Tennessee Melee Rankings #10-1

Posted on April 4, 2019April 5, 2019 by Jayson in All Posts

The Tennessee Melee top 10 are players you'll definitely want to look out for in your bracket. Tournament in the Midwest or Atlantic South could always have one of these players looking to make an upset.

One of a whopping two relevant Sheiks in the state, Andrew Witt AKA "Suezo" AKA "Flexington Steele's" lack of consistency kept him off the top 10 this season. With high peaks such as beating Bobby Frizz hungover, everyone sees the threat Suez poses. Beware the power of a drunken all night anime binge, this Sheik isn’t one to underestimate. -Xtreme

Johnathon “Hunybear” Austin is our low tier hero here in TN. Quite possibly the most lab intensive Link player in the world, Hunybear has been making a name for himself in the realm of link players. He is known for his brutal punish game and absolute lack of moving ever. Seriously, he is insanely good at standing still. Hunybear’s most impressive feat this season was taking a set off top 100 player, Cob at Shines-n-Steins 2. He also has wins over Xtreme, Shiksaslayer and Taqwim. A now perennial PR player, Hunybear will keep looking to optimize his gameplay and push Link as far as he can. -T

Tennessee's legendary TO Chase “Xtreme” Harrell rules TN with an iron fist. Known for creating “meme” seeds and “spicy matchups” it's best to stay on his good side. A perennial PR player, he is no slouch at playing the game either. Chase is famous for beating every floaty and losing to every spacie. He is also famous for his flowing golden locks and being just twinky enough to make you wonder. If you need to find him at a TN tourney just look for the guy yelling stop your friendlies. -Xtreme

Christian “Googlyeyed” Write returned to PR form this season. With a year of the box and the bird under his belt, his tech skill finally caught up with that big fat brain that let him beat the likes of Slox, Absent Page and Kpan with Marth in years past. When Christian’s not figuring out how to harvest wild garlic for a nice stew, he’s casually racking up wins on Iori, Mewwy, Davemon, Xtreme and more. No one would be surprised to see Christian and his Falco rise back to the same level his marth was at. -Xtreme

Ramon “ghettoblush” Yu is the ultimate sleeper pick in Tennessee. He's also the Hipster's favorite player in that Bad Melee article from like 2015. He has long ruled the Knoxville scene and recently double eliminated Iori. Ramon is a calm, patient fox main known for beating everyone except Falco players. He is almost certainly a high PR player if he ever decides to attend tournies regularly. Likes: Flip-flops, gym shorts, circle camping floaties, calling people bud. Dislikes: Chase Harell’s seeding, traveling to any tourney more than 20 miles away. -Xtreme

James “Kimchi” Kotel, Yes, he’s the guy who beat n0ne. Yes, it was cool. No, we aren’t going to talk about it anymore. Kimchi is a former Falco player turned Pikachu player. Kimchi has been on a steady rise since his change of mains and has now firmly established himself in the top echelon of TN players. He is still searching for that elusive and all-important Iori win but has defeated everyone else in TN there is to defeat. He is a tourney threat at any TN event he attends and will likely breakthrough the Iori barrier soon. -T

Known by local players for his malicious mindgames and clever play, Memphis peach main Tufyne “Iori” Tucker continues his dominance of the state. He has multiple top 100 wins throughout his decade long career, placed 33rd at Genesis 1 with Mewtwo, and can play every top tier at a proficient level. However, throughout the season Iori finally looked vulnerable, dropping tournaments to both Grab and Ghettoblush. Aside from a few blemishes, he is still unquestionably number 1 in the state. When it comes to shit talk and spacing, Tufyne reigns supreme. -Xtreme

This project was created to acknowledge the dedicated players you'll want to look out for at Tennessee's SSBM tournaments. These top 30 rankings were directly taken from Winter 2019's TrueSkill™ rankings without committee discussion. The actual TN top 10 PR has some differences due to player activity. Thanks to Chase Harrell for collecting and organizing the data, and to a few other TN players for writing blurbs.

Unless otherwise stated, all photo credit belongs to Toto Sripunvoraskul. Final images created by Jayson Rice.

Go to rankings #30-21

Go to rankings #20-11

Tennessee Melee Rankings #20-11

Posted on April 1, 2019April 5, 2019 by Jayson in All Posts

The players on this list are players that are a threat to consistently place top 8 at monthly sized tournaments. It's unsurprising to see on of these players make an upset or two in bracket, but they have a bit farther to push before they can start taking tournaments of their own.

Nobody would say that Christian “Amida” Durham was in top form this season. An honorary member of Tennessee smash, the Kentucky puff main came out of retirement to mixed results and has yet to shake off the rust. However, he racked up solid wins over Shiksaslayer, Emy, Who and Droog. Regardless of his current results, he’s still a scary name to see in your path given past successes of waxing everyone in the state except Iori. -Xtreme

Hunter “emy” Blake WAS a peach main from Clarksville. After yet another disappointing PR season, emy has decided he is now a Fox main. He has had very good results at weekly tournaments with his peach but has struggled to make anything happen at our regionals. After losing to Suezo and Shiksaslayer at the last ADS, emy decided to hang up the Peach shoes for good. Known for beating everyone at weeklies and money matches (including Grab, Davemon, Kimchi, Xtreme, Hunybear, T, etc.) emy hopes to start finding tournament success with Fox. He clearly has the talent. It will be interesting to see if he sticks with Fox and if he can put it all together finally in tournament. Good luck bud. -T

David “Davemon” Steinmeyer is/was a Captain Falcon main who quickly rose up the ranks of Tennessee through hard work and dedication to the game. In his short time playing, he racked up a few top 100 caliber wins in Iori, Abate, and Reeve to name a few. When he was most active, he was consistently getting top 3 at every Tennessee regional he went to and was beginning to challenge Iori for the top spot in Tennessee. Due to unfortunate circumstances, however, his time was cut short by hand problems from frequent play and issues he had from previous endeavors. This hasn’t stopped Dave fully, as he is back to competing, at least a little bit, using a box controller and is working towards getting back on the normal GameCube controller once his hand pains are mostly subsided. His true skill is known by all and we all look forward to seeing what Dave will be able to do when he’s back at full force. -Pbrake

Third best Falco in the state Trevor “T” Greiff crushes his enemies like he crushes miller lites. Known for stellar top platform play and electrifying 45 percent combos, T set out to prove his haters wrong this season, and he mostly proved them right. However, the beak still had lofty peaks, continuing his trend of destroying Davemon and Den while paradoxically losing to Shiksaslayer every time. This panelist has high hopes for the future of T, and if he can begin to overcome his floaty demons, we may be looking at the next top five player in the state. -Xtreme

Jared “Cantus” Powell is one of our adopted TN players. Actually from Bowling Green, KY, Cantus has become part of the TN family along with other BG players Grab and Wolven. Cantus is your typical solid fox main. Good technical skill and solid B&B fox play are the staples of his gameplay. Cantus has been on a bit of a break while he was finishing up school, but managed to beat newly minted top 100 player, Cob, at Shines-n-Steins 2. He has also beaten T, Kevo, and Shiksaslayer this season. Cantus, if active, is a serious top 5 contender in TN. -T

Journeyman Branden “Den” Thomas cut back his attendance to TN tourneys this season. His lack of data comes in part from a move to Tri-Cities for school, and a preference for closer out of state events in North Carolina and Georgia where he hoped to gain experience against different play styles. Don’t let his low rank fool you, Den is still a perennial top 3 threat in state, racking up wins on Mewwy, Kimchi, and Emy, while also taking Iori to game 5. Now, back in middle TN and taking a break from school, he’ll be looking to reclaim his former top 3 status. -Xtreme

Taqwim Luboti is the quintessential Memphis Fox. Safe and calculated, or in other words, lame. Born in the fires of campy Memphis old heads, Taqwim does what he has to do to survive. A 2-0 record over Xtreme plus wins over Den, Googlyeyed, T, and Unoriginal let the state know that there’s a new threat in town. Once he gets trickier MUs like Pikachu, Peach and Marth down there’s no telling how high the Memphis fox can rise. -Xtreme (Lack of any pictures resorted in a playercam screencap)

Zeke “Shiksaslayer” Berger’s Marth strikes fear into any player that dare run into a stationary uptilt in the corner. At Get Up Attack he took down ghettoblush, Mewwy, and Grab in route to a second place finish behind Cob. With a reputation as a spacie slayer, Zeke proved this season that there was at least a little more to him. In addition to his GUA run, he also secured wins over Emy, Unoriginal, T and Hunybear. Look for your favorite frat boy to make a deep run at any tournament where he can avoid Xtreme. -Xtreme

This project was created to acknowledge the dedicated players you'll want to look out for at Tennessee's SSBM tournaments. These top 30 rankings were directly taken from Winter 2019's TrueSkill™ rankings without committee discussion. The actual TN top 10 PR has some differences due to player activity. Thanks to Chase Harrell for collecting and organizing the data, and to a few other TN players for writing blurbs.

Unless otherwise stated, all photo credit belongs to Toto Sripunvoraskul. Final images created by Jayson Rice.

Go to rankings #30-21

Go to rankings #10-1

Tennessee Melee Rankings #30-21

Posted on March 31, 2019April 5, 2019 by Jayson in All Posts

The beginning of the top 30 are players we love to see at our tournaments. This tier is filled with rising talent and members of the old guard alike. With a mix of play styles present, anybody in this tier is bound to give a good set.

Legendary quad-game player Evan “EG” Gunn keeps a low profile nowadays, but you can still catch him at any Knoxville event. In the past he ran Tennessee’s Brawl scene, saved us all from Nice Climbers reign of terrors, and beep booped the PM scene. While only playing for fun in recent times, he still managed to pick up a win on Xtreme this season. While you won’t see him top 8’ing anymore, you can always enjoy kicking back and having a beer with TN smash’s friendliest man. -Xtreme

Unlimited potential spread too thin, like butter scraped over too much bread perfectly describes Murfreesboro Falco main Toto Sripun. The young, talented bird split his time between FighterZ, Melee, and Ultimate which ultimately saw his results suffer. However, he succeeded in other aspects of his life. He’s become the official photographer for Tennessee smash and also has seen success locally at DBFZ. With any luck, FighterZ will drop a bad patch to turn his focus back to the game that’s as old as he is, and we’ll finally see TopTenToto. -Xtreme

Scott “Cornycows” Knowlton is the second best Pikachu main in Clarksville. While being fairly reclusive in the later part of the season, Cornycows secured a couple early wins on Toto and KY PR player Green Machine. Some have gone as far to say that if he could ledgedash, Scott would be better than Kimchi. Will Clarksville's native son take time out of his busy schedule of watching MD/VA locals to attend his own? Find out next season. -Xtreme (Beautiful selfie taken by the man himself)

Eric “Kari” George has been a mainstay in Middle TN monthly and weekly tournaments for years. His Fox/Falco combo has been a gatekeeper for many players, he has placed above average consistently at many tournaments and a 9th at Anchor Down 10. Eric was also essential in establishing our small Nashville community and bringing together tournament players and our local players. Eric has shown a great dedication for the game over the years, and you can always find him at whatever weekly or monthly smash tournament continuing to practice and grow. -Signify (Picture unknowingly swiped from Kari's FB.)

Tyler “Rooster” Cox aka “Balls” aka “Cox” aka “Tyler Balls” is a Puff player from Tri-Cities. Rooster is a former PR player in TN that has been inactive of recent note. However, he just completed a recent move to the centralized Mid TN region, so look for him to be back in the mix soon. While in Tri-Cities, Rooster was almost always #1 or #2 in the region. He is right in the massive pool of borderline PR talent we have in TN, so it will be interesting to see how he fairs in the crowded Mid TN region. -T

Cole “Droog” Sexton is currently the best Melee player in Cookeville. Like most mid-level Falco mains he has a disdain towards Marths and Fox's full hop because Falco cannot beat Fox jumping around. More known as a spacie slayer, Droog's practiced pillar combos and laser game managed to take a set from T as well as Ghettoblush at Top Platform to obtain 9th place. Watch out because you could be next on his blip list. -Mascot

This project was created to acknowledge the dedicated players you'll want to look out for at Tennessee's SSBM tournaments. These top 30 rankings were directly taken from Winter 2019's TrueSkill™ rankings without committee discussion. The actual TN top 10 PR has some differences due to player activity. Thanks to Chase Harrell for collecting and organizing the data, and to a few other TN players for writing blurbs.

Unless otherwise stated, all photo credit belongs to Toto Sripunvoraskul. Final images created by Jayson Rice.

Go to rankings #20-11

Go to rankings #10-1

Proposal Writing

Posted on March 16, 2017June 20, 2018 by jtr3u in All Posts, Weekly Posts

Proposal writing is extremely important because it is what sells your product to a client. Without a solid proposal, a client could easily decline your offer and you’d be stuck looking for a new client while receiving no income.

Of course there are a million factors that can be taken into consideration when writing up a proposal, but I believe there are two very important aspects you can focus on to succeed. Those two things are to show your competence at what you do, and also show that you have an interest in what your client does.

It should be made obvious to a client that you and your group know what you’re doing. In order to do this, you must have a detailed outline of what your intentions are for the project. You won’t get everything correct as it is only an outline, but it will show your client that you have given their project some forethought.

Baking?

Posted on March 4, 2017March 16, 2017 by jtr3u in All Posts, Weekly Posts

Is baking actually the weekly topic? I also just found out I’ve been behind 1 week for every post. I really hope the topic is actually baking because I’m really confused and need to talk about tasty pastries. We had a six slide presentation in class that I think was supposed to relate baking to something so I’m just going to roll with it.

I actually never bake anything ever, but when I think about baking I’ll just head over to You Suck At Cooking’s Youtube channel. His channel is amazing for the quality of the content, and I’ve never actually followed one of his recipes, but the food looks amazing. He has running jokes throughout the series, and generally has strong visual gags or storytelling in each video. Here is a video that actually doesn’t have any baking, but stands out to be one of my favorites because of the great jokes.

I’m not a huge vegetable eater but he makes it look like just putting them in the oven for 30 minutes can make anything look edible. It’s almost enough to make me want to start making my own food more often. Almost.

Baking is like building a rocket ship. Extremely easy to do unless you don’t have the instructions on how to make the thing. I’d gladly fly a man to the moon over trying to make brownies from scratch. I think you need to put an egg in there? Some milk maybe?

I remember asking my mom what putting eggs in baking materials does for the end product, and she told me, but does anyone actually know? What is the science of an egg that helps create a cake? I think that the true message of baking is, just throw stuff in there at a moderate 350 degrees for 20 minutes and see what happens. If it turns out well then you can say you meant to do it and write down the recipe for later and become a baking master like myself.

Project Management: People, Time, and Money

Posted on February 24, 2017August 5, 2017 by jtr3u in All Posts, Weekly Posts

Project management is a learned skill that’s easier to learn by experiencing it firsthand, though it will be stressful the first few times you need to do it. Keeping track of your resources takes practice, especially when some of those resources are people. We all have busy schedules and completing large group projects can be difficult.

When working on projects with multiple people, make sure you know everyone’s talents in the group. You should know who exactly to go to when you need to solve complex problems. Having a record of what each member of your team does and what the schedules’ are like will allow you to most effectively communicate with your team.

Working in groups is especially hard when it seems like your group members never have the time to meet or are not getting their jobs done. In that case, you need to go over with them how important their part of the job is, and that it’s critical that they pull their weight. If they cannot do this, then you may consider finding a new person for the job.

For other members who are able to meet for important meetings, make sure you always have another date planned for the next meeting. You don’t know what they’re going through in their life so it’s important that everyone agrees on a date. If there is no need for meeting in person to discuss, there should, at the very least, a group chat with all of the members present.

Working with a budget should be planned out before any work is done. Previous experience should help you calculate how much money will be needed for certain projects, and if you think you will need more, you’ll need to state your reasoning on why. If you have no prior knowledge of investigating how much a project might cost, you may want to get a professional to help you.

Freelancing

Posted on February 18, 2017March 16, 2017 by jtr3u in All Posts, Weekly Posts

The concept of freelancing is one that is appealing to many of us. Having a traditional job can easily get stressful if you’re not carful. Working with customers, coworkers, and bosses can overwhelm some people, and doing freelancing work is an alternative to working in that chain of command forever. Luckily, freelancing is a solution to become the boss that you’ve always wanted to be

Having the freedom to work on whatever project you want, whenever you want, seems like one of the best ways to live your life. You can sleep in the day, work in the night, eat whenever and do anything else imaginable so long as you get your work done. Not only that, but your interaction with people outside your residence is completely up to your discretion, allowing more introverted people to have a nice comfort zone.

The major thing that stops people from diving into freelancing is the fear that without a steady office job, you are in serious risk of having financial problems. It’s completely viable to live comfortably off of freelance work, but you have to make sure that you can keep a steady amount of clients

If you’re not sure you want to try something that risky, you can test out freelancing without much risk while working another job. It might be rough doing freelance work on the side, but it will help you find out if freelance work is something you would want to do as your main job.

The amount of freelancers in America are steadily increasing. The Bureau of Labor There was a study done that determined that by 2020, around 40% of our workforce would be independent workers. As jobs become increasingly hard to find, recently graduating students will look for methods other than traditional jobs in order to start their professional career.

Digital Illustration Projects

Posted on December 8, 2016March 23, 2017 by jtr3u in All Posts, Illustration and Design, Portfolio

My digital illustration class projects, all done with Photoshop and Illustrator.

Animal Forms

Sketched out animal forms to be traced in illustrator and colored.

Greeting Cards

All photoshop, was designed to teach about texture in digital media through the usage of layers and different digital brushes.

Character Development

We had to create our own character with full turnaround poses and expressions. These were then digitized and colored in Photoshop/Illustrator.

Magazine Article

We had to choose an online article to create a 2-page magizine spread along with the title and some text.

Mykonos Brochure Project

Posted on December 7, 2016April 7, 2017 by jtr3u in All Posts, Illustration and Design, Portfolio

This brochure was a project to help learn the basics of Adobe InDesign. Finding enough pictures and resizing them along with the text kerning and such was a difficult task. I also had to draw the map in Illustrator.

Snapchat Taking Over

Posted on April 18, 2016March 27, 2017 by jtr3u in All Posts

I recently saw this post by Mashable and started thinking about what makes has made Snapchat become more popular than established social media sites. Of course, then I watched the video and it said some of the same things I thought.

I need to say that I don’t have a Snapchat account. I actually downloaded it at one time and couldn’t figure out how to do anything, it made me feel old and out of the loop. Teens don’t want to use the same social media that their parents use. Anything old people use just isn’t cool, and I think that’s why Snapchat has become more popular recently.

The whole app benefits from people having shorter attention spans, which matches where our culture is headed with the popularization of the Internet. Limited text with a picture that you can forget about within a few seconds. From my point of view, it seems like people who only use this app miss out on a lot of interesting things that could be said with more text, or for the picture to be able to be studied. But maybe that’s why I’m not hip.

Obviously there is a huge boon to not having to worry about taking high quality pictures because of their immanent perishability, and Snapchat adds a connection that other social media networks don’t. It’s the beginning of a new popular platform, I’ll be interested to see when it will peak.