By Brendan “Bean” Murray
Shine 2017
Shine 2017, New England’s premier Smash event, took place August 25th – 27th. Inside
Boston’s gigantic Seaport World Trade Center, amidst fellow Smash games which drew hundreds more competitors, it would have been easy to miss Smash 64, sequestered away in a small corner of the venue. However, for those of us who were paying attention, that small corner brought forth some amazing Smash including incredible matches, upsets, runs and character switches. At the center of it all was the New York City crew, having made the journey north from the Big Apple to show why it is never a good idea to sleep on Smashers from the city that never sleeps.
Capos, New York’s most enthusiastic and well-traveled smasher (he hails from New Jersey), started strong in his Placement Pool. Only dropping sets to Mariguas and Bread, capos went 4-2 and moved on to Division 3. Once in D3, capos beat JAG but lost to Andykins 0-2 and Baby Legs in a close 1-2 set to finish at 49th. ScrAtch, who recently left NYC for Boston, though I’m counting him as New York anyway, also placed 3rd in his PP, dropping sets to Dajjal and Jay_mute$. Once in D3, scrAtch tore through his pool, beating RusselSprouts 2-0, Nanagens 2-0 and Esid 2-1, on his way to 1st place and a spot in Division 2. Unfortunately, once there, scrAtch went 0-3 against WaxyJoe, Greeno and Natendo to close out his run at a solid 41st.
Continuing the trend, Bean placed 3rd in his PP as well, behind Fireblaster (0-2) and
Rocket (1-2). In D3, he beat Razz 2-1 and OhB-NoA 2-0, and got absolutely embarrassed by JXC on stream, including a 4-stock in game 2. Despite that pounding, he placed second in his pool and made it to D2. Once there, he lost to Stew and GT but beat icactusdog to place 3rd, ending his run at 33rd. On a much more exciting note (for me), he was the highest placing Samus and second-highest placing low-tier main, behind Raychu and his Ness. I have done no research to confirm either of these claims and you can feel free to call me out on Twitter at @ssbshears, which is definitely my Twitter account.
Our highest placing player was Horbie, who reached an impressive 13th. He went 5-0 in
his PP and 2-1 in D1, placing second behind Bark Sanchez and beating out KaZ and Purtle. Once in top 16, Horbie’s first match was against Alvin, who is pretty good at Smash. Dropping into losers bracket after an 0-3, Horbie was knocked out of the tournament by Marbles in another 0-3 rout. With a second solid national performance under his belt and a nominated clip in the EMG Play of the Week video for Shine, Horbie is proving that his recent placings are not just a flash in the pan and that he is a top contender no matter who else is in attendance.
The fifth player from NYC who attended Shine was Kelvinheit, and I saved the best run for last. Criminally underseeded, Kelvinheit placed 4th in his PP, behind Darkhorse, KaZ and JXC. Once in D4, Kelvinheit went on a tear that lasted all the way to D1. He went 5-0 in D4, not dropping a game, 3-0 in D3, again without losing a single game and was placed in a D2 pool with Rocket, KaZ, and GooseWithSocks. Rocket, KaZ and Kelvinheit all went 2-1 with a 5-3 game count and had to play tiebreaker sets against each other. Kelvinheit placed second, behind KaZ, and barely inched into D1. Once in D1, he lost 0-2 to Alvin and beat Spongy 2-0. In a nail-biting set against Raychu, Kelvinheit was up in stocks during game 3 before Raychu mounted a comeback to take the set 2-1, ending Kelvinheit’s Cinderella run at 17th. With a 14-6 record across 20 sets, Kelvinheit proved that he is a player to watch as 2017 comes to a close, and that whomever is placed in his pool will need to bring their A-game or risk being left behind in another incredible run.
Big Apple Smash 8
The Wednesday after Shine 2017, New York had its 8th iteration in our monthly series:
Big Apple Smash. While not nearly as stacked as Shine, BAS8 did include strong out-of-region talent and old school players showing up to make it an interesting and exciting Top 8. KD3 and Mr. Sir came to New York from Pennsylvania and NOVA, respectively. Mr. Sir beat out Horbie to place 5th, while KD3 took his second NYC monthly, beating out Firo and double eliminating KeroKeroppi. Speaking of Kero…Kero’s back! He beat Razz, Firo and Czar to place second. Speaking of Czar…Czar’s been coming around more! The Mario Bros. main, who was inactive for over a year before attending Let’s Go!, has been coming around to Nebulous more often and is showing no signs of rust, beating Jimmy Joe and Mr. Sir to place 4th behind Firo.
As NYC’s monthlies draw larger and larger crowds, more and more top talent from up and down the East Coast are making efforts to come by, which in turn creates even larger crowds. It is an exciting time to be a Smash 64 player in New York City, and I am enthusiastic to see how our scene grows as the year progresses.
Brendan Murray is a smasher from NYC who joined the scene in mid-2016. He mains Samus, which he regrets every day. You can find him on Twitter at @EatDrnk_BMurray
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