Louisiana resident wins GameStop's Smash Bros. Brawl tournament

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 17th 2008 at 10:00PM }

Remember when that little game nobody paid any attention to called Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out ... it was last month, remember? Well, GameStop helped promote the indie title by holding a tournament to support the game's fanbase and raise awareness. According to GameStop, the tournament had over 75,000 players and, following a couple semi-final rounds across the country, culminated last weekend in San Jose with Lee Martin of Houma, Lousiana, emerging victorious.

Martin (pictured above, he's the skinny one) walked away with a 37" LCD-TV, the entire Nintendo Wii software library, a Wii console, selected accessories and $5,000 in cash. Martin brawled against 60 other opponents at the store, district and regional levels on his way to winning the championship. No word yet which fat man pictured Martin got to take home as a trophy for winning.

Gallery: GameStop Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament

Tags: gamestop, ssbb, super-smash-bros-brawl, supersmashbrosbrawl, tournament

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Fernando Rocker @ Apr 17th 2008 10:07PM

Those are very good prizes... I'm jealous =(

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 10:07PM

Entire Wii software library?
He'll need a lot of shovels to get those from the truck to his home.

Marlos Hill @ Apr 17th 2008 10:09PM

+1
ZINGFABULOUS

Fernando Rocker @ Apr 17th 2008 10:11PM

I think they meant Nintendo first party titles... no shovelware in there =p

tmacairjordan87 @ Apr 17th 2008 10:13PM

+1 to you sir that was awesome.

Anni @ Apr 17th 2008 10:34PM

That guy is going to be SO stoked when he gets to his copy of Ninjabread Man!

religiousjedi @ Apr 17th 2008 10:39PM

It's just a joke Fernando...chill, kid.

:)

Cesaria (SSBB: 3136-6466-5083) @ Apr 17th 2008 10:50PM

Um...how does Fernando need to chill? I swear, people just see his name and just get angry.

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 11:19PM

@ Fernando
I kinda hope you're right about that. It makes more sense, unless gamestop is trying to unload a bunch of crap games that they can't sell.
But would this technically also involve VC titles? I mean they are technically software.

BPM [SSBB: 5026 4120 1186] @ Apr 18th 2008 1:44AM

Aren't WiiPlay, Mario & Sonic, and Mario Party 8 considered first party games?

GoldenS1104 @ Apr 17th 2008 10:10PM

I don't know how it was done in the later rounds, but the early rounds were both unorganized and unfair. First of all, every store had different rules. Most of them left items on. Some of them didn't even let you pick what character you could play. There were also stores that chose the stage at random, which can be exploited pretty badly. My friend got into the second round but he got absolutely cheated. He had to fight on New Pork City and the guy he was playing against got really lucky cause a smash ball appeared right next to him. Naturally the guy got the smash ball along with an instant KO. Because New Pork City is so big, the guy spent the rest of the match running away till the time ran out so my friend couldn't do anything. It was a load of bullshit if you ask me. Gamestop is teh dumb.

Fernando Rocker @ Apr 17th 2008 10:12PM

The best setting for a tournament is Final Destination, no weapons, 3 stocks.

My personal favorite settings =p

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 10:14PM

or plain battlefield

Phil @ Apr 17th 2008 10:15PM

Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch.

That's all I heard. It was a damn gaming tournament and you're just ticked off because you lost, didn't get to go any further and didn't get the prize.

Be happy for the guy... Unless he was one of those people who got to use their own gamecube controller.

It's guys like you who probably trained ahead of time and practice when it's supposed to be fair game from the get go. You have more fun if everyone is a little unfamiliar and honestly, the only disagreement I had with the rules was timed battles.

Stock battles are more fair because honestly, the point system is pathetic in timed modes... Or coin matches would've worked too, but not timed battles.

GoldenS1104 @ Apr 17th 2008 10:21PM

If you actually read my post, it wasn't me, it was my friend who got cheated. I lost in the first round (to my friend), but that match was more fair. That particular Gamestop had much better rules (Battlefield only, you could choose which character you wanted, etc.). The Gamestop my friend went to for the second round had pretty fucked up rules. I mean, can't even choose his character? C'mon, that's rediculous. And, we did actually train a little beforehand :P (my friend got it a few days early and we couldn't stop playing; we weren't playing witht the intent of training but it probably helped).

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 10:23PM

@Phil
Who should win the tournament, the guy who practiced hard to be the best around (nothings ever going to keep him down), or the guys who win by pure luck?
Those rules of random characters is just stupid. Picture this situation: you've played melee so many times you think you're a pro, your best character is mario. Here you come to a tournament that has fabulous prizes and you want to win. You're told you have to select random, you get Jigglypuff, a good character but more difficult to master right off the bat, and your opponent, a mediocre noob, gets Ike. I think it's apparent that with Ike's MASSIVE damage and hit boxes you'd lose. There go your fabulous prizes.

Phil @ Apr 17th 2008 10:30PM

What really is luck in this game? If you're such a pro, you can play the game with more than one character.

Let's get one thing straight. If there's one problem I notice with Smash Bros players, it's that they're uptight about everything. You guys take a fun party game and make it into an unpleasant and overly competitive fighting game. You want a fighting game? Go play Tekken or Street Fighter or some shit.

I'm tired of you people ruining a series I used to find fun. Now that Nintendo's focused on appealing to the tournament crowd, they took all the joy out of it and tried to make it some deep and complex thing which was completely unecessary.

Markez @ Apr 17th 2008 10:33PM

"Now that Nintendo's focused on appealing to the tournament crowd, they took all the joy out of it and tried to make it some deep and complex thing which was completely unecessary."

Wow, dude, simmer. Seriously. A) They're not focused on appealing to the tournament crowd, in any whatsoever. Quite a leap. B) Tried to make it deep and complex? They made it more accessible, more control options, and added more items that newbies can handle and take advantage of.

No offense pal, but the only person that sounds uptight here is you.

Phil @ Apr 17th 2008 10:40PM

Sure, the game is still accessible, but these people have to turn it into a strategy by exploiting all the tiny little things that can happen within a game. They did it with Melee and wave dashing and now they do it with Brawl and tripping.

I'm not uptight, I'm disappointed that these days all the seems to matter to gamers is whether or not they can win and that seems to be all they care about. They don't try and work with what they're given and as soon as they lose, they blame it on someone else.

My point still remains, the reasons deemed 'unfair' are just a persons way of whining because they don't think the guy deserved the cash and prizes.

mike @ Apr 18th 2008 12:37AM

turning items off is the cowards way to victory. There are two elements which = skill. These are strategy, and hand movement (ability to use the controls in a game)

I believe a truely skilled gamer is the master of both, not one or the other. The VAST majority of the masses gravitate towards the controls line of the spectrum. This explains why games which have virtualy no strategy like rock band and guitar hero, are such huge hits (well there are other reasons too, but this is a major one). Games like halo and smash bros which are big hits are often palyed with as much strategy removed as possible so those who are garbage at strategy, can remain winners with their supiror button control. For halo this would be MLG settings, turning BRs on so you dont need to find one, radars off so theres no need to sneak, 1 hit kills, etc etc. For a game like smash bros it means turning off items, removing ones strategy which would be used in random situations and counter methods when an enemy gets a particular item. Take out stage strategy as well with final destination and the averge joe loves it.

All this also explains why puzzle games are much less popular then action. Some style of puzzle games require 0 control mastery, such as chess or a trivia game. RTS games are another example of games the average person will not like. Theres too much strategy in those.

A player who thinks hes good at smash bros will win 10/10 matches in final destination with weapons off. A player who truly is skilled at smash bros will win 10/10 matches on any stage with any weapons enabled.

Pharmacy @ Apr 18th 2008 12:47AM

@ Phil

You're not a very bright one are you?

People play games for different reasons. You play to have fun. My friend plays to unlock everything. I play to win. You have to accept that. There is no 'right' way to play a game, regardless if it's a party game or not.

Also, as many random elements as possible should be removed from tournament play. Tournaments are where player skill gets to shine. However, since smash is a party game, it's replete with random elements (and that includes everything from tripping to items to stage design) to give everyone a sense of excitement. Go ahead and play with items in your living room, but they should not be activated at a tournament. The best person should win, not the luckiest.

And thirdly, SSBB is a deliberate move AWAY from competitiveness, especially with tripping (and no way to turn that off) :( The game has slowed down to the point where combos are easily avoided and advanced techniques are incredibly scarce (or useless). SSBB is nowhere near as deep as SSBM was, so don't complain about Nintendo catering to e-sport enthusiasts. IMO, SSBB's competitiveness is a victim of SSBM's depth.

DarkNessBear @ Apr 18th 2008 2:13AM

Phil is a dumbass. You can play SSB as a fun kill time game or as a competitive game. There are a lot of tricks in the game that are very hard to pull off and its a very deep game if you dive into the fighting mechanics.

Also, it's funny Phil says, "They took all the fun out of it!" Because Melee was actually more strategic and they updated it so its more "fun" then "strategy".

Go watch the Gamevideos.com SSBB tips video, and that will answer all your questions. But of course you wont because you are just a troll that wants attention, not answers.

T @ Apr 18th 2008 8:51AM

Agreed. I could deal with some of the more riddiculous rules (high items, 1 minute matches)...but random characters was the ultimate joke.

If it were Melee, it'd be understandable...as yes...a skilled Melee player should be able to compensate for an unfamiliar character.

But there were a number of people in the tournament I was at getting stuck with new characters like Diddy, Ike, King Dedede, and Pit...and while these characters may or may have their strengths, a one-round, one-minute, winner-take-all tournament is not the time or place to try and learn a brand new character.

I have to agree with the original poster, if they were doing an official tournament the rules needed to be set in stone across all stores. At least then if they sucked, they sucked for everybody.

And again with referring to "Advanced Techniques" of Melee. Do you mean "Wavedashing" ? That's about as "advanced" as snaking. It's a fault in the control design that somebody exploited. Completely unintended, and thus why it was removed.

I suppose if Halo 3 had an "instant kill everybody" glitch that somebody exploited that'd be considered advanced?

drsashamd @ Apr 17th 2008 10:13PM

Any word on what character he used?

It really sucked that you could only use the Wii+Nunchuck configuration with no tutorial or any time on how to actually use it.

Einhanderkiller @ Apr 17th 2008 10:59PM

The swordsman people with the capes.

Markez @ Apr 17th 2008 10:13PM

Does the large golden budda fall under the "selected accessories" the write up mentions?

A little more details on the champ match might've been interesting...

Tim The Enchanter @ Apr 17th 2008 10:15PM

Congratulations to you, mr. sumo wrestler. Be careful tho, there's a guy in a toque trying to take your check!

Markez @ Apr 17th 2008 10:16PM

Eh, I dunno. You may very well be right, but that sounds pretty boring to me. I think the argument could be made that there's a number of items you could include that require skill (or throwing skill?) and still have their place in tournaments... Smash Balls were an interesting addition, but now when I play with folks they're turned off.

And you had to play in the tourney with nunchuk and wiimote??! My god man...

KeenCommander @ Apr 17th 2008 10:36PM

Holy crap, that's quite an impressive load of prizes. Too bad I probably couldn't even win a Brawl match against a total n00b. I really wasn't enthralled anyways, I mean it's not so much that there's anything wrong with it - just that I got it launch day and only really played it for the first week, after which it hasn't been touched.

Phil @ Apr 17th 2008 10:42PM

Same, all of my friends are off at college away from their consoles so we can't play online together. :(

Summer needs to get here faster. DX

Markez @ Apr 17th 2008 10:48PM

SNES Smash, my highschool era. Plenty of joint hacking, fun to be had by all.

Melee, college and after, an absolutely asinine amount of joint hacking.

Brawl, old bastard sitting at home. Can't really get the gang together that much, so now it's come down to just some occasionally online with my one other buddy with a Wii and wireless.

Phil - I know you mentioned some quirks in the game you could take advantage of, but we all played some serious, serious amounts of Smash over the years and never really got too into those...

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 11:13PM

SNES Smash? surely you meant N64

Leslie Nielson @ Apr 17th 2008 11:27PM

He did, and stop calling him Shirley

Markez @ Apr 17th 2008 11:31PM

Thanks for sharon.

Get it, yuk yuk yuk.

:P

Russ Yancey @ Apr 17th 2008 10:38PM

i've had the honor of playing with Lee and i have to say, he's a total fucking savage at this game.

he deserves it.

GO LEE!!!!!

Anticrawl @ Apr 17th 2008 11:22PM

Indeed, he is from my home state. Cept I'm at LSU, there isn't much in Houma cept a few good baseball fields.

jackbauer(ssbb:0087-2222-7531) @ Apr 17th 2008 10:55PM

people still play super smash bros brawl?!

M @ Apr 17th 2008 10:59PM

IMO the best player on SSBB is the #1 rank in the world laders of the MLG,idk whats hes wiitag but challenge him hes good.
Hes usualy in the 1vs1 ,no items,FD and BF .

YES YES these is clearly a sarcastic joke on the SSBB,how ridiculous and pathetic the online is and how un-hardcore it is,dang N tried to make it a party game.

Crazylink @ Apr 17th 2008 11:00PM

I had won the first round in my town. I feel I could have gone all the way if only I had gotten better directions to the next.

Kevin @ Apr 17th 2008 11:01PM

ChuDat rules brawl mangzz.

rayven @ Apr 17th 2008 11:04PM

Entire Wii software library?
He'll need a lot of shovels to dig a whole big enough to bury the wii's 3rd party products. =p

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 11:15PM

Plagiarism is fun!

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 11:16PM

Well I guess it's not plagiarism really. I'm sorry, my bad.
Move along folks there's nothing to see here. Move along.

jackbauer(ssbb:0087-2222-7531) @ Apr 17th 2008 11:23PM

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

Shmil @ Apr 17th 2008 11:26PM

I'm guessing that he didn't read any comments and thought of this pun just like I did and decided to post it. At first i was just miffed someone else put the joke up. Then I thought and realized how many times i've done that. So my bad, overreacting to a comment on the internet. I've clearly had too much coffee today. F*cking finals