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This is an essay, a page containing the advice or opinions of one or more SmashWiki contributors. You may heed it or not, at your discretion. |
Rayquaza07 has gotten himself into quite a bit of trouble on SmashWiki recently. This article isn't about that. Instead, it's about the time I once met Rayquaza07 at a Project M tournament in early 2015. As I write this, its been a little over 2 year since this story took place, and as a result, some details might be a bit wrong. However, a majority of this story, to my knowledge, is accurate, and Samn (who will get a Smasher article one day, mark my words...) didn't see any glaring flaws.
Now, without further ado, I present My Rayquaza07 Experience, an essay by Ben Crow.
My Rayquaza07 ExperienceEdit
At this point in my life, I was primarily going to Project M tournaments with a bunch of my friends from Oakland University (or, as Yono would call us, the Oakland University Fuckers). There was me (SLM), Sam (Samn), AJ (Kuma), Eric (DirtyDeeds), and Paul (Yono), alongside a number of others who did not attend this tournament. We went to a small tournament, Battlefield IV, held in the basement of one of Project M's developers, who's a pretty stand-up guy. It wasn't a very high-stakes affair, with the biggest threat being the perennially Power Ranked Lordy, but lo and behold, competition showed up: our "friend", Rayquaza07. Now, at this point in my PM career, I was an easily impressionable young lad, and was awestruck to have met Lordy, only the world's greatest Brawl Captain Falcon player of all time. Of course, while I saying that, Rayquaza07 overheard that and said he was going to be PRed in both Project M and Smash 4 soon. You only get one chance at a first impression, and Rayquaza07's didn't exactly endear to me. But hey, maybe his mouth just ran faster than his brain. It can happen.
Now, Battlefield historically used pools to decide seeding, and no matter where you placed in pools, you'd get a spot in bracket. I made it third in my pool, not bad for someone who had never been to a tournament before (including a hilarious moment where I got four-stocked AND four-stocked my opponent in the same set), and Rayquaza07 made it first in his. Now, the TO began to formulate a bracket from the pool results, but after compiling it, Rayquaza07 quickly put himself on centre stage. He claimed that he deserved a slightly higher seed, just so that he wouldn't end up on the same side of the bracket as Lordy. Note that in pools, Lordy went 8-0, while Rayquaza went 8-1. But, after enough stalling and whining, the TO eventually capitulated, Rayquaza07 got himself higher in the bracket... and in doing so, successfully got my friend, Kuma, bracket fucked. Now, remember the name Kuma, because we'll be seeing him again later in this piece.
Bracket went as expected. I flamed out with a 0-2 record, but hey, first tournament, and I was still enjoying hanging out with the crew and I definitely learnt a thing or two (read: Don't pick Fountain of Dreams against Marth). Samn especially went on a tear, and won second at the tournament. There was heartbreak when Kuma and Yono had to square off in the bracket, and plenty of hilarious moments. Plus, I got to meet Veil and see his Wii Remote-only playstyle in person.
Now, back to Rayquaza07. As expected of his easier bracket, he began to rise through the ranks. However, he faced his first tough deed. Literally, he had to go up against DirtyDeeds, then known as one of the filthiest Project M players in all of Michigan. Unfortunately for Deeds, he badly misplayed the first match when using Ganondorf, of all characters, and got swiftly four-stocked in an overall embarrassing match. However, he couldn't give up, and went with his standard Dedede with his back up against the wall. Rayquaza07 tried his best... and ultimately lost the next game to a last-stock Dededecide, putting the record between the two at 1-1. And in the final match, Deeds ultimately reigned supreme... once again with a last-stock Dededecide. This time, however, the Smash gods decided to let the game go to Sudden Death, but in order to demonstrate to the world that he didn't merely get lucky against Rayquaza07, Deeds performed a third Dededecide against his adversary, firmly cementing his place as the filthiest man in Michigan. I'd like to point out that at this point, Deeds was not a power ranked player.
Well, the salt was already freely flowing. Rayquaza07 was telling players that Deeds just got lucky, that Dedede was busted, that he was a crutch. Gone were the customary handshakes after winning his matches in loser's bracket; he was out for blood. His Sonic got faster and more dangerous, his emotions sharpened.
Earlier in this piece, I made reference to poor Kuma and how he got bracket fucked by Rayquaza07. Well, perhaps it lit a fire under him, because Kuma proceeded to go on an absolute tear through his bracket, only getting knocked out into the loser's bracket by Lordy. In a twist of fate, Lordy had knocked Kuma right into a battle with the person who tried to avoid meeting him in the first place: Rayquaza07. Kuma wasn't power ranked at this point, and Rayquaza07 was still out for blood, pure salt fuelling his every desire until he made it to first. After a narrow win in the first match, it seemed Rayquaza07 thought he had punched his ticket to the next round, getting a 2 stock lead over Kuma. But Kuma kept pressing on, refusing to crack under the pressure, and in an impressive comeback, got the set even with Rayquaza07. It seemed that this match, more than any other, was the one that broke the armour. I expected an explosive finale, with neither wanting to go home yet... and instead, Rayquaza07 was handily outplayed, with Kuma still having three stocks when all was said and done.
We're now at the watershed moment. Everyone at the tournament remembers where they were when Kuma won. I was standing near the setup, behind the two. I saw Kuma lift his hand, out of good sportsmanship, towards Rayquaza07. Before he could tell what was going on, all of the pent-up rage and salt exploded forth in one critical burst. Rayquaza07 bolted up, and in one deft motion, defiantly hurled his controller against the television. Perhaps it calmed him down, because he slowly went up to the Wii, pulled his controller out, and went to skulking in the corner.
The last I remember seeing Rayquaza07, he was bitching that Project M was busted, that a newcomer like Kuma could beat him with busted characters like Luigi and Ganondorf, that Sonic was intentionally shafted by the developers, that the entire seeding as a joke. After that, he mysteriously vanished, his career seemingly in shambles from a Dedede player and a Ganondorf player. Last I heard, he had run off to the greener pastures of Smash 4. I myself had to retire from Project M in early 2016, after moving away from southeast Michigan, and finding less and less time to practise Project M with the others. Yono and Samn were later power ranked in Michigan. Deeds later moved to Wisconsin after he graduated from Oakland. And while Kuma never did get power ranked due to being less active than he once was, he's still known for creating upsets whenever he joins tournaments.
He still feels kinda bad for ruining Rayquaza07's career, though.