Going Downtown on the Super Smash Bros in India

At the time of writing, this game is now over sixteen years old. Now you all might be thinking, why am I writing about this game 16 years after its release? Even after so many years, this game, this franchise, is talked about far and wide. It is one of the most played fighter games of all time, casually and competitively. Stadiums worth of people play the game or watch other people play, to this very day.

Minimalistic Smash logo combined with the Indian flag made by @qwertz143

You might also be thinking why I'm writing about a game that isn't popular at all in India, almost close to no sign of the game at all, until recently.

There is no trace of Nintendo in India except the great Mario and Pokemon games. Problem being, Nintendo has never hit the Indian market like Sony and Microsoft have. Indian gamers have grown up only playing their beloved PlayStations and Xboxes or their PCs, while a few others and myself got our Nintendo consoles setup, to be played, forever(?)

THE START

Now, there might have been efforts to bring out this game to this barren land where there is scarcity of Nintendolanders. Although, Video Game Fest at Bangalore in 2015 was the first time this game ever saw a sneak away from behind the curtains and out into the palace of video games being showcased, and it was proud to hold a place as one of them amongst many in the space.

A big tournament for Super Smash Bros Project M(A modded version of Smash Melee and Smash Brawl) was held at this convention to decide for the first time ever what the fate of this game would be in this country. This was the beginning of Smash in India.

Soon after this tournament, talk of Smash started spreading to the few communities comprising of the Nintendo fans in and around mostly the city of Bangalore. Members of the Bangalore Anime Club, and regular attendees at a gaming cafe called LXG, spreading the word about this small little community of Nintendo fanboys coming to be in Bangalore; playing this fighter game that has already made its name in the rest of the world.

Gaming as an industry, as big as it as around the world, sadly isn't that huge in India apart from the generic mainstream that catches the eye of all the mainstream individuals.

GOING FORWARD

Showcasing the game at various bars and pubs alongside trying to promote it at gaming cafes was what @qwertz143(Nitin Rao) was after and I joined him in this and the both of us went on to try to create a small hub for gamers like us who loved Nintendo very much and also wanted to make the Smash scene just a greater scene to someday be talked about.

Bangalore Video Games meetup. A gathering of people once every month on a given Saturday or Sunday. Gamers, Developers, Designers everyone alike showed up at this meetup every month to show their love, respect and support for video games and what it meant to be a part of this very small space.

Nitin Rao and friends would have a Smash scene setup on an emulator on his computer for him and his friends and all other gamers to play around at the meetup no matter where it happened. At a bar, at a club, at a pub, it happened.

Soon after VGF(Video Game Fest), @qwertz143 and I visited LXG cafe, one of the biggest gaming cafes in the city of Bangalore to talk about running tournaments for the game at their cafe. They are in charge of most of the biz in town and play a big role in the gaming industry of the country. They are very keen on promoting everything that is the essence of gaming.

Unfortunately nothing happened for a very long time, but wait, there was more!

THE PAST YEAR

LXG gave us a go green to host tournaments at the beginning of 2016. Prior to this announcement, the community has shown their involvement to the scene by being active on WhatsApp and Discord, constantly having discussions on our life choices. Ha. Recruiting people from all over India since the first tournament, it was a blissful sight.

We had people flying from all over the place for this tournament. People came in from Australia and the USA, and whenever they looked up on a Smash scene in India online, they would end up finding us. We have had people come in from different countries and join our little fun scene for a while before they  inevitably return to their lives back home.

THIS WAS THE FIRST TOURNAMENT

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST TOURNAMENT

The ending of January 2017, the 28th. 17 entrants to enter the first tournament to ever happen in Bangalore that was livestreamed and LXG let us host it for free of cost. This is a shoutout to LXG as well! Thank you for letting us make it happen!

The tournament was streamed on LXG's Twitch and the tournament brackets were run on Challonge.

The first tournament had this going for it.

What was the word? It was an EPIC first tournament.

The hype was not contained. And there were Johns.

The Smash community met up every weekend to play friendlies for a long time before every tournament and we would sometimes host a tournament when we have friendlies setups going. Mostly the Smash community would get together to hangout and throw a Smash party where everyone else in this small community was very much invited to come to.

The Indian FGC(Indian Fighting Game Community) welcomed us Smash players wholeheartedly into their domain and the Smash hype continued to grow.

There have been over half a dozen tournaments since the first tournament at LXG.

We have had various problems bringing the community together, but we strive to move forward, right?

90% of the payout from this post will go to the prize pool of the next tournament and a small donation to LXG for letting us host for no cost at all for the past year, and as a sign of good will, I want to try to repay them for the good they have brought the community and myself. The next tournament is on the 24th of February, 2018 and will happen at LXG! Stay tuned.

The community has tried to widen it's horizon and tried to maintain activity on social media and also collaborate with different kinds of people, interact with content creators and attending conventions helps anything in this space grow.

Smash India Discord and Smash India WhatsApp invites all you gamer enthusiasts in India, and people from the rest of the world can come hang with us too if you like!

Aaaaaaaaand,

Follow me: @vishire