• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 23:35
CEST 05:35
KST 12:35
  • 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
[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall5HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0TL Team Map Contest #5: Presented by Monster Energy6
Community News
Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL40Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form?12FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event16Esports World Cup 2025 - Final Player Roster14Weekly Cups (June 16-22): Clem strikes back1
StarCraft 2
General
Statistics for vetoed/disliked maps The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form? StarCraft Mass Recall: SC1 campaigns on SC2 thread How does the number of casters affect your enjoyment of esports?
Tourneys
[GSL 2025] Code S: Season 2 - Semi Finals & Finals $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event HomeStory Cup 27 (June 27-29) WardiTV Mondays
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome Mutation # 478 Instant Karma Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady
Brood War
General
Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL Help: rep cant save BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall Where did Hovz go?
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL20] ProLeague LB Final - Saturday 20:00 CET
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games? Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
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 Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Trading/Investing Thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The Games Industry And ATVI Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Korean Music Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread NBA General Discussion Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
Blog #2
tankgirl
Game Sound vs. Music: The Im…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 516 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
Braavos36374 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
Replay Cast
00:00
HSC 27: Groups A & B
CranKy Ducklings117
Liquipedia
OSC
20:00
Mid Season Playoffs
Gerald vs MojaLIVE!
ArT vs Jumy
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft358
Nina 198
RuFF_SC2 163
NeuroSwarm 140
StarCraft: Brood War
PianO 182
Aegong 105
Sharp 61
Stork 53
Icarus 10
ajuk12(nOOB) 3
League of Legends
JimRising 757
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox733
Mew2King91
amsayoshi44
ChuDatz9
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor142
Other Games
summit1g9748
tarik_tv1471
shahzam821
Maynarde122
WinterStarcraft36
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1323
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH273
• Hupsaiya 53
• practicex 16
• OhrlRock 2
• IndyKCrew
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• sooper7s
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 25
• Azhi_Dahaki13
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift4796
• masondota2676
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
6h 25m
RSL Revival
6h 25m
ByuN vs Classic
Clem vs Cham
WardiTV European League
12h 25m
Replay Cast
20h 25m
RSL Revival
1d 6h
herO vs SHIN
Reynor vs Cure
WardiTV European League
1d 12h
FEL
1d 12h
Korean StarCraft League
1d 23h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
[ Show More ]
FEL
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
FEL
3 days
BSL: ProLeague
3 days
Dewalt vs Bonyth
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-06-28
HSC XXVII
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
Championship of Russia 2025
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
SEL Season 2 Championship
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
StarSeries Fall 2025
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
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.