Tournament:OHN7
OHN7 (also known as Don’t Come), was held in Sydney’s UTS, on the 7th and 8th of December 2008. The East-Coast Australian Major was a hard-pressed partnership with the Ozhadou organisation, a dedicated entity for competitive fighting games. The merge came as a decisive sign of solidarity made by the Melbourne Smasher, CAOTIC.
Background
The Sydney Smash Community has historically had a patchy relationship with Ozhadou. Both OHN5 and OHN6 languished in both organiser support and turnout for SSBM. Criticism drawn from the Smash community included the rejection of the event due to high entry fees with no returns. However, a dedicated effort was made to pledge support for the event in the hopes of a more formalised arrangement for future years. A rejection from Ozhadou administration to provide monetary concessions to the Smash Community did not steer the Tournament Organiser for pushing for a Major event in Sydney. After concession negotations failed, tournament information was pinned up regardless, and received much interest - mostly due to exciting new formats and the delivery a large event for New South Wales.
Results
Melee Teams
1st - CAOTIC & Kupo, We Are Bestest Friends (Victoria)
2nd - Kulla & Berimbau, Cabin Boys (New South Wales)
3rd - Syke & ACCELERATE, Gay Bar (Queensland)
Melee Crews
1st - Gay Bar, Syke/Get That Rat/CAOTIC/Myst Walker (Victoria/Queensland)
2nd - The Rape, ComboTurtle/S.D/Jelly/Bjay (New South Wales)
3rd - No Swords no Turnips, Jaz/Unreon/Berimbau/Kulla (New South Wales)
Brawl Teams
1st - S.D & Turtle (New South Wales)
2nd - Jei & Tak (Victoria)
3rd - Shaya & Meteor (New South Wales)
Brawl Crews
1st - Cabin Boys THE CREW, Shaya/Kulla/Jaz/Berimbau (New South Wales)
2nd - OMG 4 ****ING METAKNIGHTS, Meteor/FTS/Tedeth/Tcranter (New South Wales)
3rd - LOL Patrol, Redact/Jei/CAOTIC/Tak (Victoria)
Reception
Public reception for ‘Don’t Come’ was resoundingly positive, with the tournament strongly tipped to be the most favoured event of 2008. Shaya's unplanned hosting of SSB64 drew heavy criticism and offensive attacks from foreign Smashers, which had only highlighted the tensions of bringing two separate (Brawl and Melee) communtities together.
Testimonials:
Ziggy (Ozhadou Administration) - "The Smash community showed great support for OHN this year. I was impressed by how many players they had, and also how organised and self-sufficient they were. I'm glad that Smash was at OHN, and hopefully this will be the beginning of an ongoing relationship between OHN and Australian Smash players."
Final Atomic Buster (Ozhadou Administration) - "Wow. With the turn out and enthusiasm of your community, you've made us see Smash in a very different light. Although we knew Smash was popular, and that the Australian Smash scene in general was quite hardcore, we never saw this in Sydney (in past OHNs and elsewhere). But this time, you've set the bar very high for Sydney Smash. So hopefully, we'll see you again, because it was just great to have to you all there. You're making me want to get back into Smash. And it was a shame I didn't get a chance to vs anyone in GE64 or MKDS Razz."
Atticus (Melbourne Smasher) - "I really liked the crew format used in the tournaments - it was mad fun and I'd love to see more of it in the future. Having the audience hype behind more matches than just the finals makes it more thrilling, and the bit of added strategy is interesting too. Casual setups of other games on the table near the bracket laptop was also good - MBAC, AoSX, DKR, SSB64, whatever. I love Smash but 10 hours straight is heavy and it's nice to play some other games when you need a break but can't leave cause you might be called for a match."
Notable facts
- ‘Don’t Come’ holds the Australian Record for the most foreign participants of any major tournament. Significant contingents hailed from Victoria and Queensland. It is also Sydney’s largest tournament to date (Over 50 unique competitors over 2 days).
- It was the first Australian Major to successfully implement a non-partisan approach to both SSBM and SSBB.
- It is the only known SWF tournament in the world to officially exclude singles events from its schedule.
- ‘Don’t Come’ payed homage to the now defunct Melee – FC series by introducing Dodgeball as a side event.
- Regional New South Wales (Hunter Valley/Illawarra) claim superiority over Sydney over a victorious Melee crew battle.
