| M3D "Jason" | |
|---|---|
| |
| Team info | |
| Crew(s) | FLW (disbanded), MLG Staff |
| Personal and other info | |
| Real name | Jason S. Rice |
| Location | Cary, NC 
|
| Miscellaneous info | |
| Skill |  Tournament Director, Pro-Am  |
M3D, commonly known simply as as Jason, is an American smasher well-known for being a prominent tournament director for Major League Gaming events. He founded MLG's Super Smash Bros. division, which he directed for 2 years before moving to their media department. He left MLG in 2007 and now works as a game developer. M3D is credited with helping to establish a standard nationwide ruleset for SSBM tournaments and starting professional commentary for SSBM matches.
Background
M3D picked up Super Smash Bros. for the N64 on the day it was released, playing it often with his brothers in their parents home in Waldorf, MD. Unaware of a tournament community, M3D and his brothers played the game actively but never learned advanced techniques such as Z-canceling. M3D primarily played as Luigi in this version of the game, but also used Kirby and Captain Falcon. In college when Melee was released, M3D picked up a GameCube and a copy of Smash the March after the game came out and immediately began using Marth, disappointed with how Luigi felt in the new game.
M3D got his start at Smashboards.com in 2003, after hearing about the site from GameFAQs. After coming to Smashboards, he realized there were no local tournaments in the Washington DC area, despite the fact that several players that were regarded to be among the best in the country lived in the area. Since he was older than many local smashers and had a connection to a church with facilities and televisions, M3D began a tournament series called the DC Super Smash, or DCSS, which gave away actual prizes instead of cash for the tournament champions. The first DCSS had 43 players attending, including future MLG Professionals Azen, ChuDat and Chillindude829. M3D went on to host a second DCSS, which drew players from West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and as far away as New York, as well know players from the Deadly Alliance made the trip down to compete. During this time, M3D also assisted H2YL in hosting their local tournament Live or Die. M3D and his brothers, B-Run and Jump20X6, formed the crew Famous Last Words to put a name to their efforts in hosting tournaments.
At the start of 2004, M3D moved to Indiana and took a hiatus from running and competing in Smash tournaments. He returned to the tournament scene by attending Flame of Bowser 3 later that spring, bringing along a professional video camera to gather footage for a documentary about underground tournament Smash players. M3D's video production partner pulled out of the project, but the event served to bring him back into the tournament community.
Smashboards moderator
M3D was recognized by the administrative team at Smashboards as being a mature and dedicated player during the summer of 2003 and decided to ask him to take over some responsibilities on the site. They made him a moderator over the Smash Discussion area, eventually also giving him moderation powers over the Tournament room as well. When well-known Smashboards admin BumbleBeeTuna decided to step down as the leader of the Melee Back Room, M3D was also given the leadership of that portion of the site as well, which eventually lead to him being made a SuperMod with access to moderation powers over the entire site.
During his time as moderator, M3D cleaned out and renamed the Melee Back Room. It was renamed to the Smash Back Room, to reflect that the new version of the game for the Nintendo Wii would be on it's way. The membership was also reset, to eliminate legacy members who were accused of cluttering the room with unnecessary posts and bumping old topics against common forum etiquette.
M3D also oversaw the release of two SSBM tier lists during his time leading the Smash Back Room, participating in the voting and tabulating votes.
Major League Gaming
In 2004, M3D was hired by Major League Gaming to run an SSBM tournament at their Chicago event in June, suggesting that if the turnout was sufficient that Smash could become a permanent MLG title. M3D promoted the event on Smashboards and other gaming sites and contacted top players such as Ken and Isai to suggest that they attend. The first event had more than 60 players attend, including Ken and Isai who took 1st and 2nd respectively in singles and 1st as a team in doubles. The turnout and the players from the Smash community were well-received by MLG, who added the title for the remainder of the year.
Working for MLG as tournament director for two years, M3D ran more then 20 events and increased attendence consistently over that time. In early 2006, however, M3D was selected by MLG to take over the role of Senior Staff Writer at mlgpro.com. He hired jv3x3 as his successor and moved on to work full time with the media department at MLG, including writing articles about SSBM.
One of M3D's biggest contributions to the Smash community began in 2006, when he started providing commentary for professional SSBM matches broadcast over MLG's Video on Demand (VoD). The commentary served to make Smash much more enjoyable for the large base of Halo players who subscribed to the service and added something different for the Smash players interested in subscribing. This increased the amount of time SSBM was aired over VoD, drawing enough attention to have well-known Smash videographer Bach hired to run Smash-specific VoD recording.
M3D left MLG in the summer of 2007 to pursue other interests.
Game Developer
In the fall of 2007, M3D was hired by a game development company in Raleigh, NC to work in their offices. He is currently participating in several projects at that company.
Tournament play
M3D was never considered a top tournament contender at any stage of his smash career, but has always preformed consistently in competitions. He has never failed to get out of his first round of pool play in any competition, including a few major MLG events and FC3. In 2003, while playing in the Washington DC area, M3D was known as a Marth player but switched to Peach in 2004 when he moved to Indiana. After being hired by MLG, M3D picked up several other characters that he eventually become competent with in tournament play. He has been seend in tournament matches playing Marth, Peach, Fox, Falco, Sheik, Jigglypuff, Young Link, Doctor Mario and Pichu. Despite his high level of knowledge of the game, M3D has never finished in the top 10 in tournament competition. Currently he does not actively participate in tournaments and prefers to play teams matches when he meets up to play with other smashers.
Trivia
- The name M3D comes from "MarthMasterMD" or "MarthMaster from Maryland," which was the first username M3D used at Smashboards. Displeased with the name, which he never intended to use for an extended period of time, he had it officially changed after becoming a moderator at Smashboards.
- M3D was married in 2004 to his high school sweetheart. They currently reside in Cary, NC.
- The crew Famous Last Words (FLW), was founded by M3D and his brothers Jump20X6 and B-Run. They ran the DCSS series (including two more events after M3D moved to Indiana) and eventually grew to include a few family friends. Despite M3D's presence and B-Run gaining some noteriety for defeating Husband and Wes in tournament play with Young Link, the crew was never really a considered an important crew.
- M3D's first competition outside his own crew of family and friends was Azen and his H2YL teammates Chillindude829 and Mild, who he played with in the summer of 2003.
- In 2005, M3D fulfilled a life-long goal by being featured in Nintendo Power as part of an article looking back on the success of SSBM. He was interviewed about Major League Gaming and professional smash competitions.