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Tournament:Apex 2012

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Apex 2012
APEX 2012 Logo.png
Dates January 6th-8th, 2012
Venue Rutgers University Student Center
Address/City 126 College Avenue
New Brunswick, New Jersey USA
Attendance 1,000+
Entry fees SSB64 Singles: $5
SSB64 Doubles: $5 per person
Melee Singles: $15
Melee Doubles: $10 per person
Brawl Singles: $15
Brawl Doubles: $10 per person
Venue: $30 (for competitors)
Spectator: $10 (for non-competitors)
Pot size(s) SSB64 Singles: $320
SSB64 Doubles: $80
Melee Singles: $6,756
Melee Doubles: $1,960
Brawl Singles: $8,000
Brawl Doubles: $1,216
Results
Super Smash Bros. winners Canada SuPeRbOoMfAn 1v1
USA Isai & USA Nintendude 2v2
Super Smash Bros. Melee winners Sweden Armada 1v1
Sweden Armada & USA Mew2King 2v2
Super Smash Bros. Brawl winners Japan Otori 1v1
Japan Otori & Japan Kakera 2v2
Staff
Assisted by AlphaZealot, Bionic, and Keitaro
Housing Hyatt Regency New Brunswick

Apex 2012 was a tournament held in New Jersey by Alex Strife and it was the third tournament in the Apex series. It featured pools for Brawl and Melee singles, brackets for Smash 64 singles and doubles, Pokémon Black & White singles and doubles, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat 9, and All Brawl, a free-for-all side event with items turned on. It was the largest Brawl tournament to ever take place, with 400 entrants, and one of the largest Melee tournaments of all time, being the second-largest Melee tournament at the time, with 318 entrants. Like many other Apex tournaments throughout the series, Apex 2012 drew its share of international competition. Of the over 1,000 attendees, about 81 of them were from countries other than the United States.

Schedule

Friday, January 6

Time Event
9:00am-11:00am Check in
11:00am Super Smash Bros. Melee Doubles Bracket
4:00pm Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles Pools, Round 1
6:00pm Pokémon Black / White Versions
6:00pm All Brawl
6:00pm USA vs The World Melee 8v8 Exhibition
8:00pm Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles Pools, Round 2
9:30pm Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles Bracket (until top 8)

Saturday, January 7

Time Event
8:00am-10:00am Check in
10:00am Super Smash Bros. Brawl Doubles Bracket (until top 4)
10:00am Super Street Fighter IV (until top 8)
10:00am Mortal Kombat 9
11:00am Super Smash Bros. Singles Bracket
12:00pm Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (until top 8)
3:00pm Super Smash Bros. Brawl Singles Pools, Round 1
5:00pm USA vs The World Brawl 8v8 Exhibition
5:00pm Give-a-ways
6:30pm Super Smash Bros. Brawl Singles Pools, Round 2
7:30pm Super Smash Bros. Brawl Singles Bracket (until top 8)

Sunday, January 8

Time Event
8:00am-12:00pm Check in & Casual Play
12:00pm Super Street Fighter IV top 8
12:00pm Give-a-ways
2:00pm Super Smash Bros. Melee top 8 singles and top 4 teams
4:00pm Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 top 8
7:00pm Super Smash Bros. Brawl top 8 singles and top 4 teams
9:00pm Awards & Closing Ceremonies

Ruleset

Procedures for stage-striking, life-stealing, and double blind picks were incorporated into all three rulesets.

Smash 64

Apex 2012 used the Smash 64 Backroom's recommended ruleset.

Format

  • Competition format is double elimination.
  • All sets with the exception of the below are best-of-3.
  • Winners' semifinals, losers' quarterfinals and losers' semifinals are best-of-5.
  • Winners' finals, losers' finals and grand finals are best-of-7.

Game settings

  • Mode: STOCK
  • Stocks: 5
  • Handicap: OFF
  • Team Attack: ON
  • Stage Select: ON
  • Damage: 100%
  • Item Switch: NONE
  • All characters are available
    • Donkey Kong's black palette swap (Right-C), Samus's dark palette swap (Down-C), and Captain Falcon's dark palette swap (Right-C) are discouraged if playing on Congo Jungle for visibility reasons. The opposing player may reset the match without penalty if they wish for a colour change. Taking or dealing any damage nullifies this right.

Stages

Starter Counterpick
Congo Jungle Peach's Castle
Hyrule Castle
Dream Land

The first match of all sets is selected by a 3-stage striking system with the Starter Stage List. An impartial observer/tournament organiser flips a coin to decide who strikes first. Rock-paper-scissors is acceptable as well, but it’s technically a skill irrelevant to smash.

General rules

  • Game will be played on console
  • 8/10 minute time limit is put in place for all matches, especially Hyrule.
  • Draws are decided first by stock, then by percentage.
  • Disrupting your opponent physically or intending to disrupt their play will result in a warning. Repeated action will result in disqualification from the tournament. Observers who physically disrupt players are to be dealt with as the tournament organiser sees fit. Disqualification is recommended if possible.
  • Pausing is discouraged, and should only be done at the end of a stock, if at all. At other times, the pauser loses their current stock. If the pause causes the opponent to lose their stock, the pauser loses two stocks.
  • Extreme stalling is disallowed. Any reported case of such will result in a warning, followed by automatic forfeit of the match. If this is reported again, automatic forfeit is enforced without a warning. If there is no movement from either player, the player with fewer stocks, or if the stocks are equal, the higher percentage, is considered to be stalling.
  • Mages DQ is enforced. When a match is called, both players must promptly arrive. If a player is 2 minutes late, they receive a warning. At 4 minutes late, they lose the first game of the set and forfeit counterpick rights. At 6 minutes late, they forfeit the entire set.

Melee

The ruleset was based off of the Melee Backroom's recommended ruleset, with the only significant difference being that Jungle Japes was not a valid counterpick stage in doubles.

General rules

  • Items are set to off.
  • 4 stocks
  • 8 minute time limit
  • Wobbling is prohibited.
  • Matches that time out will be determined by the remaining number of stocks, then percentage of the current stock if stocks are tied. In the event of a percentage tie, the match should be replayed in full. Sudden Death is not to be played, and will not count.
  • If a player accidentally pauses while stealing a life in doubles, the opposing team may deem that stock forfeit. Pausing may be turned off to prevent this.

Stages

Singles stage list

Starter Counterpick
Yoshi's Story Pokémon Stadium
Fountain of Dreams
Battlefield
Final Destination
Dream Land

Doubles stage list

Starter Counterpick
Yoshi's Story Kongo Jungle (N64)
Pokémon Stadium
Battlefield
Final Destination
Dream Land
  • Dave's Stupid Rule: a player or team may not counterpick to the stage they last won on
    • This is not the proper definition of Dave's Stupid Rule.The definition given describes Dave's Modified Stupid Rule(commonly referred to as Mew2king's Stupid Rule) and further clarification is required as to which rule was used during the event.
  • Gentleman's Clause: Any stage may be played on if both players or teams agree to it. This takes priority over Dave's Stupid Rule.

Brawl

  • 3 stocks
  • 8 minute time limit
  • Items are set to “Off” and “None”
  • All infinites and chain grabs are legal.
  • Meta Knight’s Infinite Dimensional Cape glitch is banned.
  • There is a ledge grab limit of 35 for Meta Knight and 50 for all other characters. If a game goes to time and one player goes over the ledge grab limit for their character, they will automatically lose the game. If both players exceed their ledge grab limit, then this rule is ignored.
  • The act of stalling is banned.
  • If time runs out, the winner of the match will be the one called out by the game. If it goes to Sudden Death, then it is determined by percentage. If the percentage and/or both players die at the same time as a result of a suicide move, a one stock 3 minute tie break match is held. Ledge grab limits are reduced to 13 for Meta Knight and 18 for all other characters.
  • The only other exception to this is the game ending from a Bowser or Ganondorf suicide tactic, where the initiator of the move wins.

Conduct

  • In the event pause is left on accidentally and is pressed, immediately call over the tournament organizer. Based upon their judgment, the situation will be resolved. If the situation is neutral (players are not in combat), the match will be resumed as if the pause had not occurred. If the situation is advantageous to one individual and the player in the disadvantageous situation paused, the disadvantaged player will be either placed in a grab or onto the ledge of the stage. If a player is in a death situation (chain grabs, grab releases, jab-locks to a KO move, etc) and pauses while such situation, the current stock is forfeited immediately. If a player unpause before the tournament organizer reaches the station, the player that unpaused loses a stock.
  • Users of the Wii Remote must take out the Wiimote's batteries. If problems persist due to the Wiimote, the owner of the Wiimote may be disqualified.
  • Players are responsible for their own controller and name tag. Any malfunctions or errors that occur are the player's responsibility (including battery issues with a Wii Remote), so participants are advised to bring an extra controller(s) and make sure they are using the correct settings BEFORE a match is played. Both parties need to agree if a match is to be paused or restarted because of these problems.
  • The tournament organizer has the right to save/record any tournament match if possible and has the right to upload said match.
  • Any hacks, including (but not limited to) textures, music, and model changes are not allowed.
    • Hacks to allow replays to exceed 3 minutes in length and to allow player tags to display correctly in said replays were allowed.

Stage list

Starter Counterpick
Smashville Battleship Halberd
Battlefield Pokémon Stadium 1
Final Destination Castle Siege
Lylat Cruise Delfino Plaza
Yoshi's Island Frigate Orpheon

All Brawl

Apex 2012 featured a single-elimination Brawl side event. The cap was 64 entrants.

  • 4 players per set
  • All stages on with stage choice set to random
  • All characters are set to random
  • Top 2 players advance
  • All items are on and set to medium
  • First player to win 2 matches advances
  • 2nd person to advance is decided in the order of: match wins, lives left in last match, most kills in last match

Road to Apex

Beginning in July of 2011 and continuing until December, select tournaments for Brawl and Melee were listed as Apex qualifiers in the United States and internationally. Each "Road to Apex" qualifier tournament would award the highest placing players a certain number of points, which would then be used to help with seeding the Apex bracket. The points are broken down from 1st place to 7th place below.

  • 1st place – 64pts
  • 2nd place – 32pts
  • 3rd place – 16pts
  • 4th place – 8pts
  • 5th place – 4pts
  • 5th place – 4pts
  • 7th place – 2pts
  • 7th place – 2pts

Additionally, the top placing regional player of each singles event will be awarded a $100 stipend upon arrival at the Apex venue to help cover travel costs.

Here is the list of Apex qualifying events.

Melee

Brawl

In addition to the events, vVv Gaming gave out stipends to the top three of the 2011 AllisBrawl fall ladder playoffs, in order to help cover the costs of attending Apex 2012.

Results

See also: Results thread on SmashBoards

Brawl singles

(400 entrants)
Bracket

Entrants were assigned into 80 pools of 5. Each entrant played a round-robin against every other player in their pool. The 2 players with the best record in their pools advanced to a second round of pools. There were 32 pools of 5 in round 2. The top 2 players in their second round pool advanced to the 64-man bracket.

Place Name Character(s) Earnings
1st   Otori   $3,600
2nd   Nietono   $1,760
3rd   Nairo   $960
4th   ESAM    $640
5th   Kakera    $320
5th   Ally   $320
7th   UltimateRazer   $200
7th   ADHD   $200
9th   Gnes  
9th   Rich Brown  
9th   OCEAN  
9th   DEHF  
13th   Dabuz  
13th   Mew2King  
13th   Brood  
13th   RAIN   
17th   Havok   
17th   Fatal  
17th   Z  
17th   ZeRo  
17th   mikeHAZE  
17th   Mr. R  
17th   Orion  
17th   Shugo   
25th   Coney  
25th   Jtails  
25th   Zex   
25th   Tyrant  
25th   TheReflexWonder  
25th   Seibrik    
25th   Will  
25th   Atomsk   
33rd   Leon   
33rd   Poltergust  
33rd   Logic  
33rd   Mikeray  
33rd   Trela  
33rd   Bloodcross   
33rd   HolyNightmare   
33rd   Denti  
33rd   Illmatic  
33rd   Trevonte  
33rd   Toronto Joe  
33rd   Salem  
33rd   Nakat  
33rd   DRN  
33rd   FOW   
33rd   DeLux  
49th   Fino  
49th   GDX  
49th   Shadow  
49th   Dark.Pch  
49th   Pwii  
49th   4GOD  
49th   False  
49th   Sky   
49th   X  
49th   Kismet   
49th   San  
49th   Nick Riddle  
49th   Vinnie   
49th   Dojo  
49th   Bassem  
49th   Seagull Joe  

Brawl doubles

(128 teams)
Bracket

All teams were directly placed into a 128-man bracket.

Place Name Character(s) Name Character(s) Earnings
1st   Kakera     Otori   $576 ($288 each)
2nd   Anti     Mew2King   $281.60 ($140.80 each)
3rd   Gnes     UltimateRazer   $153.60 ($76.80 each)
4th   ADHD     Nairo   $102.40 ($51.20 each)
5th   ChuDat     Fatal   $51.20 ($25.60 each)
5th   Ally      Dojo   $51.20 ($25.60 each)
7th   Sky     Zex   
7th   Havok     Tearbear  
9th   mikeHAZE     Tyrant  
9th   Blackanese      TeeVee   
9th   Kadaj     ZeRo  
9th   Vinnie      Snakeee  
13th   Nietono     RAIN  
13th   ESAM     MVD  
13th   Coney     Logic  
13th   RedHalberd     Rich Brown  
17th   Domo     MJG  
17th   Fino     YoshQ  
17th   Jbandrew     Nakat  
17th   Brood     Yukhoe  
17th   Espy     K Prime  
17th   Chibo     Leon  
17th   FOW     Mekos  
17th   Atomsk     Dabuz  
25th   Mr. R     Orion  
25th   X     Lada Kevin Aguilar  
25th   Viviff     Swordgard  
25th   False     Keitaro  
25th   OCEAN     Karamity  
25th   TheReflexWonder     Bill   
25th   Riot     Mikeray  
25th   Cable     Shadow  

Melee singles

(318 entrants)
Bracket

Entrants were assigned into 64 pools of 5. Each entrant played a round-robin against every other player in their pool. The 2 players with the best record in their pools advanced to a second round of pools. There were 32 pools of 4 in round 2. The top 2 players in their second round pool advanced to the 64-man bracket.

Place Name Character(s) Earnings
1st   Armada    $3,046.50
2nd   Hungrybox   $1,489.40
3rd   Mango    $804
4th   JAVI   $536
5th   Dr. PeePee   $270.80
5th   KirbyKaze   $270.80
7th   Hax   $169.25
7th   Shroomed   $169.25
9th   Lovage  
9th   MacD  
9th   Wobbles  
9th   Unknown522     
13th   VaNz  
13th   SFAT  
13th   Zhu   
13th   Tope  
17th   PewPewU  
17th   KoreanDJ   
17th   DaShizWiz  
17th   Mew2King    
17th   Darc  
17th   Silent Wolf  
17th   Chillin  
17th   S2J  
25th   HBK  
25th   Weon-X   
25th   Eggm  
25th   Jman  
25th   Teczero    
25th   Bladewise  
25th   I.B  
25th   Westballz   
33rd   Tang   
33rd   Ice    
33rd   Kage  
33rd   Redd   
33rd   Tai  
33rd   Sol   
33rd   Amsah  
33rd   DruggedFox  
33rd   Leffen   
33rd   Axe     
33rd   ChuDat  
33rd   Plup  
33rd   Darrell  
33rd   StriCNYN3  
33rd   th0rn  
33rd   Reno  
49th   Eggz  
49th   MattDotZeb  
49th   Swiftbass   
49th   Vist  
49th   Colbol  
49th   Vudujin  
49th   PC Chris  
49th   Cactuar   
49th   Azen  
49th   Linguini  
49th   Stab  
49th   Cyrain   
49th   Ambix  
49th   HugS  
49th   Ravenlord   
49th   ZoSo   

Melee doubles

(98 teams)
Bracket

Place Name Character(s) Name Character(s) Earnings
1st   Armada     Mew2King    $882 ($441 each)
2nd   Hungrybox     Plup   $431.20 ($215.60 each)
3rd   Dr. PeePee     LoZR   $235.20 ($117.60 each)
4th   G$     Mango   $156.80 ($78.40 each)
5th   ChuDat     Kage   $78.40 ($39.20 each)
5th   Hax     Jman   $78.40 ($39.20 each)
7th   Colbol     Linguini   $49 ($24.50 each)
7th   Alukard     DJ Nintendo   $49 ($24.50 each)
9th   Duck     Teczero  
9th   PewPewU     SFAT  
9th   OTG     PC Chris  
9th   Lovage     S2J  
13th   Amsah     Ice  
13th   Axe     V3ctorman  
13th   Alan     Shroomed  
13th   Azen       Tope  
17th   Bladewise     Vish  
17th   Cactuar     DoH  
17th   HyugaRicdeau     Toph  
17th   Eggm     DaShizWiz  
17th   Chillin     Cyrain  
17th   StriCNYN3     Westballz  
17th   Eggz     Silent Wolf  
17th   HBK     Nando  
25th   Darrell     Tang  
25th   C!Z     Tyga  
25th   KirbyKaze     VaNz  
25th   BEN!     PB&J  
25th   Leffen     Zoler  
25th   I.B     Unknown522  
25th   Darc     MacD  
25th   KevinM     ZoSo  

Smash 64 singles

(64 entrants)
Bracket

Place Name Character(s) Earnings
1st   SuPeRbOoMfAn    $160
2nd   Isai   $80
3rd   JaimeHR     $32
4th   Kefit   $22.40
5th   Nintendude    $12.80
5th   Sensei    $12.80
7th   Megavolt  
7th   King Funk  

Smash 64 doubles

(8 teams)
Bracket

Place Name Character(s) Name Character(s) Earnings
1st   Isai     Nintendude   $48 ($24 each)
2nd   SuPeRbOoMfAn      JaimeHR    $24 ($12 each)
3rd   Sensei     King Funk    $8 ($4 each)
4th   Firo     Ownasaurus  

All Brawl

(64 entrants)
1: Deltacod
2: Ally
3: Tearbear
4: ESAM
5: Dapuffster
5: NAKAT
5: Kiwi
5: Mr. R
9: John12346
9: Pwii
9: Xaltis
9: Jtails
9: Nairo
9: KoRoBeNiKi
9: ZeRo
16: DMBrandon
16: Orion
16: 2Link
16: Riot
16: Jbandrew
16: Mink
16: Xzax
16: TheReflexWonder
16: Pidgezero
16: Tac

Exhibition matches/other

Melee exhibition matches

Winner Character(s) Loser Character(s) Score
  Captain Jack     Isai   1-0
  Mango     JAVI   2-0

Brawl exhibition matches

Winner Character(s) Loser Character(s) Score
  Mike Haze     Vinnie   3-0
  Mike Haze     Leon   3-1
  Mike Haze     Mr. R   3-1
  Ally     ZeRo   4-0

Melee USA vs. the World Crew Battle

Like in past international smash events, a crew battle was held pitting some of the best players from the United States those eight from abroad. There were originally supposed to be eight players for each crew, but this was modified after Mew2King defeated Leffen with 3 stocks remaining, giving USA an 11-4 stock advantage. The USA crew allowed Captain Jack to join the World crew in addition to Amsah, who otherwise would have been the last member of the World crew.

USA Player Character Stocks Taken World Player Character Stocks Taken
  Jman   5   JAVI   3
  Axe   6   Unknown522    3
  Zhu   4   KirbyKaze   3
  Mango   3   Ice   4
  Hungrybox   7   Armada   4
  Mew2King    6   Kage   2
  Hax   2   Leffen   2
  Dr. PeePee   3   Amsah   4
  Captain Jack   3
Total 36 Total 28

Players are shown in the order that they played from top to bottom, characters played are shown in chronological order from left to right.

Brawl USA vs. the World Crew Battle

This crew battle was canceled due to lack of time, however, had it occurred, it would have matched eight of the best American players against eight of the best international players. Havok was the captain of the USA crew, and Ally was the captain of the World crew. Below is the roster for the World crew; the USA crew did not decide on their roster before the tournament.

  1. Brood
  2. Nietono
  3. Ally
  4. Kakera
  5. ZeRo
  6. Mr. R
  7. Leon/Otori
  8. RAIN

Alternates: Orion, Leon/Otori
Leon and Otori were supposed to play each other, with the winner earning the spot on the roster and the loser becoming an alternate along with Orion.

Ganon Gauntlet

Ganondorf main DLA held an event which pitted the challenger against seven Ganondorf players in seven consecutive one-stock, 3 minute matches.[1] Winning the gauntlet required the player to defeat all seven Ganondorfs. Timeouts and Ganoncides count as a win for the Ganondorf. The challenger may choose any character for any match. Challengers are restricted to 10 ledge grabs; Ganondorfs have no ledge grab limit. Stages are chosen by each Ganondorf player from the tournament stagelist.

Players may bet $5, $10, or $20, for payouts of $10, $25, and $50, respectively.

Ganondorf roster:

  • Vermanubis (Verm)
  • Gunblade (GNBLD)
  • Bloodynite (Blood)
  • DLA (D L A)
  • Inui (KAI)
  • Tearbear (TUPAY)
  • Vex Kasrani (COMBO)
  • Substitute: Izumi (Izumi)

Of the 21 players who entered, only Seibrik, who played as King Dedede, survived.

Criticism

Apex 2012 has garnered criticism for various issues related to how the event was managed. A lack of setups caused Brawl to run over schedule, delaying pools matches and necessitating the cancellation of the USA vs. the World crew battle. Though the quality was excellent, many viewers were irked by the presence of non-Smash Bros. games on the livestream, as well as the lack of moderators in livestream chat where viewers criticized Smash Bros. as not a real fighting game in comparison to traditional fighters, such as Marvel vs. Capcom. The performance of a specific Brawl commentator, Pierce7d, drew fire for being overly disrespectful of the players. Another issue was the fact that the Japanese players had to travel to and from the tournament in the back of a U-Haul truck that was carrying many CRT TVs along with their luggage.

Trivia

  • Apex 2012 was the second Apex tournament to have a Japanese Olimar player finish 2nd.

Gallery

A full set of photos from the weekend can be viewed here.

External Links

References