A Night I will Never Forget

A blog can be a lot of things. Often it is what I call an 'online journal.' Today I have a little story about a cool event I was at back in 2009. I know this place is called Destroyer's Editorials and Reviews, but hey, these kind of posts show a human side to the writer. If you're going to find something like this boring, then click away and look for my next review.  Now, I will officially start. This event takes place here...

Yup, at the Old Bridge Public Library.

Chances are if you're still reading this, you have a slight interest in seeing what the heck this story is about. It was the first week in July of 2009. In that week I was enrolled in a four-day comic book art class. (Got to make my very own short comic.) Prior to these events one Saturday, I had seen a flier on the library calender. It proudly displayed something that was going on in two Wednesdays, there was going to be a game night. Usually I would just disregard something like this and go on my merry way to picking up the next volume of Naruto, but there was something special about this particular game night....Super Smash Bros. Brawl would be the game. It was cost-free, plus it was a game I was good at it. So why not? I marked the date down on my calender. From that point on I trained at home, playing some matches here and there for preparation.  On July 1st this event had transpired. (Man I love that word.) After the four hour art class session, I went home, had a good coldcut sandwich, then went with my dad to the library. Now this is where things get interesting.

When we arrived at the library, we had no clue where this event was taking place. My dad asked one of the library people, and she directed us toward this room with a door. We could see from the glass that there was a large TV screen and some people playing. My dad had asked me if I still wanted to do it, so I said something along the lines of "Sure, why not? It's not everyday they have Brawl meetings like this." So we went in. From the looks of it, it appeared that it was going to be basically just a hangout where anyone can come in and play for fun. I was wrong. The lady came over, she was the one hosting. She had me sign my name onto this note-card so I could be signed up for...a tournament. So it was going to be a tournament after all. Wow. My dad had left around this time, I went to go take a seat in this dark room. There were about seven people there, nine if we include the host and her assistant. These people were definitely older than me. It was July 2009...so I would be twelve. Wow, I was younger than I thought now that I think about it. These guys were about 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, or even 20. The majority seemed to know each other, they were very loud, sometimes cursing and all that. Not my usual atmosphere at the time. (Of course, after working in the cyber world for awhile, you begin to get used to stuff like that. Or if you went to public school.) When I sat down, I saw on the screen that people were currently playing just for fun. After that four player round, someone asked who hasn't played yet. I raised my hand, and I was playing a four player round. I managed to win that round, which was pretty cool. Of course, it wasn't part of the tournament or anything, so it wasn't such a huge deal. After that battle, the tournament had finally begun.

Whenever there's a tournament, a participant always feels a sense of anxiety as he awaits his turn. One of the first battles pit two people in custom made stage. It was designed in a way that made it near-impossible to lose. The stages were set on random of course. Thank goodness none of my battles went there. My first battle pit me against the most loud and apparently popular person there. I was Mario, I don't quite remember who my opponent was. It was either Link or Pikachu. Our stage I do remember however, it was Pokemon Stadium. The actual battle was pretty challenging, but I was winning just about the whole time. Toward the end, I even heard one of the other guys tell my opponent something like "You know you're losing, right?" I was taking great pride in this, laughing it up in my head. Finally, I won. It was a pretty big accomplishment. My next opponent I believe was the guy who said "You know you're losing, right?" He would be using R.O.B. which was going to be trouble. As Mario, the one character that always gave me the worst trouble was R.O.B. This time I was barely keeping up, I was on the verge of losing. The guy had actually said "I got this." Oh, I don't think I had mentioned this before. The rules were set with two stock and a two minute timer. That timer helped out a lot. It was a stalemate went it ran out, though I was more on the losing side. And as all Brawlers know, when the time limit runs out, SUDDEN DEATH happens. This was heart-pounding, cause at the stage we were fighting, Green Greens, one hit would be the end. I had honestly thought I wasn't going to make it. We both ran our characters. I laid a hit, and that was it. I had won. It was heart-pounding, and everyone else was pretty shocked too. SUDDEN DEATH is always shocking. Now to keep this paragraph from becoming overly long, I will use another one to continue the story. (Hopefully you aren't bored to tears by now.)

My next opponent was this Asian kid. Like me, he was more of a quiet observer, he was here to play and nothing else. He was also my toughest opponent. Ironically, he would be using Sonic. This guy knew how to play, I was on the losing side. The time was ticking, I thought we were going to go to SUDDEN DEATH. But something happened...he made a mistake. On the final second, I will repeat that, THE FINAL SECOND, he made a mistake with having Sonic do his spin dash attack and he plummeted off the left pipe of Yoshi's Island. I was shocked, everyone was shocked, he was disappointed. He shook my hand then went back to his original seat. He was definitely my favorite opponent there. Next up, the final battle. I couldn't believe I had gotten this far. This guy was deciding if we should have a Mario vs. Mario match but ultimately went with Ike. The stage, Smashville. The ironic part here is that this was my easiest battle. This guy made a fatal error using Ike's Aether attack, he accidentally fell off the edge. I had a low percentage and two lives, he had one. I had this in the bag, and the others seemed to agree. And then finally, at the end of the battle....I lost. Did you think that it would be a positive outcome? Not all unforgettable nights are positive. It was a good tournament though.


Nah, I'm just kidding. I won!

I was the happiest 12 year old that night. Here I was, this quiet guy with a Zelda cap, who came in and won this tournament. I bet no one had thought that would be the outcome. The lady host said she had to get my card for winning, I honestly had no idea what she meant. But it didn't truly matter, the fact that I won was a heartfelt victory, I was never in a tournament like that before. I was alright with no prizes or anything, just the fact that I won a tournament like this was good enough. The lady had come back and given me this envelope. Before I left, she said "Thanks for coming." I nodded and said something like "It was fun." I found my dad and sister waiting for me. I told them I won the tournament and had received this card. I wasn't expecting much from it, just some kind of souvenir. Again, I was wrong. I opened up it and discovered a 25$ Best Buy gift card. That's right, not $5, $10, but $25! They weren't messing around. So for going to this cost-free library tournament and winning, I came home with a $25 gift card. That was icing on the cake. So on that July night, the saying 'Like a Boss' applied. Like a true boss.

Well, if you read the whole thing, I give you a round of applause and of course the generic "Thanks for reading" saying. But seriously, this was an event I will never forget. It's a story that I will keep with me as the years go on. Some events in one's life never go away from the mind because they are unforgettable. This was one of them. Well, I hope you enjoyed the read, back to the reviews.