[Spoilers continue on from here. skip below to see non spoiler material]

2 32-man Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments per day are taking place at the GDC for some people. each is five minutes long with five stock lives, 4 player free-for-all. All items, characters, and stages are in play. 32-man team tournaments first start with 4-player battles, then go to 4 one-on-one battles, and one final 4-player free for all.They go on from Monday (yesterday) to Wednesday (tomorrow). The finals take place Thursday evening. Please note the fact that I have not touched this game for at least 2 years and that I've been keeping up with all the Smash Bros. Dojo updates. All of that is important.

Each of us enter in a set of initials for our characters and choose who we want to play with. The entire board is opened up, as are all the different levels. We get to use any and all items available in the game. Stages chosen randomly. I know that you can select Dark Link by changing Link's costume (same for Toon Link), so I wanted to be cool and tell everyone that I wanted to be Shadow Link.

But one guy made the selection four places ahead of the queue from me. I'm a little upset because I was really set on Shadow Link.

So I go with regular Link, which isn't too bad. I wasn't angry, though. For us, we're all like one big family. Some of the of the nicest gamers I will ever know I have met here at the conference. You get scared going off to new places because you're afraid of meeting someone who doesn't like you, and while I do get anxious in new places, that feeling wore off fast. It's one of the best experiences I've ever had, and I'm making great new friends.

Once everything is chosen, the tournament starts and I'm in the first fight. Another Link character is chosen. One person chooses Samus and another chooses the Pokemon Trainer. We're fighting in good ol' Onett, which is better because Link is heavy and doesn't recover too easily. The game starts, and I end up taking a lot of damage from my opponents, and I'm having a hard time getting used to the adjustments made in the game. Link feels much heavier and a lot slower than I remember from Melee, and his costume is very similar to the darker tones of Twilight Princess, so I have to adjust to that as well. It's weird to see a different Link. Some of his moves have changed as well.

Because of all this I felt disoriented for the first thirty seconds of the game. I recovered in enough time, and ended up getting the Final Smash Ball once. Seeing Link's smash up front and center is very different than watching it on a screen. It was like

Before I knew it, I had thee hundred percent damage before I'm finally thrown off the stage. I was really scared that I might lose, but then I check the life count and realize that [i]everyone else has fewer lives than I do[/i]. Holy shit, am I still that good?

Well, maybe. One thing to note is that a lot of people were choosing the newer characters and because of that they might not have been used to their particular characteristics. For instance, a lot of people had trouble getting used to using, say, Ike or Sonic. That might have had something to do with our fight. By the end of the battle, though, I had come out on top, and that felt good. It's the first time I've ever participated in a competition like this. And competing against gamers as hardcore as I was, well it was intimidating. People knew wave-dashing and the like, but I never did it before.

The next eight battles take place and I'm actually going to fight against the same guy who played with Dark Link. "YES!" I thought to myself. "I'm going to whip this punk for stealing my character and my thunder!

[To be continued]

Sorry, but I want to make sure this post comes in properly before I complete it. My computer is running sluggishly, and I don't want to risk losing this because of a stupid session error with Firefox. But don't worry - the next battle won't disappoint. It was ridiculous.

The fight was Light vs. Dark Link. Our battle was set in a level none of us had seen in either our tournament or the previous one that was completed (btw, did I mention that I was in the second tournament of the two that evening?)

The stage was a Pokemon hideaway in space. It was the Pokemon called "Dialga", the Pokemon of Time. When we began fighting we were pretty well matched. Both of us seemed to get in different hits using our preferred methods. I liked smashing with the side-A attack and he used his special attacks like the boomerang. We reached the point where we had about 70% health, and one of us was in the lead having 15% less health than the other when all of a sudden the Pokemon starts moving...

A column of pink light emitted from beneath us. It was the Pokemon's attack, and it wiped both of us out completely. In my mind, I was thinking "Ok, this is a lot worse than any hazardous environment in Melee or the original." We were both left with 4 lives remaining. I slowly gained the upper-hand against him this time. A dilemma ocurred when I knocked Smashed him and took the time to get the Final Smash Ball, he just waited on the respawn board so I couldn't attack him. He dropped off and I took the chance to use the FS, but it missed.

He smashed me out of the ring eventually, but I left him with 47% damage so I felt I had a good enough lead. In fact, that was the last life I lost. The fight nearly went one-sided after this!

The next two items that came down were the Final Smash (again) and an Assist Trophy. It would have taken him a while to get the final Smash, so I knew I could stall him with whatever character came from the Assist Trophy. The character that emerged was Knuckle Joe, and he immediately began attacking Dark Link. While Dark Link kept dodging Knuckle Joe's attacks, I took the opportunity to obtain the Smash Ball. I let Knuckle Joe chase Dark Link around until he could pin my opponent down. That gave me enough time to aim my Final Smash. Heeheehee... Both Knuckle Joe and I threw over 100% damage at him, and the last hit from my Final Smash sent him packing. He loses another life.

In between this we're still dodging the Pokemon's constant wave of attacks. He slows down time, sends more beams of light towards us, and we move like crazy trying to get out of its path. At one point Dark Link's attack is so strong that he sends me through the floor. SHIT! Fortunately, though, there was an underground cave there. Phew...

And then after exchanging a few blows, the golden hammer appears in the underground. I grabbed it, of course, and it was completely different from the normal hammer. It doesn't dish out Smash attacks to send you reeling. Instead it dishes constant damage and the last few hits are smashes, I think... at this point my adrenaline was so high that I can barely remember what happened. Either the hammer Smashed him through the environment or he was vulnerable enough that one of my smashes worked.

The last respawn for Dark Link was a bad one. Somehow he ended up at the bottom of the stage, and lo and behold Dialga's attack hits him dead center. He can't recover and loses his last life. The fight ends with me up 3 lives.

But it really sucked for my opponent. I don't think either of us knew that we would encounter a level like that. It was pretty messed up, and he wants to fight me again - same style, but a different level. I called out for Final Destination, and he agreed. Honestly, though, even if i hadn't gotten all those items I still would have won. My skill was a bit higher than his was, and I had already gotten a good bead on him when all the random stuff occurred. I mean I just creamed him.

The next fight in the competition was Luigi's Mansion. Holy crap, that was a pain in the ass. It was my Link, a Jigglypuff, Samus, and... either Sonic, Yoshi, or Pikachu. I was so close to winning, but when someone uses Jigglypuff you know they're good - nobody would be willing to use Jigglypuff (or Pikachu for that matter) unless they could kick supreme ass with him. The end of the battle left me with one life and him with 2 in stock. The time ran out before I could nail him. And even then, I wonder if I could have beaten him in sudden death: his moves are a lot faster than mine. 0.0;