July has been the month of Arcadian tournaments here in DFW, with each Smash game seeing a tournament specifically designed for the lower-key players! As per standard Arcadian-style rules, a number of players were banned (generally the PR’d players and a handful of extras), and the doubles events were Big Brother Doubles (a format where each team can only have one banned player on it, max). So how did things end up?
Smash 4
Of particular note is the large amount of teams that entered in the Big Brother Doubles event; 39 teams! As far as this writer knows, that’s the largest teams tournament that has ever been hosted at FX Game Exchange DFW! In the end, Dakpo and Light ended up taking it, with Kurry and Tags placing second, leaving Iggy and MageofSymphonia with third place.
In the singles bracket, the competition after closing down to top 24 was fierce. Chic cut a path through the Winner’s bracket, defeating Ados, Milky Coco, and Chuky to leave himself in Winner’s Finals. Houston player MPH made a similar run on the other side of Winner’s, defeating LightningCam, Light, and Beastly, and then finally beating Chic in their Winner’s Finals set.
Despite losing the first round of top 24 to Beastly, Nomad continued far on through losers, claiming victories over Yuruloki, Ryker, Light, Mind and Chuky before finally being beaten in Loser’s Quarters by Milky Coco to leave with 4th place. Loser’s Finals was again a match between Chic and Milky Coc, and this time, Milky Coco pulled through and avenged his loss over Chic from Winner’s bracket!
In the end, though, MPH’s Rosalina was too much for the DFW resident Mario. MPH won Grand Finals’ with a clean 3-0, claiming the Dallas arcadian for Houston!
Click to see the full top 24 bracket for the Smash 4 Arcadian!
Project M
Going into the tournament, there were three clear favorites to take the PM Arcadian; Pooch, Zeus, and Tr0y. The results ended up being not quite as expected, however!
Once getting down to the top 15 bracket, Zeus had a difficult first few matches. After defeating SFOP round one, he had to play Pooch in an early round 2. After a game-changing misinput from Pooch, Zeus was able to land an early Sonic F-air meteor KO, turning the game around, and ended up taking the set! Another victory over Fury, and then Zeus was in Winner’s Finals. On the other side, Tr0y cut his way through the bracket, beating Da, [MB] Wonder, and then fellow SS member Hard Reid to put himself in Winner’s Finals as well.
In Loser’s side, Pooch made his way through bracket, defeating Master WGS, UNT | Dekus, and SS | Hard Reid, meeting up with SFOP who had made a similar run through his side of Loser’s, defeating Brother Rob, Wonder, and Fury. Head to head, SFOP managed to pull through with the upset, putting Pooch out of the tournament at 4th place!
In Winner’s Finals, Tr0y pulled through in the set vs Zeus, his Marth vs Sonic, putting Zeus down into Loser’s to once again face off against SFOP. Zeus took game one versus SFOP’s falcon, but after that, SFOP seemed to make an adjustment, taking the next two games in a row. Game four went down to last stock, and in an offstage scramble, SFOP surprised Zeus with an up-B grab out of an attempted gimp, and missing the stage spike gave SFOP the win!
In Grand Final’s, SFOP switched up his character choice, electing to go Fox vs Tr0y’s Marth. The decision worked out rather well for him, and with good combos and excellent gimps and edgeguarding, SFOP took the first set, 3-1. The second continued the trend; close games, but SFOP won the first two, putting himself up 2-0. Tr0y himself decided that it was time for a change, here, switching over to Roy. In this match-up, SFOP still played well in neutral, but he was clearly less comfortable edgeguarding Roy than he was with Marth...and that gave Tr0y all the window he needed to survive longer, get control, and take the set with some devastating Roy combos and a reverse 3-0 victory!
Click to see the full top 16 bracket for the Project M Arcadian!
Melee
One of the interesting things about the Melee Arcadian is that there weren’t just one, but two out of city players who placed well. After the cut off from pools into top 32, Erik Reeds, a more defensive Sheik from Colorado, would make his way up to Finals, beating Vinyl, cFoy, myself, and then Dakpo to secure his position in Winner’s Finals. On the other side, Crono, a player from Puerto Rico, climbed his way up, defeating J$, Purple Sku, and resident Jigglypuff player SDJ.
As one of the favorites to win, DFW’s AWOL | Clouded had a surprisingly low placing. Despite numerous top 5 placings at the weekly Monday Night Melee tournaments, Clouded placed a low 13th place at the Arcadian, defeating Thin Mint and Aspen, but losing to YTW and Jeff Foxworthy.
Several of DFW’s multi-game players made a good showing. Captain Birdman’s Falco placed well, losing to Wubbs and then eventually Dakpo for 5th place along with myself, losing to Eric Reeds and SDJ. Dakpo climbed up the ranks as well, getting as far as Winner’s Semis before being knocked down to Loser’s by Eric Reeds, and then having his run finally ended by SDJ in Loser’s Semis for 4th place.
Those players aside, SDJ was the highest placing Dallas player, having climbed his way up to Winner’s Semis after defeating VTS, Jeff Foxworthy, and YTW, defeating Dakpo in Loser’s Semis. Erik Reeds defeated SDJ in Loser’s Finals, but was unable to bring back the Grand Finals set; Puerto Rico’s Crono went home with the tournament!
Click to see the full top 32 bracket for the Melee Arcadian!
The Arcadians all ran well, and great matches were had in many stages of the tournaments. I will say, however, that it was a bit disappointing that two of them were dominated by out of city players. The point of the Arcadians, after all, is to give a bit of the spotlight to the players - especially local ones - who aren’t often able to make it up to the big stage, and I feel it isn’t particularly fair to them to have to fight off out of city heavy hitters that slip through the ban lists.
I feel like future DFW Arcadians should have something of a reform for letting in out of city players; whether that be being more frugal in who can get in, or simply disallowing them outright. A harsh measure, perhaps, but with how much time and effort many of the local players put in, I feel that it’s only fair to give them their chance to bask in the limelight!