We catch just occasional glimpses of them peeking through the Andes Mountains. It’s a country known for crazy combos, technical skill, and questionable DI. Chile. The country has a mystical element to it because of how little we see them play. However, what is the Melee scene in Chile really like? I talked with Santiago Chile’s biggest TO, Carlos “Alen” Sanchez, so he could describe what their scene’s all about.

Alen has a long and storied history with melee. Like many players, he came into the scene thinking highly of his skill, without really understanding the game. His first tournament was like so many others.

“I went and I thought that I was good. I didn’t know about cancels, wavedashes, or techskill. I didn’t know anything, but I thought I was good,” said Alen. “I went and I lost immediately, very badly. I was horrible. After that, I wanted to learn the game. I liked the environment of tournaments, so in 2006-2007 I went to some tournaments and practiced a lot in my house.”

Just like in the United States though, the release of Brawl had a major impact on the melee scene in Chile. Less and less players started attending tournaments and the scene looked bleak.

Dark, Chile’s number one player

“Melee started to have less tournaments, less participation, and players started retiring. Melee during 2010-2012 was not good and at that time I felt sad for the Melee scene in Chile, so I decided to run tournaments myself along with Sigma,” said Alen. “Sigma also ran tournaments in his house, and he motivated me and helped me to start my own tournaments.”

Thanks to several factors, the Melee scene in Chile has had its own small revival in recent years. Attendance is up and the scene is looking bigger than ever.

“Attendance in general at tournaments iss about 30 – maximum 40 people at locals. At nationals 70,” said Alen.

It helps that the country has several top level players including Dark, arguably the best player in Latin America. However, while Chileans take pride in their number one player, they are quick to note that he isn’t an untouchable god within the scene.

“Here in Chile there are many players very close in level with Dark. We have Gin, Blassy, Roche, Mistgun, and I’m forgetting a couple others there, but there are at least 10 players that can take a set off Dark,” said Alen.

With most players unable to travel to the United States, it’s difficult to gauge where top players in Chile stand on the world scale. While the topic brings a lot of discussion, Chileans generally agree that their best players could go toe to toe with top level smashers in the United States. Roche, one of Chile’s best players, recently attended EVO 2015 and was knocked out by Hugs and Amsa.

“They could win against the average players there in the United States. Maybe top 30 or top 40. Maybe a player like Zhu or further down we could beat here in Chile,” said Alen.

Blassy, one of Chile’s best players

Despite the top players and recent surge in attendance, the Melee scene in Chile is still fairly small. One of the current challenges the scene is tackling is running top quality tournaments. Finding a proper venue, securing setups, dealing with tardiness, and running on time are a few of the more common problems.

“We don’t have places very big to run tournaments, so the biggest tournaments that we can have are locals for 50 or 60 people. It isn’t sufficient space for many TVs. We can have 8 TVs or 10 TVs maximum,” said Alen. “Consoles are easier but televisions are difficult. I need to find them. All of them. Of the players that attend tournaments, only I have a car, so only I can look for televisions.”

While the United States has seen a surge of resources and money poured into tournaments and players, Chile has not. Alen’s biggest frustration is not being able to offer players bigger prizes.

“The players practice a lot and it saddens me that we don’t have the resources, the money to motivate people to continue playing,” said Alen. “The prizes offered are also small. A motivation for players is the prize and here maybe the maximum I can give is 80 dollars for first place, 100 dollars when it’s a bigger tournament.”

Despite the challenges, the community looks towards the future, and one of the goals they have is to set up a reliable stream. The goal being to create a quality stream and find a venue with internet fast enough to keep lag down.

“We don’t want to have a stream without commentators or without good picture. We want to show good quality, something professional,” said Alen. “It’s difficult in that sense, having a good stream for North America and other countries, but it’s one of our objectives in the short term. To get a good stream to show people that the level in Chile is very good.”

Alen’s biggest dream, however, is to hold a major melee tournament in Chile with a focus on the Latin American communities. The goal being to gather all of Latin America’s best players in one place to compete.

“Everyone wants to have a big tournament here because the economic conditions in South America and Latin America aren’t sufficient to fly constantly to the USA,” said Alen. “So my main objective as an organizer is to achieve that. That Latin America becomes known for its fighting games, for its players, and Chile in particular.”

Follow Alen’s organization and the Chilean scene from their Youtube and Facebook pages:

Youtube: https://goo.gl/gulbXC

Facebook: https://goo.gl/Sn2y6j

Photos by “Buster”: https://twitter.com/pitbuster/