Saturday, October 21, 2023

My Spring 2023 Smash Ultimate Season Recap



Welp, I continue to climb. I went from 13th ish my first semester to 5th, then 4th, then 3rd, and now 2nd. This has put me into Rexburg's All-Time Top 10 (Note: there is no official list on this). My lowest placement at a PR tournament was 3rd, which is ludicrously consistent. My worst loss was to BUG, all my other losses were amongst the top 5 players.

I'm happy. And content. I'm happy with how far I've come, and I've decided to pretty much retire. I've just felt little to no motivation to practice or attend tournaments this semester. I might go to a few, especially since two of my roommates might start going consistently (one already does). But we'll see. 

I went to one this semester and took my lowest placement since March 24th, 2022 (13th place). And I wasn't too beat up about it. My heart just isn't in it right now, and that's okay. Other hobbies exist. This one has brought me great great great joy, and perhaps my heart will be in it again a different semester.

I think part of the reason I feel less motivated is because I have almost no where left to climb. 3 out of the 5 players that beat me last semester aren't here this semester. The only things I could accomplish this semester that I haven't done is being consistent against Spork and beating Naters (and beating Gappy, I suppose), which are awesome things, but not very many. Not enough for me to feel motivated to grind enough to have that happen.


The awesomest thing from the semester was Rexburg Smash Summit! 

I wrote about how I was excited for the event in this blog post, but the most important part I quoted below.


"It's a Smash Bros invitational modeled after my favorite tournament series of all time (Smash Summit and Smash Ultimate Summit (for Melee and Ultimate respectively)). 

There [are] 8 contenders, 1 is a invited spot. Spork got that one.

At 5 tournaments there [was] a qualifying spot available. If you're the top placer at the tournament who hasn't already qualified, you [got] into Summit."


8 of the highest level competitors from Rexburg got together to battle it out over the course of two days.

The first day, there were two pools of 4 participants. You play a round robin, you record determines your seeding for the next day.

I beat the lowest seeded opponent pretty easily, but then lost to Maguire, meaning I was very likely going to not be the top seed from my pool. I beat my next two opponents handily. And then, shockingly, Maguire got upset not once, but twice! Meaning I had the best record in our pool and I was going to be the first seed from our pool going into the next day!

In another surprise from the first day, Spork, the overall number one seed of the event (I was overall number two seed) got upset and was going to start in the losers' side of the bracket the next day!

I went to bed that night excited and rather nervous for the next days events.


The next day my first opponent was Penalty. Overall, I have a very good set record against Penalty (14-5), but I had lost my previous set vs. him and each time he fought me he was getting closer to beating me, so it was definitely not an easy opponent.

But that fine day I was playing some of the best Smash I ever had and I crushed Penalty 3-0.

My next opponent in Winner's Finals was EchoXMan, who I have been extremely dominate against recently. It wasn't any different this time around, and I beat him harder than I ever have with a 3-stock and 2 2-stocks to win the set 3-0.

Spork and Maguire both dropping down to loser's for the first day was very fortunate for me -- they were who I was most scared to face against. But Spork showed why he was the #1 overall seed at the tournament and made an incredible losers' run to come fight me in Grand Finals.

I was nervous going into this set. The first game I played incredibly shaky and Spork became the first person to take a game of me that day, winning with a dominating 3-stock.

The second game, I calmed down and focused up and struck back with a solid 2-stock.

Game three was back and forth with some clutches from both sides. I ended up taking it with 2-stocks remaining.

Game four I was playing just as well and was up 2 stocks to 1. But the thought of winning was making me nervous. I choked a couple easy punishes and Spork clutched the comeback to force a game 5.

Game 5 was back and forth with Spork taking an early lead and me striking back. At two stocks a piece, I take the next stock and gain a small lead while surviving at high precents as Charizard. Spork finally gets the kill putting us at one stock a piece him at 46%.

I hop down from the angel platform as Ivysaur and get a quick combo including calling out a tech option with an up-smash getting a lot of percent. I send Spork off stage and set up charging a forward smash. Just outside of get-up attack range. This spelled the doom for Spork as he got-up attacked thinking it would reach, but my f-smash finishes the job winning me Rexburg Smash Ultimate Summit.

I was elated and so happy. They did after-tournament interviews with me. Due to some amazing members of our community over $225 was donated to the prize pool. I won $70 for first place:) It was amazing. My heart started beating faster just thinking about it. I love good competition. And this tournament was my favorite local tournament I've ever attended. So good and so happy with my performance.

Here is a playlist of all the recorded sets at the tournament:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5_yIWIVcq0kMVV0fx2-e3tLiXMPrtxIY




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