A short video on the local competitive scene in southern PA with the game Super Smash Brothers. https://youtu.be/7QLKMAeDcAo
Script:
-Audio Clip- "3, 2, 1, GO!"
-Title Card-
Richie VO: Most people who fall under the category of millennials have memory of growing up with video games in their life. A game that many know and love is the super smash brothers series. Produced by Nintendo with installments on the N64, Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U, Super Smash Brothers has remained a popular game throughout the years.
InVi #1 Gio: I played Smash 64 like way back in the day, I didn't know it was as competitive as it actually was, and we were bad at it -laughs- we were obviously bad at it.
VO: Designed to be a party game, Smash Bros has become a common title in the world of ESports and competitive gaming. Tournaments for the game are held at local, regional, national, and international levels. At a recent professional invitational tournament, the first place player received $11,525 US dollars. So, with so much on the line, how do you win?
VO: In the game, your character has a percentage. As you get hit, your percentage rises, and if you have a higher percentage, you'll be launched progressively farther. If you are knocked outside the box that is the stage, you'll die and lose a stock. When you run out of stocks, you lose the game.
VO: A standard tournament uses double elimination where if a player loses a "Best of 3", they are knocked into the "Losers Bracket". If they win the Best of 3, they progress in the "Winners Bracket". When a player loses a set in the Losers Bracket, they have been double eliminated and are out of the tournament.
VO: As a fighting game, the goal of Smash is to hit your opponents and ultimately knock them out of bounds. From game to game, the rules change slightly but the basic goal of last player standing wins is always in effect. There's a fairly active competitive smash scene around Millersville and we gathered information from members of the scene to help provide a new perspective on E Sports and competitive gaming.
InVi #2 Cam: I've met my best friends in this community, you know, people that i'll never stop talking to, people that you have just an unreal connection with, just because you share this kind of passion for a game. And people get that twisted because it's a video game, but say that to an artist or musician, that it's just an instrument, or it's just art, and they're going to catch some feelings. And for us, it's the same thing. Not necessarily that we're just throwing our life away playing, but that it really is a community, you guys have fun.
InVi #3 Pete: I watch ZeRo a decent amount, Novice, a little Dante, -laughs-
InVi #4 Dante: The scene? It's growing, that's all you need to know. It's a flower, it's a delicate flower. We just put the seed in, and in about a couple years, that seed will grow into a beautiful rose.
VO: Members of our local scene have been to some larger, regional tournaments, and described their experience there for us.
Pete: Smash tournament? Probably Summer Jam, maybe like 250 people i think?
Dante: Ktar NJ. 178 if not 190, yeah all the pro's were there. It was terrible. Well singles started at 1pm, no 3pm, didn't get over until probably like 2am in the morning. It was extremely long, Sneakdis and Ktaro, you need to run a better tournament. I hope you watch this.
Cam: Biggest tournament was Apex, 2014. I did Project M, that was back when Project M was not hated by Nintendo, and i did alright in that, i could've done better. That was my first big tournament.
Gio: Probably Ktar '14. It was like 178 entrants for singles, we got there around like 2o'clock once i got off of work and i didn't play my match until 8:30pm. Extremely salty. I was extremely salty, at that point i didn't even feel like being there, i got bodied in my first round, i started coming through in Losers, and then i was like "You know what, forget it i'm tired of being here".
VO: We learned that people in our local PA scene come from all over the country.
Cam: My home state is California, SoCal.
Gio: I'm originally from Georgia, but we just moved up here not too long ago, cus my parents are in the military, so we came here from Germany, me and my brothers.
VO: Have different histories in gaming.
Gio: I was in like the top 10 for DJ Hero 2, for a song dude like it's crazy, this is world wide. See my score on Bad Romance that's all i gotta say.
Pete: Probably my original Gameboy, no no no that's a lie, I got a Super Nintendo system for Christmas when i was 5 years old so, probably Super Mario World/Pilotwings.
VO: But have at least one thing in common.
Gio: Ahh, there's other things that are more important, but i really enjoy smash, i mean i come here every week so, it's definitely an important part of my life. You know i got some friends through this, and you know all we can do is play, get better, and have fun through it. So, i do consider smash pretty important, yeah.
VO: Competitive Smash Brothers is a welcoming community that's been around for 15 years with nothing to do but grow. If you're not directly involved in the scene, it can be hard to understand what it's all about. To many, this community is a home, and we hope we've shown why it's so important to so many people, thank you.
https://youtu.be/7QLKMAeDcAo
Script:
-Audio Clip- "3, 2, 1, GO!"
-Title Card-
Richie VO: Most people who fall under the category of millennials have memory of growing up with video games in their life. A game that many know and love is the super smash brothers series. Produced by Nintendo with installments on the N64, Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U, Super Smash Brothers has remained a popular game throughout the years.
InVi #1 Gio: I played Smash 64 like way back in the day, I didn't know it was as competitive as it actually was, and we were bad at it -laughs- we were obviously bad at it.
VO: Designed to be a party game, Smash Bros has become a common title in the world of ESports and competitive gaming. Tournaments for the game are held at local, regional, national, and international levels. At a recent professional invitational tournament, the first place player received $11,525 US dollars. So, with so much on the line, how do you win?
VO: In the game, your character has a percentage. As you get hit, your percentage rises, and if you have a higher percentage, you'll be launched progressively farther. If you are knocked outside the box that is the stage, you'll die and lose a stock. When you run out of stocks, you lose the game.
VO: A standard tournament uses double elimination where if a player loses a "Best of 3", they are knocked into the "Losers Bracket". If they win the Best of 3, they progress in the "Winners Bracket". When a player loses a set in the Losers Bracket, they have been double eliminated and are out of the tournament.
VO: As a fighting game, the goal of Smash is to hit your opponents and ultimately knock them out of bounds. From game to game, the rules change slightly but the basic goal of last player standing wins is always in effect. There's a fairly active competitive smash scene around Millersville and we gathered information from members of the scene to help provide a new perspective on E Sports and competitive gaming.
InVi #2 Cam: I've met my best friends in this community, you know, people that i'll never stop talking to, people that you have just an unreal connection with, just because you share this kind of passion for a game. And people get that twisted because it's a video game, but say that to an artist or musician, that it's just an instrument, or it's just art, and they're going to catch some feelings. And for us, it's the same thing. Not necessarily that we're just throwing our life away playing, but that it really is a community, you guys have fun.
InVi #3 Pete: I watch ZeRo a decent amount, Novice, a little Dante, -laughs-
InVi #4 Dante: The scene? It's growing, that's all you need to know. It's a flower, it's a delicate flower. We just put the seed in, and in about a couple years, that seed will grow into a beautiful rose.
VO: Members of our local scene have been to some larger, regional tournaments, and described their experience there for us.
Pete: Smash tournament? Probably Summer Jam, maybe like 250 people i think?
Dante: Ktar NJ. 178 if not 190, yeah all the pro's were there. It was terrible. Well singles started at 1pm, no 3pm, didn't get over until probably like 2am in the morning. It was extremely long, Sneakdis and Ktaro, you need to run a better tournament. I hope you watch this.
Cam: Biggest tournament was Apex, 2014. I did Project M, that was back when Project M was not hated by Nintendo, and i did alright in that, i could've done better. That was my first big tournament.
Gio: Probably Ktar '14. It was like 178 entrants for singles, we got there around like 2o'clock once i got off of work and i didn't play my match until 8:30pm. Extremely salty. I was extremely salty, at that point i didn't even feel like being there, i got bodied in my first round, i started coming through in Losers, and then i was like "You know what, forget it i'm tired of being here".
VO: We learned that people in our local PA scene come from all over the country.
Cam: My home state is California, SoCal.
Gio: I'm originally from Georgia, but we just moved up here not too long ago, cus my parents are in the military, so we came here from Germany, me and my brothers.
VO: Have different histories in gaming.
Gio: I was in like the top 10 for DJ Hero 2, for a song dude like it's crazy, this is world wide. See my score on Bad Romance that's all i gotta say.
Pete: Probably my original Gameboy, no no no that's a lie, I got a Super Nintendo system for Christmas when i was 5 years old so, probably Super Mario World/Pilotwings.
VO: But have at least one thing in common.
Gio: Ahh, there's other things that are more important, but i really enjoy smash, i mean i come here every week so, it's definitely an important part of my life. You know i got some friends through this, and you know all we can do is play, get better, and have fun through it. So, i do consider smash pretty important, yeah.
VO: Competitive Smash Brothers is a welcoming community that's been around for 15 years with nothing to do but grow. If you're not directly involved in the scene, it can be hard to understand what it's all about. To many, this community is a home, and we hope we've shown why it's so important to so many people, thank you.
-Credits-