Hi! To anyone and whoever reads this, my name is Kyle Bobbish-House but the tag I go and mostly known by is “rizzy”.
Where can I begin with this story? I’ll summarize where it began a bit and keep the event brief so anyone can experience attending such an event like these, and the trip from my hometown in a reservation located in Northern Quebec of James Bay called Chisasibi. (meaning Big River in my language)
Just about little over a month ago I got picked up by an amazing organization called “Project Rez-ilience” and it was surreal to have this amazing opportunity to represent indigenous people in competitive esports and compete at a national level, they’ve also have done nothing but support all their players, content creators and management team members which i was super grateful for to be apart such an amazing community.
Their support alone made me realize my potential as a competitive player and how far I can go with this newfound motivation to keep competing even after all these years of playing SSBM.
Getting to Get On My Level to compete was a challenge because of the forest fires that have been happening most of the summer, causing highway closures for an uncertain amount of time which made Otter (SSBU) and I anxious to see if we were able to even attend the event anymore, Just before we lost hope out of nowhere we got two days of rainfall just before our departure date for the event. It was still a hectic journey considering the several hot spots we drove past and even through a tornado warning. Our drive from Chisasibi to Toronto was roughly nineteen hours in total, ten hours on the first day and nine hours the next. (Also props to Otter for driving all the way there and back.) We arrived Thursday evening and upon arriving I found out that there was also a pre-weekly the day we pulled into town, I went and managed to get some practice in to get warmed up for the weekend.
Friday, we went to badge pick up as soon as we woke up and headed straight to the venue for more warm up games and practice heading into singles on Saturday evening (bless the T.O for late pools).
Walking around the venue and seeing players from the global top 100 rankings in the flesh is really the weirdest feeling ever because they’re not on a screen anymore or streams you watch them regularly from. There were a handful of the top 100 in attendance for Melee, most of them being my inspiration to still play this game and being expressive with my super aggro gameplay. I’m so glad I get to say I’ve met some of these players that I've looked up to and had little interactions with whenever we walked by each other.
Saturday, bracket day and the one day I had been looking forward to since getting the green light to compete for Project Rez-lience little over a month ago after joining them. I was seeded to go 0-2 and place at 684th out of 764 entrants for my game. Pools began and I played against one of the homies from Montreal round 1. The game started out shaky with my opponent taking game one but then I got a wild source of motivation upon losing the first game. There’s this crazy feeling you get when you play this game and other Melee players will know what I'm talking about when you “dial in” or where you’re “in the zone” and when I came back from that feeling I won the game reversing the set. Round 2 starts right after and it’s against another great player/friend from Ottawa who’s currently ranked 7th in their region. I'll keep this one short and sweet because it was. I take game 1 surprisingly, I suppose it was because I was coming off of the momentum from the last round then running into the same character against Don but he evidently won the set and sent me to losers, I at least could feel the gap is getting closer after I played him which inspired me to keep going regardless of placement. Losers side round one, I made quick work with a Yoshi player 2-0.
Round 2 Losers, I ran into a Shiek who gave me some trouble but managed to pull through a close 2-1 set over them. (Only set that’s been recorded too.)
Round 3 Losers, I run into the same character as last round but with him absolutely desecrating my tournament run.
Gave him props and realised I still have a long way to go with this game even after all these years i’ve been playing but to realise I can compete at a national level with decent results of going 3-2 and placing 257th at my first major event for SSBM out placing my seed by a landslide.”
Sunday was more of an experience and a gift to witness top level gameplay during the Top 8 of Melee side, to have a moment where an entire venue is cheering for the home town hero or one of the goat’s of the game is a crazy feeling.
I really mean it when I say it when, if you have a chance to compete or even spectate a major tournament, go for it.
It should be on every esports/competitors bucket list to attend one of these events at least once while you’re still competing, my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.
I have so many more stories that go more in depth of my experience at Get on My Level 2023 but this is just a gist of it. (Ask me more about meeting my inspirations and top players at the after party!)
Hope you enjoyed my story and journey with the game. I love and I proudly say that Melee has already saved my life multiple times, I can’t wait to tell you all so much more!
Don’t give up wherever you are in your competitive life, maybe one day you’ll be able to play at these events too!
Many thanks to everyone who supported me through the years and my most heartfelt gratitude to Project Rez-ilience for this amazing opportunity to represent our people in Esports!
Meegwetch!
- Rizzy, 2023
コメント