute to the example set by my earlier efforts. By being the first one in the scene leading the way, I believe that I helped inspire several others to take up the mantle and get involved in the community as well, and their efforts in turn helped accelerate the development of the community. I like to call this phenomenon the Inspiration Effect, and the next blog post will be a look into some more recent examples of this in action.

Turning the Corner

So, I was the first player in my state to travel around from city to city and meet new players and introduce them to the idea of playing Melee competitively, the first to host tournaments using competitive rulesets from Smashboards, and the first to travel extensively out of state in an effort to make stronger connections with the other players in the region. Even though this subsided after a while due to other obligations in my life, the foundation for a flourishing local scene had been laid. Eventually my services as a trailblazer were no longer required. My new friends and cohorts were travelling to events on their own, meeting players from the surrounding region. Occasionally, I had the opportunity to introduce some of my disparate friend groups to one another directly, but even without my help the various local communities around me began to knit themselves together.

Pretty soon, when popularity was up and more people were active and travelling, it did not matter that I was unable to make it out to as many events, because all of the people I knew were going of their own accord. Friends of mine from Raleigh were going to Georgia every few months. PPMD’s former teammate L0Zr was going up to Virginia to play people like Tope and Cyrain on a frequent basis. We started having our own bi-weeklies in North Carolina, and every active player in the state would turn up. Things continued on this way for several years, and the multiplicative nature of the Inspiration Effect was in full force. When I did finally return to a more active involvement in the community, I was beyond pleased to see how far it had come from where it was at the very beginning.

A Sign of Things to Come

These days, the community is developing faster than ever, and appears to have every intent to continue to do so. We have people who are eagerly working towards establishing Smash as a bona fide eSport. We are seeing in-roads with the larger popular culture being formed through developments like ESPN coverage and Echo Fox picking up Mew2King. A sizable group of players is starting to live off of the money they make through their positions within the community. More people are playing now than I would have ever thought possible in previous years. And even today, we are finding new areas to cultivate local communities so that we can continue to strengthen the overall scene.

Google image search did not disappoint.

In my next post, I am going to talk about some of the events that have happened in my Smash life since the start of this year, and introduce you to more real examples of what happens when a dedicated individual meets a community that is highly receptive to inspiration. In the meantime, I would love to hear about some of the readers’ own experiences in the scene. Do you have a story about how you contributed to the development of your local region or inspired others to? If so, share it in the comments below, and I’ll catch you all back here in the next installment of Pioneering Smash!