• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 06:31
CEST 12:31
KST 19:31
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence6Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups3WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia7Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues29LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3
StarCraft 2
General
Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence Diplomacy, Cosmonarchy Edition BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group D [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL $1,500 Open Bracket LAN [ASL20] Ro16 Group C
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Borderlands 3
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2202 users

History of a Smasher Chapter II: Melee

Blogs > Liquid`Chillin
Post a Reply
Liquid`Chillin
Profile Blog Joined January 2015
5 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-20 02:28:30
September 20 2016 01:56 GMT
#1

[image loading]



Mild and I began regularly hanging out with Azen to play games, along with his close childhood friend, Keith or Anden. I recall thinking that Anden had a similar knack for games to Azen, but it wasn’t nearly as pronounced and he was much closer to average. Although Azen and Anden were both good gamers, gaming still wasn’t very much about the competition for me; I still played to mess around and enjoy myself, and unsurprisingly I usually ended in last. Azen, Anden and Mild were all a few years older than me, and at age eleven I often chalked up my losses to an age disadvantage.

Smash 64 was one of our most-played games, but we still played many other games and hadn’t focused on Smash in particular. This all changed when a sequel was announced in early 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee. When footage of the game began to release that summer, all of us were blown away by the graphics and the speed of the game. It looked to be a huge leap from Smash 64, and the four of us became increasingly excited for the game months before it was scheduled to release. I even claimed Sheik as my initial main due to my love for Ocarina of Time, and she indeed became my main for the first year or so of the game’s release.

After what felt like years, the day finally arrived: Melee’s release in early December 2001. Mild had gone over to Azen’s house the night before to attend a midnight release for the game and buy a copy, so when I woke up the next morning and he was sitting in bed with a game case in his hand, I could hardly contain my excitement. With a sly smile he turned the case toward me: Melee was here.

We had maybe 10 minutes before we had to leave for school, but I had to get a couple of rounds in before I left. If I recall correctly, my first match ever was my Sheik vs Mild’s Ness on Onett. Even though we had seen the game footage already, actually playing it was an incredible experience. The game not only lived up to our expectations but actually exceeded them.

Almost immediately, Melee became byfar our most-played game when we went over to Azen’s house. We fell in love with the game and played religiously for the few months of the game’s release. Although Anden typically won over Mild and I, Azen continued to lead the pack, implementing things like L-cancelling and shieldgrabbing immediately because of his experience using advanced techniques in Smash 64. He also continued to use the entire cast, which was especially impressive since Melee’s roster was over twice as big as 64’s. As Azen continued to progress and dominate us, though, we actually began to get pretty damn good ourselves, even without realizing it at the time. Although we knew Azen was good, I still assumed he was just an above-average player, so there was no reason to believe we were anything special.

One day in early 2002, Azen stumbled across a forum called Smashboards online. He made an account and saw that people were meeting up to play Melee, and he began scouting for competition himself. He got in touch with a player named Jtanic whose friend lived within walking distance of Azen, and met up with him to play. Initially I was extremely skeptical about this; meeting strangers from the Internet was still an uncertain concept at the time, especially at our age, and finding out Jtanic was near age 20 didn’t help. However, after Azen played with Jtanic a few times without incident, and told us Jtanic was actually pretty skilled, Mild and I decided to meet him and play him ourselves at Azen’s house. He had a surprisingly tricky Samus, and actually mostly beat Mild and I at first. We were impressed and he began coming over regularly to train with us, despite the age gap.

The experience with Jtanic made me reconsider my opinion on Smashboards, and I decided to make an account myself. I was immediately pleased with the decision; finally there was a place where people loved Smash just as much as I did. Discussions on the boards sparked my interest in advanced techniques, including a tactic which apparently was very popular in Japan called “wavedashing.” I made a now-infamous post in a thread about wavedashing wherein I implied wavedashing didn’t seem very useful, because at the time the movement in the game was still very slow and no one seemed to be able to wavedash consistently enough to apply it well. Obviously I was later proved wrong, but generally speaking the community was still extremely new to the competitive aspect of the game and very few people consistently implemented advanced techniques. Even things like L-cancelling and short hopping were still fairly rare at the time. Regardless, the discussions made me realize there was a lot of depth to the game, and now I know we were barely even scratching the surface.

Along with the discussion about the game, we began to notice tournament threads popping up on Smashboards as well. This intrigued us; with as much time as we had put into playing the game, we were hungry for more competition. However, with no tournaments anywhere reasonably close to us, we realized there was only one option: host one ourselves. We were determined to put our skills to the test, and so despite being only age 12 I decided to put together a tournament.

Finding a venue seemed like the only real issue, but I managed to get in touch with a veteran organization called American Legion, which has various posts across the country. I reached out to a few and to my surprise one of them seemed responsive to holding a tournament there. The date was set - August 17th, 2002, the first true test of our Smash skills.


Liquid`Chillin







*****
Team Liquid
Hot_Bid
Profile Blog Joined October 2003
Braavos36375 Posts
September 20 2016 04:07 GMT
#2
really cool, completely missed the smashboards iteration of this so excited to read it
@Hot_Bid on Twitter - ESPORTS life since 2010 - http://i.imgur.com/U2psw.png
LoneYoShi
Profile Blog Joined June 2014
France1348 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-09-21 09:39:31
September 20 2016 11:52 GMT
#3
Great story ! I loved part 1, loved part 2 and can't wait for the next parts !

Edit: all right, I couldn't wait for the rest so I read it all on Smashboards. It's a great story, very well told. Do you have any plans to continue it even further ?
RaGe
Profile Blog Joined July 2004
Belgium9947 Posts
September 21 2016 17:52 GMT
#4
Nice, a sequel. Keep it coming, man.
Moderatorsometimes I get intimidated by the size of my right testicle
Qwyn
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States2779 Posts
September 21 2016 21:27 GMT
#5
Hot_Bid shouldn't have said that the whole story is up on Smashboards already...oh god the temptation...

LoneYoShi I'm about to follow in your footsteps T_T.

As someone who has only ever dabbled in Smash getting to read a well written (pleasurably well written, actually) origin story from someone like Chillin is really fucking cool.
"Think of the hysteria following the realization that they consciously consume babies and raise the dead people from their graves" - N0
lichter
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
September 22 2016 02:49 GMT
#6
FYI: Chillin is rewriting the whole story with more detail and has plans to go even further if he has the time to write
AdministratorYOU MUST HEED MY INSTRUCTIONS TAKE OFF YOUR THIIIINGS
LoneYoShi
Profile Blog Joined June 2014
France1348 Posts
September 24 2016 12:09 GMT
#7
Stay strong Qwyn !
Also, good to know that this is a rewrite and not just a repost, i'll go check to see what's different. Thanks Lichter.

And God I hope Chillin' finds the time to write more and continue his story further ! I don't play Smash but for some reason I really like the community. I've watched the Smash Brothers and tune into Melee streams every now and then and the difference in mindset between Smash and SC2 is striking. I think the Smash community is much more friendly, laid back and doesn't take itself as seriously as the SC2 one... I'd wish there was an easier way to get into Melee than to go buy a CRT monitor (I wouldn't even know where to look for one) and a game cube... I can always dream of an NX port...
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Afreeca Starleague
10:00
Ro16 Group D
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
Afreeca ASL 13218
sctven
Liquipedia
Sparkling Tuna Cup
10:00
Weekly #106
CranKy Ducklings81
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
OGKoka 189
ProTech53
Rex 34
trigger 24
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 8847
GuemChi 5848
Flash 5248
Bisu 3229
Rain 3000
Horang2 1369
BeSt 1034
Hyuk 880
Mini 639
EffOrt 569
[ Show more ]
firebathero 394
Pusan 382
Zeus 280
Hyun 266
ZerO 242
Mind 102
Dewaltoss 91
Soulkey 89
Rush 70
Killer 58
Backho 58
Liquid`Ret 46
soO 43
sorry 39
JYJ35
Aegong 26
Sharp 21
Free 17
Sacsri 14
Bale 12
SilentControl 12
HiyA 11
Hm[arnc] 5
Dota 2
singsing2369
BananaSlamJamma265
XcaliburYe163
febbydoto27
League of Legends
JimRising 373
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1686
shoxiejesuss471
x6flipin350
allub265
Other Games
Pyrionflax281
DeMusliM279
crisheroes240
Happy217
NeuroSwarm65
Trikslyr22
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick523
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 265
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV288
League of Legends
• Stunt928
Upcoming Events
2v2
29m
OSC
2h 29m
PiGosaur Monday
13h 29m
LiuLi Cup
1d
RSL Revival
1d 23h
Maru vs Reynor
Cure vs TriGGeR
The PondCast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
3 days
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
[ Show More ]
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Online Event
5 days
Wardi Open
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL World Championship of Poland 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.