“It’s a tough match-up for sure,” Drew types to me via text message. The match-up he is referring to is between a bird dressed like Han Solo, and a princess, wearing a sparkling tiara and wielding a parasol. The bird is Falco, a character from Nintendo’s Star Fox video game franchise. The princess is Peach—née Toadstool—Super Mario’s raison d’etre.
Drew Satterlund plays drums in the San Jose punk band Great Hart. He competed in this weekend’s Genesis 3 event—a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament held at the McEnery Convention Center. “Oldjokes,” his gamer tag, comes from a friend’s D&D character, a pun-oriented wizard high on charisma (Editor’s note: been there). Drew is legally blind in his left eye, which is partially what led him to both music and video games.
“For video games you don’t need depth perception at all,” he explains, sounding almost Baudrillardian, “there’s no depth: it’s just right there.”
By the time I get to the Convention Center on Friday, Drew has already been knocked out of the tournament. After a close first round, and he tells me that he ended up in the loser’s circle, where he lost again to a guy who played as Luigi, Mario’s darkhorse brother in green.
When I arrive, Drew is out front with his friend Alec, who he met at Growing Up is Done, a DIY punk festival in Pomona, Calif. Alec (gamer tag: caives) has come up from Huntington Beach for the competition. We soon run into Michael (gamer tag: toomanyboxes), another player from San Jose who has recently been knocked out of the tournament. With parking at $12 losing can sting, but everyone is staying positive.
“When you lose a stock [life] just keep smiling,” Drew says.
Michael agrees. “I don’t want to be that salty kid.”
I haven’t been able to secure a press pass for the event, so we stand at the edge of the action, talking shop. Genesis is a huge competition, drawing people from all over the world. The Luigi that felled Drew was from Chicago. Out on Santa Clara, we see the No. 1 rated Nintendo 64 player in the world.
“I think he’s from Chile…” Michael says.
The conversation turns to lore about famous players, and the larger culture of the game. It goes deep. Before arriving, I watch some of a four-hour documentary on Smash Bros. There is a massive amount of lingo to learn, and endless sublevels to the gameplay. Something about the near pathological obsession with inane details resonates deeply in my mind with San Jose as a city.
As we were talking, a dude comes up the escalator carrying an old, bulky television, like he had just finished rolling somebody 15 years ago. For Melee players, CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs are the preferred format. Modern HD TVs mess up the frame rate, and at the competitive level every frame matters.
“There’s virtually no lag,” Alec says, “CRTs are just analog to analog.”
These days, everything reminds me of Videodrome.
While we were standing on the event level, Michael points out Isai, a San Jose native who is perhaps the most legendary player in all of competitive Smash Bros. As a fellow San Josean, some of the things Isai said about growing up here in the documentary haunted me. He seemed to have a deep understanding of the special kind of loneliness I have often felt while living in this city—a certain wireless disconnection. Standing by himself on the first floor, waiting for no one, Isai had an aura of quantum indecision. I never even saw his face.
Around 1:30pm, Alec checks the online listings to strategize for his first match.
“I’m playing a guy named ‘butt’ in the first round,” he said.
Drew nods, clearly thinking. “Look up ‘butt smash’ on Google,” he suggests.
As we were walking to Angelou’s, Alec spots Mango, one of the game’s major celebrities, just across the street. Mango plays a pivotal role in The Smash Bros. documentary and is one of the most storied gamers in all of e-sports. To many, he is an inspiration. In his career, Mango has earned almost $100,000 from tournaments.
As we walked on, Drew looks at the Subway next to Pita Pit.
“There’s like 10 Subways downtown,” he said, “but this one is the best.”
For the full gallery of photos taken by Greg Ramar, click here.
.PHOTOS: Genesis 3 Super Smash Bros. Tournament
