#Footpuff in Santiago PART 1

Hey guys! I wanted to talk about the smash scene in Santiago, Chile! This is Part 1 of dos :)

Photographs courtesy of @U_Smash - Follow them on twitter and Facebook to help me thank them!

For my non-smash friends, I’ll give a little bit of context for ya. I’ve been playing competitive Super Smash Bros Melee for the last year now. The “smash community” regards all the people who compete in smash (64, Melee, Project M, and Smash 4) tournaments and/or keep up with the competitive smash scene. It’s an incredible community of the most diverse people you will ever meet - people from all over the world, of all races, backgrounds, social contexts who come together at “smash tournaments” to test their skills and sometimes even make money. The very top players make smash their career by getting sponsored by gaming companies. They are then flown out to tournaments all over the world to compete at the top level and win thousands of dollars.

Basically every state in the U.S. and most cities in the world have some sort of smash scene - people who play competitively and meet at tournaments and hang-outs to play. Since I’ve been very active in the AZ smash scene for the last year, I wanted to check out the scene in Santiago!

After posting that I was going to Chile - I gained a follower by the name of Usleon, who was a Chilean smasher! I dm’d him to ask about the scene in Santiago, and he connected me to the Chilean Smash Facebook page and gave me information on an upcoming tournament in Santiago. I joined the page and posted that I’d be attending the tourney, immediately getting a bunch of likes and comments.

I was a little nervous to put myself out there as I’m an outlier even in the U.S. smash community. But in Chile, I would be a blonde, white, American, woman, who plays with her feet. Kinda weird and incredibly unique. But I YOLO’d it and posted on the page, which was definitely the right decision in this case!

One of the biggest takeaways on this trip was realizing that one of the best ways to combat homesickness is to find your “niche” in your new home. If you like kayaking, go find some kayakers. If you like bouldering, go find some climbers. If you like smash, go find some smashers.

Along with the likes and comments, I got a bunch of dm’s from guys in the community asking questions and offering help. I met Alfredo, Carlos (aka Carlitos, the main TO in Santiago and Chile), and some others this way - they helped answer questions I had and were all super nice!

I managed to take the right subway transfers to get to the university where the tourney was held, but once there I couldn’t find the building or room! It was quite the adventure. I asked a maintenance lady in broken Spanish who then pointed across the street to the old main university building. Once through the iron gate and inside the huge building I asked another lady in more broken Spanish who brought me to a biology professor’s office who spoke English. I showed her the address and room number on my phone and she called the main office, who told her it was in the Physics building across campus - we walked all the way there to find two students who told us to go back to the building we were just at hahaha! We got back inside and the kind professor pointed down dark stairway at a flashing television. LO AND BEHOLD it was a CRT with two figures hunched over in front of it. I thanked her profusely, took a deep breath, and walked down the stairway.

Instantly the sound of shines, wave-dashing, and dreamland music registered in my brain and I laughed. Thank goodness! If felt similar to like.. going weeks without your favorite dessert and then walking into your kitchen to the smell of 10 batches of rhubarb crisp, pumpkin pie, and tiramisu made by your mom. I wanted to cry I was so freaking happy.

I made my way to the TO desk and asked for Carlitos - he jumped up with a goofy grin on his face, strangely reminding me of our TO back home, Gem (I would later find out that he’s a marth main, TO, very intelligent, and currently seeking a job, just like Gem!). He welcomed me to the venue and introduced me to some people including Alfredo, telling me the tourney hadn’t started yet so I could go play some friendlies. I thanked him, sat down at the closest open setup, and took off my shoes.

As the ongoing set ended I introduced myself to the players near me - we had four players so we started doubles. As we picked stages I quietly set my controller on the ground and asked my doubles partner’s main. He said he was a gannon, and then we chose our stage and started to play. At first everyone was quiet and then when my partner lost a stock he looked at my hands clasped in my lap, and then did a double take. At my controller on the ground, at my hands again, at me, swore, and then said, “Why are you playing with your feet?”. As I continued to play and tell him about my hand injury and still wanting to play the game, I heard a few people gathering behind me speaking quietly in rapid Spanish. After a few games and much explaining, Carlitos yelled out something in Spanish and everyone gathered their controllers and got up from playing friendlies.

I walked over to the TO desk and asked for my pool. Carlitos grinned again, “Oh Char, you’re in Dark’s pool!” I let out a strangled yell and starting laughing - Dark is Chile’s best Melee player. He introduced me to Dark and we talked about the top players in AZ, upcoming tourneys, his schooling, etc. He’s super nice! I begged him to come to EVO or any American major, but he explained that he doesn’t have the money for it, and he’s very dedicated to his studies so he doesn’t travel for tournaments.

It was round robin style pools, feeding into amateur and pro brackets, so I got to play a lot! I lost all of my sets except one, but I was playing the best I’ve ever played. Many of my games went to last stock, because I was getting a LOT of rests. I also got quite a crowd behind me the whole time which was super hilarious. They would cheer and scream whenever I would get a crouch-canceled-rest sending the other player’s character flying off the screen.

I got my first ever tournament win! It was incredible - I was playing a brand-new Gannon main, who had a few SD’s. I was able to out-space and out-think a lot of his scrubby playstyle. I got a lot of rests on him as well which was helpful. I ultimately took him Pokemon Stadium, pulling it out with a nerve-wracking last stock situation. I was surprised at how easy it was to control my tournament nerves even down to that last stock! I expected my nerves to be a lot worse playing in a place I’d never been with people I’d never met, but my nerves were almost nonexistent. I also had a group of friends accumulating over the timespan of the tournament who kept coming back to cheer me on in every set. It was really, really, cool (Big ’ol S/O to Verse, Gin, Dark, Felipe, and Nico backing me up, you guys are the best <3).