National Expansion: Iloilo (from my PoV)

The scene here in the Philippines had been rooted in Manila for most of the part. Iloilo, the former Queen City Of The South, was former for a reason. Many doubted that a scene would grow here but with a stroke of luck, Smash somehow grew.

My crew and I (Me, Blank, Chili, Bline and Chitanda) were already part of the Smash Bros Philippines group for quite some time, watching replays of their tournaments and envying them. While we had already organized various tournaments in our school, hosting actual locals were out of reach for us. Another sad thing was that people really didn’t like Smash at our school. Our crew tried everything to get more interested in it but somethings just aren’t meant to be. It simply wasn’t the type of game that many people would try due to the steep entry barrier (hardware and software) needed to play it compared to the commonplace MOBAs. Plus, how were bunch of 14-15 year olds going to grow the scene?

Loads of schoolwork limited our ability to go out and find other Smashers but eventually, they found us. Turns out, aside from us, there was another group playing Smash in Iloilo. This collective, led by KG, Bino and JBae, were Fil-American exchange students who had played Smash during their early life in the US.  Apparently, they were also trying to start a local scene so we contacted them and decided to host our first local.

It was a disaster. Only 8 players attended due to a lot of the would be attendees having personal problems at the time. Personally, we were the most disappointed. Being the TOs of the event, we couldn’t help but think that we could’ve done more. Was Smash ever going to grow in our region? Were we wrong to think that competitive gaming could grow here? For a while, I myself had decided to give up on Smash in my region and focus on the national scene.

It was the February of the following year that we’d finally decided to host another tournament. Point Blank, aptly named due to it being a “shot in the dark” tournament because of our last one’s turn out, was a surprisingly a success. All of the people that were going to attend Smash:Iloilo attended and brought in even more. Thanks to the support of the Manila group, awareness of Smash in my region grew over the 1 month interval of our tournament announcement to the actual event. The event was a success!

KG and JBae playing a round of Project M

Point Blank finally solidified our scene and established all the rivalries that our region is infamous for today. The event also set the tone for Project M/Melee being the main event at most of our tournaments. Preferring the pace of the game and partly due to us only having 2 Wii U consoles, our region never really got into Smash 4 compared to North and South Manila. This is what set our region apart in terms of game choice.

Grand Finals between Bino and KG

While our region isn’t as developed as Manila yet, we’re steadily growing our scenes for both games. The nice thing about the Philippines is that all of the scenes support each other in their endeavours which really helped everyone grow quickly. In fact, we’re hosting a major here in the coming weeks so stay tuned! Details about it can be found on Smash.gg.

ESGS

Once again, thanks to SpicyD’s FGC connections, Smash got a slot at Philippine’s biggest gaming event yet called the Electronic Sports And Gaming Summit or ESGS. Ever since the successful event at PGF, the community had been growing week by week. In fact, a lot of Southern Melee players from the early 2000’s scene like L1nk and David Van Hoven became active once more. Project M and Smash 4 were both tournaments at this event so players from both games attended. Since it was a 2 day event like PGF, the Rumpus Crew decided to split the games between both days.

To attract more members to the community, SpicyD made a trailer for the event. The difference about this one compared to others of the like was that it didn’t feature the game at all. Instead, it showed the community and all of it’s members to bring a more human aspect to their promotions. Set to the tune of “Here Comes The Hotstepper”, the trailer presented the community in its purest form: friends who played Smash together.

Compared to PGF, the event was stacked. Players not only from Manila, but also from nearby and far-off provinces showed up to compete.  The Levy brothers both came in full force looking even stronger from their last 1st and 2nd placings during For Glory. RZ also made a comeback, bringing out both King Dedede and his classic Ganondorf. Interestingly, I also flew out to the event, making it the first SSBPH event with a representative from the regions outside of Manila.

Smash 4/Day 1 was decidedly brutal. A 30 man tournament for Smash in the Philippines was unheard of at the time. DJR of the Levy brothers went on a warpath and decimated everyone in his way in Winners. Meanwhile, knocked into losers by the South’s Daveth, RZ had to go through many high calibre players such as Stats, L1NK, Hypebeast and Skatoonist which culminated in a Losers Finals runback of Winners Quarters between RZ and Daveth.  Taking him out 3-0, RZ himself was 3-0ed by DJR’s Mario in Grand Finals.

Patrick “DJRusalem” Levy after winning the 3DS tournament

Throughout the entire tournament, DJR lost only 2 games (1 to Versus’ GodZ and another to Imperium Pro Team’s Icyie). His undefeated reign (not unlike ZeRo currently) would span for many months, taking tournaments such as Alva, New Year’s Cleave, Versus Major I and numerous weeklies. For a period of time, DJR was simply unstoppable with his Mario and no one knew how to counter him. His impeccable use of Mario’s Cape and FLUDD made it hard for opponents to adapt to his playstyle and when they did, he’d simply tweak his playstyle to accommodate said changes.

The Project M tournament on the other hand, was less stacked compared to Smash 4 due to it being on Sunday. RZ and Cloi were clear front runners to win with Champo not being around. In Starting on opposite sides of the bracket, they faced each other in Winners Finals as predicted. Defeating RZ 3-1, Cloi secured himself a spot into Grand Finals and the top 2.

BBNikface’s brother and top level Injustice player Miguel “Justis” Garcia joined the tournament as a dark horse. Getting 2nd in Injustice and knocked out early in Smash 4 the day before, he almost didn’t make it to the tournament had his girlfriend not forced him to. Maining Ike, a relatively unheard of character, he sent TheGreyMan into Losers early on but was sent there himself by RZ a round later.

Upsetting Leo, one of the top Marth/Link mains in the country, Justis had to face his brother in Losers Semis. While his brother had more tournament experience, he clutched it out against BBNikFace with a 2-1 score after pulling out his pocket Charizard (yet another rare character).

RZ, who was still reeling over his loss at the hands of Cloi, was determined to beat Justis again and possibly win against Cloi in Grand Finals. Although Marc put up a valiant effort, Justis had more momentum coming in from a win over his brother. In the biggest upset of the tournament, Justis beat him 3-0 using Charizard. Needless to say, most people were shocked that someone reached Grand Finals on their first tournament by defeating someone like RZ nonetheless.

Whether it was people not knowing the matchup or simply Justis’ raw talent, nothing could change the fact that he got into Grand Finals. In order to win, he had to defeat Cloi 2 sets in a row due to him having the Winners Bracket advantage. Despite the odds, the Ike/Zard main had his mindset on winning and would settle for no less.

After winning the first match, it looked like Cloi had the set in the bag. Amazingly, Justis adapted to Cloi’s Marth by switching over to Ike from Charizard and convincingly won 3 games in a row to reset the bracket. Trying to counter his Ike, Cloi went Sheik in the last game of the first set as well as the second game of the second set and did better but to no avail, Justis won the set 3-0.

Justis (the guy with the trophy) being awarded with the first place prize by DK, SpicyD and Steef

By winning the tournament, Justis proved that with the right mindset, anyone could break into the scene and become a threat. Up to this day, Cloi, Leo and Justis and his brothers all remain top players in the Project M scene. While the PM scene isn’t as strong as it was back then, these players keep it alive and hopefully, both the Smash 4 and Project M scenes will continue to grow and coexist peacefully.

Shoutouts to SpicyD, Justis, Blank and KG for their help with this chapter! The series will be going on a bit of a hiatus until after EVO but I promise that it’ll get better when I come back from Vegas. I’ll be covering the “modern” era of our scene as well as DJR’s reign of dominance so stay tuned! To follow my progress as well as toss me up some suggestions, you can follow me on Twitter @AdmiralPopi. Thanks for reading!