I would expect the most fun party of my life to be with my fraternity. Loud music, plenty of alcohol, all my brothers in one place, what could be more fun? I've been partying with these guys for three years now, and there have been plenty of fun parties, but nothing will come close to this weekend.
Saturday was a tournament day. It was the "Big one," Cusetown Beatdown, and I was preparing for it for the whole semester. The tournament itself was a ton of fun. I didn't do as well as I wanted (I got 9th out of 80, which is just outside of the money) but I didn't fail by any means. The tournament as a whole was super wonky, upsets and last stock situations all over the place. The after tournament party is where the real fun started, however.
It was a party full of smashers! It was amazing! I distinctly remember one moment where I was chilling with 4 other smashers, listening to my lousy ass song and laughing our asses off. At one point I sit up and just go "We all love smash bros so much. This is so fuckin cool." And it was fucking cool. I can't wait until the next smash party.
There's something about the friends I make through smash that sticks with me. We have a distinct community that other people just don't understand. Very often we're questioned about our obsession with this 15 year old game and it's hard to give an explanation. Even now, with the freedom to think about my words and come up with a response, it's hard to justify our behavior with this game. It even got in the way of my relationship last night, as I got home and immediately started watching Summit 3 instead of talk to my girlfriend. It's that important to me.
It's honestly such a trip to surround myself with so many other inspiring smash celebrities. The fame, recognition, and (soon) money that comes with being a top player is incredibly desirable, and everyone that plays the game chases that same dream. To have another player beat you is a big deal... every match is talked about for months after and good wins are celebrated. Shit talk is everywhere online, and some people base all of their self confidence from their smash play. Others don't have many friends outside of the smash community. It really is a bizarre world that I belong to.
But I have that individual characteristic also of being involved outside of smash as well. This is a good and bad thing, but something I wouldn't change. It's good in that I have things for my family to be proud of me about. It's good in that I don't get too upset after losses or bad tournaments. The only bad thing is that I need to find time to practice the game. I need to squeeze in hours in between everything else I have going on and that can be very frustrating.
It's in this blog that I can take a moment of reflection and reaffirm what I want to do. I want to continue improving at this game and see how good I can get. With everything in the community, the 50,000 people watching smash summit 3 and hundreds of people who belong to each region, looking for recognition can be an appealing priority. It is for me too, but I need to be careful with how I approach each tournament match. The only thing I can do is try my best as often as possible, and hopefully that attitude spills into everything else in my life. The pressing issue right now is my comedy performance tonight. I gotta practice if I want to put on a good show, even if stand up is a frustrating thing to rehearse. I think I will practice, just set aside an hour at first and organize my set then start saying it to a mirror. If it goes badly, then I just have another learning experience. If it goes well, then the desire for recognition comes creeping up again. All I can do is try, right?
Words I learned to spell: Explanation
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