Home Invasion: How a Small House Smash Meet Shaped up to Be a Major Australian SSB64 Tournament

By Jesse “Sweetchilli” Rosenberg

Are you familiar with the nesting habits of the Cuckoo? That bird is ruthless. It sneaks into other birds’ nests and lays its own eggs, avoiding the responsibility of parenting it’s own offspring. Then, when the cuckoo eggs hatch, the baby cuckoo’s throw the other eggs out of the nest, and get cared for by the parents of their dead foster-siblings.

With over 30 entrants expected to participate, Birds Nest II is shaping up to be the little tournament that could. Doubling the numbers of its first iteration, this Birds Nest will feature four introduced species from the South – Victorians. The invasive Melbourne residents will be looking to tear the Birds Nest apart and leave Sydney in tatters.

With extensive Facebook marketing, and frequent mention of the fact that there will be brownies for free at the venue, it is no small wonder that the event has attracted numerous local melee players and some notable out-of-state talent. But that factor, along with the presence of a keyboard adapter for local warrior Kirbymon, means that the results are up for grabs.

Here’s a brief rundown of the top 4 seeds, and who else might be a threat to taking the brownies at Birds Nest II.

Kirbymon, given the presence of a keyboard adapter, is the number one seed for the tournament, and with his ferocious suck and powerful neutral game, it’s hard to see him losing.

Second seed is Birdies, host of the event and, winner of Birds Nest I. He’s recently shown why you might need to watch out for this particular Kirby, so don’t count him out.

For Mitch, the three seed, Birds Nest II is looking to be the tournament where he finally proves that he’s at the top-level of Australian Smash. With neither DSC, Kuromatsu, or Pete being there, none of those who have knocked him out of previous tournaments can stop his fox from tearing a hole through the wall of Kirbys before him.

Fourth up is Indefa. After decimating the entire state of Western Australia at DI Another Day 2, the Melbourne TO returned home and put on an impressive performance at Pete’s Meets II. He’s looking to continue his run of out-of-state success and keep another title in Australia’s Smash heartland of Victoria.

I asked them a few questions to see what they thought about the tournament and beyond.

1.There’s a lot of inter-state rivalry coming into this event, who do you think will take the number one spot – Melbourne or Sydney?

Kirbymon: Sydddddddddddd

Birdies: Sydney. Provided no major upsets among the top seeds I see three different people taking the tourney, two of them are from Sydney so it’s just logical.

Mitch: Melbourne.

Indefa:  I am uncertain of whether Kirbymon will have his keyboard adapter for this tournament. If he does then I could definitely see him taking it all.

2.What do you see being the biggest upset?

Kirbymon: No clue.. whoever plays me in winner’s bracket?

Birdies: The biggest upset I see is James taking out players seeded much higher than him based on his recent online performance. It’s also possible some of the new players with good fundamentals take out some of our regulars.

Mitch: Brian/Nathan Hawkins will place way above their seed

Indefa: I’m sure one of the guys from Melbourne (maybe even me) could crumble to the tourney nerves and drop out before top 8. That would be a big upset.

3.What does the future of Australian SSB64 tournaments look like?

Kirbymon: Bigger and better as peeps get guder.

Birdies: It’s definitely on the up and up! Just look at the traction the Sydney scene has. More than half of the entrants to Birds Nest II are new players who are keen to try out and learn Smash 64.

Mitch: 50 entrant tourneys in melb and syd one day, 20 entrant tourneys in the other three states. (Editor’s note: There are two Australian territories that also exist, but clearly Mitch does not consider them noteworthy.)

Indefa: The future looks bright for tournaments here. We have had a steady growth over the last couple of years and the number of people getting involved with organising tournaments and meetups has picked up too. More people have also started traveling interstate to play Smash. I’m hoping sometime this year we can have our largest 64 tournament ever with representation from all the active states.

The Australian scene is full of memelords and trash talk, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to see them put their brownies where their mouths are. The event will be streamed at twitch.tv/ssb64australia. Doubles will start at 12pm on Saturday Jan. 14th Sydney time (8pm Friday Jan. 13th EST) and Singles will start at 2:30pm on Saturday Jan. 14th Sydney time (10:30pm Friday Jan. 13th EST).

Jesse “Sweetchilli” Rosenberg is a 22-year-old writer and smash player/TO living in Sydney, Australia. He likes making low quality videos, playing low quality smash, and eating cheap, low quality Thai food. He plays Falcon, but like most Smash players, is a Ness main at heart.