Anime Milwaukee 2018: Super Smash Bros. Melee Tournament Winner

Isaiah Tipton

The following is an interview with Isaiah Tipton, winner of a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament at Anime Milwaukee 2018.

Where are you from, and how did you get into competitive Smash?

I'm from Milwaukee, WI. I started playing competitively due to a tournament series here called “The Construct”. The organizers are a group called Event Horizon and they started hosting tournaments (which go on every week) about four years ago. A friend of mine went to their first event and invited me to their second, so I became a regular from then on.

Which character did you use the most in this tournament? Why?

My main is Marth and I use him because of his ability to lock down an opponent due to his long range.

You had to fight through the losers' bracket to make it to the finals. What happened in the match you lost in the main bracket?

During my first match against Flash Burn (the opponent I beat during the grand finals), we played a very close set and it came down to the last stock of the last game. He was able to edge me out by taking advantage of a stage transition.

In the second finals set, you switched from Falco to Marth. Why did you make that change?

In the first part of the finals, I chose Falco first because I wanted to get a gauge of how my opponent played while being locked down. Falco has a strong zoning tool in his lasers which can reveal how a player wants to approach a match, whether aggressive or defensive. That first set was very close, and since we had essentially exhausted each other's tricks with those particular characters, I switched to Marth to mix him up while I still had the information I gained from the first set on how he wanted to play Fox.

For the Switch, would you rather they port Smash 4 over, or build a new game from the ground up? Why?

I would rather they build a new game from the ground up. I’m not a fan of the mechanics of Smash 4 at all, so I'd like to see something different, though I don't expect them to cater to the competitive audience because it would be a bad move to do so business-wise. Also, I find that ports are usually cop outs to developing great new games.

What else did you do at this year's Anime Milwaukee?

I also cosplayed (as Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones) for most of the weekend and attended multiple events like the rave on Friday and the karaoke on Saturday. Other than that, I just enjoyed being in the atmosphere and hanging out with friends.