• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 10:12
CEST 16:12
KST 23:12
  • 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
Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview9[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy9
Community News
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?29Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris46Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!15Weekly Cups (Aug 4-10): MaxPax wins a triple6
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw? Heaven's Balance Suggestions (roast me) Speculation of future Wardii series Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time
Tourneys
LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris Monday Nights Weeklies
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies
Brood War
General
ASL20 General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion Starcraft at lower levels TvP Victoria gamers
Tourneys
Is there English video for group selection for ASL [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL20] Ro24 Group F [IPSL] CSLAN Review and CSLPRO Reimagined!
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Mechabellum Teeworlds - online game
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
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s) Gtx660 graphics card replacement
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
How Culture and Conflict Imp…
TrAiDoS
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 853 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
LiuLi Cup
11:00
Weekly #5
Harstem548
mouzHeroMarine487
TKL 326
CranKy Ducklings310
IndyStarCraft 175
Rex136
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Harstem 548
mouzHeroMarine 487
TKL 326
IndyStarCraft 175
Rex 136
ProTech86
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 48893
EffOrt 1446
actioN 525
Snow 521
Stork 500
Larva 414
Light 334
Leta 313
BeSt 296
ggaemo 288
[ Show more ]
Mini 271
ZerO 249
Soma 169
Movie 113
Mong 112
PianO 111
sSak 72
Hyun 71
Sharp 69
JYJ68
ToSsGirL 57
Pusan 53
Sexy 45
soO 37
Aegong 34
Shine 33
Nal_rA 32
scan(afreeca) 29
sorry 26
Backho 24
HiyA 19
yabsab 18
Sacsri 14
ajuk12(nOOB) 10
SilentControl 9
ivOry 6
Rock 5
Terrorterran 4
Bale 4
Dota 2
Gorgc6002
qojqva2706
Dendi1278
XcaliburYe151
Counter-Strike
zeus740
oskar125
Other Games
B2W.Neo1312
hiko847
DeMusliM406
Lowko373
Hui .221
Happy187
ArmadaUGS89
SortOf69
ZerO(Twitch)18
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 1308
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 38
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 3052
• WagamamaTV525
League of Legends
• Nemesis4510
• Jankos1375
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
9h 48m
The PondCast
19h 48m
RSL Revival
19h 48m
Maru vs SHIN
MaNa vs MaxPax
Maestros of the Game
1d 2h
Classic vs TriGGeR
Reynor vs SHIN
OSC
1d 12h
MaNa vs SHIN
SKillous vs ShoWTimE
Bunny vs TBD
Cham vs TBD
RSL Revival
1d 19h
Reynor vs Astrea
Classic vs sOs
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Serral vs Ryung
ByuN vs Zoun
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Team Bonyth vs Team Dewalt
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
GuMiho vs Cham
ByuN vs TriGGeR
[ Show More ]
Cosmonarchy
2 days
TriGGeR vs YoungYakov
YoungYakov vs HonMonO
HonMonO vs TriGGeR
Maestros of the Game
3 days
Solar vs Bunny
Clem vs Rogue
[BSL 2025] Weekly
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Cure vs Bunny
Creator vs Zoun
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Maru vs Lambo
herO vs ShoWTimE
BSL Team Wars
4 days
Team Hawk vs Team Sziky
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
Maestros of the Game
Sisters' Call Cup
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

LASL Season 20
2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
RSL Revival: Season 2
EC S1
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
Skyesports Masters 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open 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.