I'm hooked. From two hours before its release until this very moment, Brawl has been a big part of my life. By some miracle of luck, a group of friends and myself were admitted in the supposedly full Brawl release tournament, held by our local GameStop. And then, by another miracle, the one kid who was playful enough to chose "Random" among the myriad of Link, Zelda, and Metaknight players, walked away with the trophy.
My man Pit and I cleaned up, and after a few grueling hours, beat down a very good, technical player from WashU (who had obviously done his homework) to win the event. Now, each and every day feels like training. As long as I can manage to cut loose and have a good time playing this weekend, I should do well. Just like everything else I do that's competitive, once I stop having fun, my actual skill drops significantly. On top of that, there's no reason to believe I'll be moving on to the next round as it is; I'm a scrub who doesn't own the game, the controller, or even the system. So as long as I can keep a good attitude, it should just be a fun time to hang out and play games with some people who're like-minded.
This coming Saturday, our crew will be at Round two, hopefully with a camera this time. It would've been really nice to have had a camera there last weekend, as there was an awesome Sheik cos-player, as well as a general mass of people who really enjoyed their video game. Honestly, the entire tournament turned into more of a spectator affair, as each match had 26+ people watching on, back-seat smashing, if you will. Either way, I'll be coming home to Springfield after the tournament, so hopefully I'll see some familiar faces when I get back. Wish me luck!