Just about a decade ago, Melee seemed like it was heading toward something big. The Smash Brothers documentary came out and was a resounding success story. Everybody knew the Five Gods, Leffen, and all the biggest personalities in our scene. The biggest Melee tournaments were growing each year, hundreds of thousands of people were watching them, and new sponsors invested into the community every year.
For better or worse, Melee is a very different community today. The game is hardly in the spotlight. Our current storylines consist of Zain and Cody battling for #1, the rise of mid-tiers, Hungrybox and Joshman trying to break into the next tier, and a few other things that don’t feel that important. Most of the biggest Melee tournaments don’t grow from year to year, fewer people watch them, and the sponsor well has practically run dry. But does that really mean Melee doesn’t have good stories? I don’t think so. I think there are good stories – we’ve just largely forgotten about what makes a good story in Melee.
In this series, Challengers, I want to shine a light on the fringe; the players who real ball-knowers recognize, but whose names don’t be widely recognized by the larger scene; the sickest players whose names you will never forget after you learn about them. For the first edition of Challengers, I’ve spoken to Eve, a rising Jigglypuff player from MDVA. We talk about Melee and all that she’s experienced because of it over the last decade. We also dive into her experience around transitioning, purpose, and some other fun topics. All this is for you to maybe learn a little bit more about the unfamiliar people in your major’s top 64 bracket, because people deserve to be known. I think it’s way cooler to realize that so many people have more of a shot than you might realize.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thank you to Lyla, who transcribed this interview with Eve.
Hi! This is the start of a new series that I’ll be conducting to highlight some players that might not be as well known in the national scene, but are heavy hitters on the verge of a breakout and big fishes in their own region. To start, tell me a little bit about yourself. What’s your tag, who do you play, and where are you from?
Hello! My tag is Eve. My name is also Eve, Eve Ferro. I come from MD/VA, born and raised in Maryland. I’ve lived there all my life. And I play Jigglypuff! I’ve played Jigglypuff for almost the entire time I played Melee. I had a brief stint for like 3 months with Falco right at the start, but ever since then I’ve been loyal.
When did you start playing Melee? What was your origin story?
I started playing competitively in like 2015, I was kinda borderline for a while but the way that I mark it for myself in terms of like, when it got real-real, was when I made my Smashladder account. Before that, I played with my siblings and obviously we played as kids. But as we grew up, we kind of became aware of competitive techniques. There’s kind of a grey area there. You could reasonably say that I started like a year or two earlier.
What motivated you to start playing Melee back in the day?
So, my story is actually that I played Melee and Brawl all throughout when I was a kid. My brothers and I would switch back and forth depending on which we wanted to play. We all thought that Melee had the better engine, but we just liked that there was like Lucario and Toon Link and Wolf or whatever in Brawl. So whenever we wanted the new characters, we’d play Brawl and then we would play Melee whenever. So I’ve played Melee my whole life. For the longest time I knew about the competitive scene, but I always thought “I can’t do that, Melee is too hard for me.” And then when Smash 4 came out, we started playing that a lot, and I started watching a lot of YouTube content, and I saw a bunch of Xanadu clips on GRsmash. And I was like oh my god that’s in Maryland! That’s actually a tournament that I could go to that’s very prestigious. And I really liked playing Smash 4 with my brothers and I’ve always been a competitive person. So I kinda just wanted to experience it and see how I would stack up and all that stuff. I feel like it’s a pretty normal Smash thing, you kinda think you’re the best ever when you’re the best of your little group. I was the best of my friends and siblings so I was like, okay I’m gonna go to Xanadu.
What I didn’t realize is that I was too much better than my siblings and friends that I started rotating characters all the time. They would always complain about whatever one I was beating them with. You know how whichever character you’re beating your brothers with is like, the “cheap” character? So I ended up swapping between a bunch of different characters. And then I got to the tournament and I was like “who do I want to play?” And then my favorite characters were like, Zelda and Puff. And I don’t know how much Smash 4 you played, but that’s a death sentence. Playing those 2 characters is uh…they’re both very bad. And I’m a very competitive person, so if I feel like I’m handicapping myself I don’t like that. I could never be a low tier player. So then I tried playing Sheik because I knew she was good, but it just didn’t feel right, and then after like a tournament or two of losing to Pac-Man and playing characters that I didn’t feel like clicked with me, or were too bad for me to have fun with in a competitive setting, I was like “Wait a second. If I’m not even enjoying the competitive aspect of Smash 4, why am I entering Smash 4 tournaments – why don’t I just play Melee? I love that game, that game’s always been so fun to me.”
I thought it was too hard but if I’m not gonna have any fun with Smash 4 anyway then like what’s the point, you know? So I just started playing Melee cause I just liked it better. Honestly, I just always thought that the engine was better, the combos were cooler, the top player play was cooler and so eventually I realized that Melee was way more enjoyable for me whether or not I’m getting dogged on. You know like, even if it’s hard I’m just gonna keep going. I went on Smashladder like I said and then, you know, I really liked that. I started entering online tournaments there, and I really liked that, and I started meeting friends and stuff. And that was awesome. And eventually, I came to real life tournaments. I had the same thing happen again where I kinda got like “good” on Smashladder and then I said, “okay I’m gonna go own people in real life.” I got back into it and I wasn’t the best in the region or anything like that, but I did pretty well for myself I would say. And I’ve just been playing ever since then. It’s been a big passion of mine ever since then.
Were you a hardstuck 2-2er when you started or did you improve a lot out the gate?
It’s hard to say if like, how hardstuck I was because like I said I didn’t actually start going to IRL tournaments very much until like way later, cause I was like a kid right. All the tournaments near me were 30+ minutes away. When I was a kid, I could only get my dad to drive me every now and then. I can’t make him drive me like, 45 minutes to University of Maryland or Xanadu all the time, right? That’s too much. If it was 30 or 25 minutes, that’s one thing, but 45 is way too much, cause he’s driving there and back and he has to do it again when I called him to pick me up. He’d be driving, like, 3 hours total. I felt like I couldn’t do that.
So I just played Smashladder for a while, and eventually I started entering the Netplay tournaments. I don’t really know how this correlates in a lot of people’s minds cause this was delay-based Melee so not everyone played tournaments. A lot of people thought that delay-based Netplay was fake Melee, and honestly, I don’t really blame them. It did have its faults, for sure, and you had to have a good connection and stuff. That always was really annoying to deal with. But, in those tournaments, I think I was pretty hardstuck when I was playing Falco. I started entering those tournaments with Falco, and I wasn’t seeing too much improvement. But even when I started playing Falco, my real love was always Jigglypuff. I found myself playing more Jigglypuff in friendlies than Falco and I would practice Puff more. I would just play Falco in tournament cause that was just like my “main” or whatever, but I never practiced him. I mean I practiced him a little, but I really just wanted to play Puff. And the reason I didn’t play her for a long time was because of outside expectations, you know? I saw how people treated Hungrybox. Stuff like that.
But once I started playing Puff, I started having that passion, and that’s when I started seeing much greater improvement. I feel like I actually enjoyed what I was doing and that made it way more compelling to me and easier to stick with and stuff. And the other thing that helped me out – at first, I was just doing my own thing. But eventually, I actually matched with Akir way back in the day, back when we were both like, not nearly as good as we are now, and he played my Falco. And something about my Falco like, struck him in some way. I don’t know what he saw because my Falco was dog back then. But um, but he invited me to this crew, and that crew ended up having like a lot of good players. And they’re still my friends today but it was like, Kacey and Agent and Akir and Ossify and all these people. And I was one of the newer players and I’m always really competitive so I wanted to beat all my friends. I lost to Akir like nine times in a row but goddamn it, I was gonna get better. So I feel like what really drove my improvement is having that passion for the character and having those rivals.
What kind of crew had Kacey, Agent, Akir, and Ossify back in 2015? That’s a stacked ass crew. Did you all come up together?
Yeah, some more than others, you know, Dylan’s (Ossify) definitely got me beat. But, uh, yeah definitely a lot of good players. Seven is also in that crew, but Seven was not as good back then. Seven had like a huge spike in being really really good like right before COVID and then during COVID but unfortunately he was kinda on the lower rungs of the crew. I mean, he was like 13 so it’s not that surprising.
So did you start recruiting people into your crew if you fucked with them?
Technically, Seven made the original crew. There’s a whole host of lore about delay-based Netplay stuff and how this all happened, but Seven made the original crew, Synergy. In that crew there was me, Kacey, Akir, and Seven. There were a whole lot of other people too but they didn’t last as long. It was more public than what I’m listing just cause a lot of people came and went, you know? It was a pretty big crew but this is like the core that ended up like, staying in the friend group forever. Cause this was like 10 years ago at this point. Seven made Synergy, and then we migrated over to IBM and that was when we recruited Agent. Ossify came in once we had migrated AGAIN to a different server called Reality, and that’s where Ossify and Hollowy were both recruited then. And so it’s kinda built players over time. But even once we got all the core members, none of us were top 100. Maybe top 100 level, but none of us were ranked or anything. It was cool cause it was a pool of practice and we all played each other so much that I feel like we all got way better because of it.
So there’s way more lore than I thought.
Oh yeah, I could do a whole thing on just delay-based Netplay lore, haha. A lot of this was like, East Coast centric because, obviously back then – even nowadays, a cross country connection is kinda sus, but on delay-based, kids don’t know it was actually HORRIBLE, and nobody had fiber back then. So it was really really bad and you would have to just turn up the buffer so you would be playing SUPER delayed Melee. It felt like your grandma’s LCD widescreen monitor. It was just not real, and it would spike and then it would freeze the game. It was no good. So most of the tournaments ended up only being East Coast and Midwest, and that was where me and my friends kinda ran things. Both, literally, in terms of like, Akir was one of the biggest TOs for that era, and also we would win every tournament. And then there were a few other people that would show up every now and then.
Cody used to play back then, and he wasn’t as good as he is now, obviously, but he was still pretty good so he would do well in tournaments. Oh, Jerry’s another big one. Every now and then he would come in and destroy us. But because it was so often just us in finals, we ended up doing a lot of silly things. I remember there was this one time that Ossify and Akir were playing in Grand Finals, and they did a best of 5 of best of 3s of various games. It was like a best of 3 aim duel in CS in game 1, best of 3 Hearthstone in game 2, best of 3 like, Yu Gi Oh in game 3, and then like, Connect 4 game 4 and then, I think game 5 was like… I don’t even remember. I don’t know if it went game 5 but it was funny. But like I said I could talk forever and ever about delay-based Netplay.
Yeah, I mean if you have a crew that stacked, I wouldn’t be surprised that you were running things.
So you started competitively in Smash 4? I feel like there were a couple different entry points to Melee. The Smash doc, PM, Smash 4, and GRSmash were the big ones from what I remember. Did you watch the doc or play PM at all?
Yes, I actually did every single one on the list. I watched the doc after I had started getting into Melee already. It was after I knew about competitive Melee but I watched that thing so many times. I would probably watch the doc a couple times during every summer break. And that one Amazing Shadow video has probably gotten like, double digit views from me specifically, which is crazy. As a kid, I was so invested into it. And now I watch it and there’s so many parts that I don’t remember that did not age well and I think about how I didn’t even notice this. I literally just glossed over it because I just thought, “These guys are just so epic.”
But yeah. I watched the doc, like, a million times. I played PM with my brothers as well actually. And I don’t remember which came first. But we definitely played PM before I started playing competitive Melee. And it was a ton of fun. You know how earlier I was talking about how we would switch over to Brawl from Melee to play some of the new characters? That was childhood Eve’s fantasy. I was like, “oh my god it’s like Melee but you can play as all the different characters.” So yeah, I did it all basically. SmashLadder, the doc, PM, Smash 4, just everything on the list.
Do you have a favorite player?
When I was a really really big casual, my first inspiration was Hungrybox. This was before I knew ANYTHING about Hungrybox. Back when Hungrybox, to me, was just a Curse jersey in the player cam because he’s standing up and everyone else is sitting down and they don’t wanna adjust the camera to him. He was a faceless entity that got cool rests, and he would rest people and that was awesome to me.
After I was in the community for a little bit, I still had a soft spot for Hbox because like, he got me into the game in a certain sense and he was like, THE Puff but I started to appreciate other players. Plup has been one of my favorite players the entire time that I’ve played. I’ve always thought that Plup was so sick. Like, when I was a teenager, beating Leffen with Samus was like the coolest thing ever, especially on like a backup controller. I thought his Sheik was super clean. And then every now and then he would go Luigi and stuff, and it was so cool. And later on I liked Magi. You know, everyone loves Magi.
Woo Magi!
Woo Magi! I actually really like Wizzrobe. He’s really cool because after I saw Wizzrobe play, I feel like it clicked for me that this is how you should play the character. And S2J is really good, but I feel like back in the day he didn’t play Falcon how I thought he should be played in my brain. Obviously, there’s no single correct way to play a character but like, Wizzy’s Falcon just made so much more sense to me. It was so cool seeing someone push this completely foreign side of the character and transform Falcon’s identity from the cool reads guy to the flowcharty, super precise, super consistent punish kind of guy. And I know a lot of people think Wizzy’s kinda boring and I understand that. But I just respect it when someone comes to a character and optimizes them so heavily where you can really see it in their whole gameplan. And I thought it was super sick that he started beating Hungrybox because I always wondered “why are no Falcons ever beating him?” That didn’t seem right. And then Wizzy started doing that and that was really cool.
I’ve liked a lot of different players over the years. As a kid, I had a love-hate relationship with Leffen. Like I really hated basically everything that Leffen said about the game, but I’m a sucker for the Sasuke types. You know, like… the emo, in-their-feelings kinda players. Like, Tweek is my favorite Smash 4/Ultimate player. And I feel like part of that is because I related to him when he would like, post the crazy emo tweets. And everyone loves a villain. That part of Leffen was compelling to me. I do think he’s kind of an asshole, but, you know, what are you gonna do, haha. I was a SilentWolf fan too but he retired unfortunately.
Is there anyone in your local community that is an inspiration to you?
Hmm, an inspiration? In terms of my local scene, my ride or die day one is Seven. We were homies back before we even knew that we lived near each other. We were just like friends on SmashLadder by coincidence, and then we ended up going to IRL tournaments together. Seven was 13 and I was like, 15. And we’ve been ride or die ever since. So that’s my number one shoutout, Seven is my goat. They’ve improved so so so so so much over the past five years and it’s been really awesome to see.
Someone who I think was a really big help in terms of my relationship with the scene was Louise from MDVA. Louise and I were transitioning at the same time and we kinda just became friends really quickly. We would hang out all the time and she was always super social. I don’t think that I’m an unsocial person, but I have a hard time when I don’t know someone at all. But she just introduced me to so many people that it felt like I knew almost everyone in Maryland. And that I think helped me become more connected with my local scene. Back in like 2016 or whatever, my dad would drive me to the local and I would play with earbuds in the whole time. All I would say to people is “can I join this rotation,” “GGs,” “you can strike first,” etc. I didn’t talk to anybody. And then as soon as I lost, I called my dad and dipped. Which I don’t think is ever really sustainable. You can’t just show up and not talk to people. Treating Melee like it’s an exam and like it’s this daunting thing every time and not having the support of your friends is terrible. I don’t know if I would’ve lasted that way in the community. So Louise was a huge help to me in the community.
I think the person that I probably look up to the most in terms of gameplay right now and as a person as well is Kevin Maples. We’ve been very good friends for like the last 2 or 3 years. And they’re extremely extremely good, like, frustratingly good. Like you feel like you can’t do anything vs them. And we’ve discussed a lot of gameplay stuff and I think it’s been beneficial to both of us. I think I’ve been able to help them with some labbing and analysis aspects, while they help me with amazing practice and we VOD review together. So Kevin’s probably my biggest inspiration right now.
No, yeah. I’ve been a huge Kevin Maples fan since COVID, I totally get that.
Yeah, absolutely. It’s like, it just makes me scream, “Aghhhh Fox!” you know? They’re just so good that they can express their will so well with the character that it just feels suffocating. But I have to respect it. It’s amazing gameplay.
Do you think your transition had anything to do with coming out of your shell?
I think it’s definitely like, a little bit of Column A and a little bit of Column B. I think I was certainly getting way more comfortable in my skin and more confident around that time, but also like even now… This is silly because this shouldn’t be how it works, but I’m good enough in the region where most people know who I am, so even if I don’t know who they are, I can kinda assume they’ve seen me on the PR or on a stream or whatever. So that makes the barrier way easier. But I think even after transitioning, it would’ve been hard for me to make the connections that I did. I would probably end up being friends with most of the people that I’m friends with now, but it would’ve been a lot slower. I think that Louise definitely expedited that. And I’m always very thankful for that.
Eventually I’d keep getting better, and eventually people would know my name. And then once that happens you’ll have people come up to you at a tournament and they’ll be like “are you Eve?” and I’m like, “Yeah!!! Who are you??” Haha, which is not to say that I’m some big shot, like this doesn’t happen out of region. So I think I would’ve come out of my shell eventually but I think it would’ve taken like, 3 more years instead of a couple months.
What are your goals in Melee going into 2026 and beyond that?
So my #1 goal right now is to make top 100, at least as an extrinsic goal. That’s been my dream since I was like 15 years old. I used to be like, “Man, if I could be top 100 in the world that would be SO awesome. I’d be like a real top player,” you know? That’s how I thought about it back then. My perception is very different now and I have different feelings about the rankings. Back when I was a kid, the rankings came out and that was just like the truth, you know?
But now that I’m more into it, I know that there are outside factors. Like this person didn’t get to travel as much, or this person didn’t get ranked because they didn’t meet attendance. I’m way too deep into it now. When I was a kid, I was just like “that’s awesome, I wanna be on that list.” But that part of me has never changed. I still do really wanna be on the list, as much as that might hurt my mental. I think I’ve got a pretty good year going so far, so fingers crossed. It’s not over yet, but I have no idea if I’ll make it or not.
I’m definitely crossing my fingers for you. I think you’ve been doing pretty well this year, right?
We’ll see what happens. If I don’t get top 100 this year, then we’ll run it back next year, same goal. Get top 100. Other than that, I would really really love to play on Sunday at a major. I’ve been one round away a few times. At Collision I was one round away, I lost to Jmook in losers. At the Collision 2 years before that, I was one round away. I lost to Magi in the closest set ever but we don’t have to talk about that. And there have been a few other times where I’ve been really close. So making Sunday is another huge extrinsic goal. In terms of intrinsic goals… it’s kind of nebulous, but I really wanna have more fun with the game. ‘Cause I love this game, but sometimes in tournament, the demons can win, you know? And it becomes more of like a competition or a performance or a test moreso than a fun thing that I want to do. So that’s a big one – finding the fun in every situation. And I’ve also been getting better at this. Like, the Cliche set was a good example of me just having fun with it. I wasn’t super locked in and sweating and waiting to pop off like Hungrybox. That’s fine, but for me personally it feels like growth when I feel less like the dread is leaving and more like the joy is coming. I feel like that’s much better.
And then also working on nerves – this is something that I think I’ve gotten a lot better at. I am a very anxious person. I have panic disorders and that’s been very hard for me as a Melee player. For a long time, I had a lot of trouble showing what I felt like was my potential because I would do so well in friendlies. I know that everyone says this but – just trust me, it was like an extreme severe difference to the point where even people around me were commenting on it. I would do really really well against even top players in friendlies. And I would just do way worse in in-person tournaments and I could feel why. I would overheat, I’d get hives, my hands start shaking, my hands start sweating, I can barely hold my controller. My breath gets short, all that stuff. I’m always gonna be working on my nerves, but I think I’ve made a lot of progress on it. A lot of stuff that I’ve learned from psychology in school and therapy is stuff that I use in tournaments. There are breathing exercises that I use to help me stay calm. A lot of it is also stuff like muscle relaxation because having your muscles relaxed is associated with being calm. People think about being calm mentally, but it also works in the other way as well.
So something I’ve been working on in tournament is making sure my whole body is relaxed. Because I can feel myself get more anxious as my muscles tense up, it’s like this vicious cycle. And so releasing that tension has been huge for me. And having fun makes me feel less anxious, so they work hand in hand. Because it’s less about, “everyone’s watching me, everyone wants to see how I’m doing.” It’s more like “I wanna win this game for me,” you know? So those have been my goals for a long time. If I get top 100 then, I don’t know what my next extrinsic goal would be other than making it on Sunday. I guess I’d wanna climb up on the list but I’ll have to cross that bridge when I get to it, you know. I can’t really… I don’t know what my heart wants until it tells me.
Those seem like some really good goals. I think it’s really easy to get swept up in getting better and improving your results because, you know, they matter to us. I never like it when people are like, “oh it’s just a game”, you know? Because it matters to us. But at the same time, I think it’s a good idea to take a step back and think about what we’re doing all of this for. We can have fun and improve at the same time and I think it’s easy for us to forget that because Melee can be unfun sometimes, especially if you’re approaching things with a more serious, do-or-die mindset.
But anyway. Can you tell me about some of the wins you picked up this year? It seems like you’re knocking on the door to top 100.
Yeah! So, um, I might be forgetting some, which is probably a good problem to have. But I started the year out with, technically at MD/VA Summit I beat Zain’s Fox. I don’t know if that means anything, I don’t think it does but I guess that might be listed on the spreadsheet. But I don’t care about that one as much. At Garden Brawl, I beat 404Cray which is maybe my best win of the whole year. And then I also beat Bonn at that tournament, which was cool because Bonn went and beat Jmook the next tournament. So that was cool, my Jmook number went down.
At Creed, I was able to beat Dawson in the Puff ditto which I’m really proud about because Dawson used to enter the Netplay delay-based tournaments – I swear to god I won’t talk about this too long – but he used to enter, and back in the day I was top Puff and I beat Dawson every time. But then Dawson flipped it on me and started beating me every time. And then I didn’t beat Dawson for a while, until this year I was finally able to beat him again. And so that was maybe like the biggest personal win for the whole year. With 404Cray, it was one of those sets where anyone could’ve won. I feel like I’ve always had really good Falco practice from just playing against Kacey all the time. I think she’s one of the best in the world at that matchup. So that one was cool, don’t get me wrong, because 404Cray is amazing and went on to do amazing things the rest of this year, but Dawson was like a very big personal win for me because he was able to shift that record over me and started beating me every time. I hate when that happens. I think every competitor hates when that happens, when someone you used to beat starts just whooping on you and you have no choice but to hold it. But at the same time you’re like “aghhh, I should be beating you.” So that was big.
And then at GOML, I beat Solobattle, so I’ve been having a good year in the Puff ditto which is cool. And then I also beat The Weapon, formerly known as Elliot. Not everyone might know him, but real ones know Elliot is crazy good. And that was a hard set to win.
That’s the Hbox slayer!
That’s true, that’s true! And then at Supernova, I think my biggest win was Cliche, and then I went to Collision and I think my best win there was Maher. So I didn’t have upsets as big as my earlier part of the year. But I think part of that is just me getting seeded better later in the year, especially at Supernova. So it was one of those things where like, I just wasn’t in the bracket path to get huge upsets. Not saying I would’ve if I was, but, you know. I ended up at Collision and lost to Jmook in losers and I lost to lloD in winners. And you know Llod obviously went on to get like… 4th? And then Jmook got like 9th. And so what are you gonna do right? And Maher and Cliche are amazing players, but not quite as juicy as the Dawson or the 404Cray wins. I think that’s about it.
There’s also like, I’ve also gotten some good wins in region but I don’t know how much that counts for top 100. I’m not tapped into the process. But in region I’ve gotten wins on like Frostbyte, Khryke, mvlvchi, uh, other people I think.
Yeah, I’m not sure. I think regionals count for the ballot? Monthlies might count, and locals definitely don’t count.
Yeah. That’s always hard for MDVA cause I feel like our tournaments get so big. We had an INYIM that was over 120 people or something like that. And I think like 10 of those were out of region. We’re such a big region that I don’t even know anymore… like what counts and what doesn’t as a regional. It’s just, we can get so many people on our own. But I’m not even worried about that. I think I’ve been doing pretty well even just at the regionals and nationals, but we’ll see what happens. I do have two top 50 wins based on the summer rankings which is cool.
Yeah we’ll leave it in Melee Stats Danny’s hands. The shadow arbiter of Melee can decide whether you deserve to make top 100 this year.
Can you think of any other big moments in your career? I know you mentioned that the Dawson win at Creed was big for you as a player – are there any other wins like that that you felt were pretty pivotal in your career?
Just like, all time in my career? Okay, the first time I beat Akir honestly was huge for me. Because, more so than anybody else, it felt like I had been playing him like every single week in those Netplay tournaments and he would just beat me every single time. And I really really wanted to beat him. Eventually, I was able to, and that was huge for me. I really like looking back on the time I beat Salt at Function 2, that was cool. It was a super close set and I was able to win. And she wasn’t ranked as highly as she is now but even then she was like, top 30 or so. And I was able to get the dub. Honestly I feel like the Function streams don’t manage to get as much buzz but you know… I felt like that was a pretty cool upset, I didn’t really see it get talked about anywhere which is, you know, no big deal. But… haha… no big deal.
Yeah, I’d say I’m pretty tapped in to that kinda stuff and I didn’t know about the Salt win.
Well, there you go. The video has like 150 views on YouTube, you know. Like my grand finals at Xanadu vs. CBass has 2k views but me getting this crazy upset… anyway. So that was a cool moment. And then there’s a lot of doubles moments. I have a lot of really fond doubles moments with Maples. We got top 8 at the last Big House, which was awesome. We got top 4 at Supernova, and we even got a medal. Which was crazy. I’ve gotten a medal from an actual major now, which is insane for me to think about.
Yeah! I was rooting for you the whole run at Supernova, I feel like it’s the first time I’ve seen you two play on stream together. I run a Fox/Puff team sometimes too so I wanted to learn some things to learn from your sets with Kevin.
Thank you, thank you. We also got top 4 at Collision, but sadly, no medal there. And those are all really nice to think about. But my favorite doubles moment, I think, is… at INYIM. It was an INYIM on February 23rd, which is my birthday. But the INYIM was centered around Large Marge leaving our region. So I was kinda worried that like, you know, not to be selfish or anything but… when it’s your birthday and someone else’s birthday, it’s not that you don’t want them to get the attention but lowkey you want a little bit of attention. It’s your birthday! You know? And so like, I wasn’t too bent out of shape or anything about it but I expected most people to not know it was my birthday. Maybe I would get a birthday blunt but not much more than that.
But anyway, I was having a really good time at INYIM. I only entered doubles. I didn’t enter singles because I didn’t wanna mess up the vibes of my birthday. And we played against Zodd and Zain. For anyone who’s not tapped into doubles, Zodd is a very very good doubles player. He gets referenced a lot in doubles circles when people ask for questions. He’s just been a consistent major top 8 threat with whatever given teammate. And he’s playing with Zain. So that’s like, spooky. And we had lost to them earlier at MDVA Summit. But, at INYIM, we lost in winners but then came back in losers and 3-1ed them twice to reset the bracket and then win. And… There are very few sets where I feel like I was just gaming, you know? I wasn’t anxious, I was doing what I wanted to do. And that was very satisfying. And we were able to win, which was awesome.
And then, I’m super happy from the win, I turn around, and like 5 seconds after, everyone keeps cheering and then there’s a little quiet. And then people start singing happy birthday to me. Little did I know that there were plans to celebrate my birthday. Everyone sang happy birthday and brought out a cake. And I got given this scrapbook that Maples had put together for me. Which was just a bunch of quotes of people in the region saying different memories and whatever with me. And um, that was really awesome.
I feel like that birthday win would be one of the highlights of my entire life. I feel like I would probably cry if that happened to me. It’s really sweet that MDVA seems like such a close and tight-knit region and that you’re such a beloved person there.
I was close, I was close to tears of joy. It was crazy, I don’t know. One more moment that I look back on, and then we can move on, is um, [SOMETHING] 12, I think it was, where I had the same feeling as the sets against Zodd and Zain. I was able to beat Seven in winners finals because Seven had gotten an upset on Kevin Maples. And then Kevin Maples beat Seven in losers, but then I was able to beat Kevin Maples in grands and win the whole tournament. I feel like I played maybe the best I had played in tournament ever. And it’s funny, because there’s like no stream, no recording, no Slippi VOD or anything. You’re just gonna have to take my word for it. But I was playing crazy. And that felt really good because Seven is an amazing player and is frustratingly good vs Puff, and so is Kevin Maples. And I was able to just play my game and make it happen and win the whole thing and that was just… you know, I was ecstatic.
What motivates you to grind and play nowadays? I know I asked you why you started playing Melee at the start, but I imagine things change as you get older. Like, for example, we might have grinded for hours every day back in high school. But I don’t know anyone that has been doing that for 10 years straight without taking breaks to do other things. Cause we get burnt out, you know? So what keeps you coming back to Melee?
Yeah, I definitely don’t play as much as I did in high school when I was neglecting all my homework, haha. But it’s multi-faceted for me. There’s a lot of stuff that keeps me coming back. A big one for me is obviously the people. Even if I ever stopped playing Melee competitively, I don’t think I could ever stop coming to tournaments entirely if all the people I know are still there. Even if it’s just to hang out or play friendlies or whatever, just having that sense of community with so many people and being around people that share your same passion… I don’t know. It’s different. I’ve got friends outside of Melee but it’s different. You can hang out at a place with like a hundred people and know 90% of them. Like that’s just… that’s awesome, you know? So I don’t think I could ever give up that aspect of it.
I’m still a very competitive person. It’s diminished now from when I was in high school and I had super high emotions with it, but I still wanna prove myself. Even if it’s just to myself, you know? Like, I just… I wanna keep getting better. And I don’t like losing, ever. I don’t like losing to anybody. Some losses hurt more than others. If I lose to Cody, I’m not like frothing mad cause I know it’s a tough matchup. In the back of my mind, I still think, “I wanted to win that, though.” At Collision, I lost to Llod and Jmook, and they beat me pretty bad in some of the games. But some of the games were really doable. And that, to me, just feeds this part of my brain where I feel like I can beat these people. I want to prove that to everybody and myself. Part of me believes it, but part of me is like, “Oh, but are you actually ever gonna beat them?” I just wanna silence all of that and win. It’s something that’s been in me my whole life. I used to not even compete in anything because I hated losing so much. But now I found something that I really care about, so now I can use that in a more positive way and have it act as motivation rather than just making me want to quit. So that keeps me coming back, that’s been a through line my entire time playing Melee.
And then, other than that…another big part about Melee that I love is warming up my friends and seeing them beat another Puff and thanking me afterward. That’s an amazing feeling for me. So even if I stopped competing, if one of my friends was like, “hey Eve, I have a Puff in my bracket,” I would pick up the sticks immediately. Like there’s no question. I don’t know if everyone feels like that but that’s something that also keeps me coming back. Doubles is just naturally very rewarding to me, too. You have another person you can both rely on and lift up, which I think is very motivating. If I stopped playing singles, I would keep playing doubles at least for a little while.
What’s your practice routine like? Where do you find the time?
I do a little bit lighter of a class load than most people normally do for my mental health, and also so I can still have some time to dedicate to my hobbies and stuff. I usually do like three courses a semester, and with that much I’ll stack them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So when I don’t have schoolwork I can play on like Monday or Wednesday or Friday or whatever. I think that the biggest portion of my practice right now would be just friendlies with other really good people, whether it be someone in my friend group or just pinging Melee Online, like #master chat or whatever. That’s like my number one thing, I’ve always loved playing friendlies and I like figuring stuff out on the fly. That’s my natural way of doing it, and then obviously I add in the other stuff as supplementary stuff. But I really just like trying to figure it out while I’m playing, or at least if I have an idea from something else then I’ll try to play with it in mind. I love playing friendlies sessions that are like an hour or more. I don’t really love playing a friendlies session that’s only 20 minutes because if it’s back and forth then I want more of it. If I’m winning the whole time, I wanna give them a chance to adapt. If they’re winning the whole time, I wanna give myself a chance to adapt. So no matter how you slice it, I want a longer friendlies session.
When I find myself either not getting a response, or I just have a little bit of time, I might boot up UnclePunch. There are a few different criteria for when I UnclePunch. If I haven’t done it all day then I’ll open up UnclePunch and I’ll do some practice and stuff. So if I only have like 20 minutes and I know I gotta go, I’ll just do like, I’ll just do Unclepunch. And so that’s probably like my second biggest thing of practice. Something that I also do a lot is just mess around with stuff with different mechanics in UnclePunch, even if it’s not anything related to Puff. I just like toying around with the game. And, you know, I’ve always kinda been like the labber of my friend group. Like if people need a Melee labbing answer, then I’m the person that they’ll ask and I’ll do it because I’ve always liked doing that stuff. And so that’s another part of it, where it’s like sometimes that’s just for leisure ‘cause I find it fun but then sometimes I find stuff that I like and solutions that I like when I’m just messing around or when I’m just thinking about stuff in Unclepunch. So that’s another component.
The one that I’m the worst at is analysis. I still do it, but less than I should. Analysis is honestly really hard for me just because it takes a lot of emotional strength for me to like, relive losses and stuff. Like I said, I’ve always really really hated losing, so I find that I have a lot more to chew on if I lose a set. I feel like if I won then… not to say “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” because I could punch up and like try to beat players even better than that, but if stuff’s working out, you don’t really have to comment on that. You can kinda see it and be like “okay well that worked, I understand why I did that,” right? But facing the losses is honestly really hard. And something I’m trying to work on as well is having the emotional strength to be able to not only face that but do it consistently and also be able to be constructive about it the whole time. Right now it’s hard to do it if I’m already feeling sad that day or if I’m just not in a good mood for whatever reason it’s hard for me to do that. So that’s the thing I do the least. I obviously watch a lot of top level Melee and I’ll try to think about things while I’m watching it but I think that’s like my worst thing. But that’s basically like, my practice routine right now is just… mostly friendlies, then some UnclePunch, and then some labbing, and then, you know, messing around. And then a little bit of analysis. But honestly I should really do more analysis.
Yeah, I think watching footage of you losing is probably the #1 biggest thing that people hate doing. Something that I’ve tried to do with that is separating myself from the game and just taking away what the character on screen is doing well and what they’re doing badly. Like I’m allowed to say “that was a fuckass nair” and not think about the fact that it lost me the set.
So what exactly does Puff practice in UnclePunch? I am totally unfamiliar and I have like 5 hours of Puff played in my entire life.
The first thing I’ll do when I go into Unclepunch is RTC rests on different characters. There are some savestates that are set up so that it’ll just do the four tech options. But what I like to do is stand center-stage of Battlefield and I’ll up throw the Fox and just have a savestate right there. So if they go slight, then I’ll rest them. If they go on the platform then I’ll try to react to whatever they’re doing. And that’s a hard RTC rest situation to react to because Battlefield platforms are pretty long. It’s tight if you’re that far away. But I find that it’s very helpful ‘cause sometimes, I feel like if I practice too much on one specific scenario I’m almost like too tunnel visioned on it.
I do RTC rest practice on Fox, Sheik, Marth, um… even though Marth can kinda just DI out of it. Not all the Marth mains know that, so it’s still useful. I’ll also wavedash around, pretty basic. That’s good for everybody. But it’s good with Puff to have good wavedashes. I’ll try to practice very quick OoS wavedashes. Something that I practice for a good bit but I feel like I never end up doing it – it seems so unnatural to me is singdropping. I don’t really like… I really need to work it into my play better. But I have practiced it a lot so I can do it. And if I have a situation that comes up in friendlies that I’m not liking then I’ll try to go into Unclepunch and practice that specifically.
In the new UnclePunch community edition, I’ll do the edgeguarding practice, which is nice. It’s not perfect, but I’m very thankful for the community edition – they’ve added so many good things. And then specific situations… if I’m really feeling unconfident in them I’ll practice the basic rests. Different up airs and different up tilt rest spacings and DIs and whatnot. But that’s not as often, I feel like I usually get enough practice of that in game. Drill rest is pretty hard to do because you really need to be looking out for if they do a specific animation or not. That’s the most standard way to drill rest. Technically at higher %s you can drill instant jump rest on any animation but it’s really tight and really risky if you miss it ‘cause they can just shield. But if the character does the little spike stun animation and they flip, then you can just stand there and rest them because their hitbox will go into you and they are stunned for longer. It’s not like super duper applicable all the time, but I’ll practice it a decent amount. I’ll just put someone up to the percent where they can be in spike stun. If they do the little tumble, you rest them, but if they don’t, then I usually go for grab. And so practicing that reaction has been good. It’s still really scary to go for in tournament sometimes because it’s such a split second decision thing and it’s very risky if you end up missing it. You really need to be confident which is another reason that I have to practice it and stuff. Another thing is getting drill edge-cancel vs. drill teeter-cancel can be important in some certain scenarios. I’ll practice getting drill edge-cancel into rest, or drill teeter-cancel into forward smash, or sometimes teeter cancel into rest.
Before there was the edgeguarding thing on the community edition, I had a savestate that I set up to practice Marth Killer 2.0 on Puff. It’s not something I use super often because I don’t find it to be too reliable ‘cause at the end of the day I still have to make a read on their timing. So if I have a couple ways to go about it I’ll usually probably prefer those. When I was newer to the game I would practice a lot of more basic stuff like jab reset rest. That used to be a little tricky for me between the different characters for a long time. I also practiced Puff ledgedashing. It can be good. I think it’s a little overrated, because a lot of people will be like “why doesn’t Hbox ledgedash” and like yeah he could. But at the end of the day like, you’re Puff, and then you ledgedash, and then you’re on the stage as Puff, and that’s cool and all but like… if you’re Fox you can get a ledgedash into shine, upsmash, nair, whatever. As Puff, your options are actually very limited afterwards because you don’t get as much GALINT and your jumpsquat is slower and you’re just slower in general. Other than that, Eggsercise is good for practicing trying to space as far as you can away from the eggs. There’s probably more stuff that I’m forgetting, especially for newer players, but those are the things that I end up practicing in UnclePunch the most.
Do you have any tips for people who are trying to improve and reach the next level? It seems like you’ve been pretty good for a long time but now you’re really starting to make waves.
Yes, I would agree with that. I feel like I’ve been around PR level for a while. I was PRed here for like the last few years and now I’m kind of making more of a splash nationally. As for advice, this one I’ll start with is a little basic. I feel like when you’re starting and trying to get PR level or top 100 or whatever, I think that you should stick with one character. I think that splitting up your time with different characters is very very very very difficult. And I think if you look at the best players of Melee, a lot of people will be like “oh, these players are like, counterpickers!” But, if you look at their history, a lot of them only started counterpicking after they got really good.
PPMD – known for playing Marth and Falco, but before he was top 10 he was only playing Falco. Armada – known for playing Peach and Fox and sometimes Young Link – he did swap off for Puff almost immediately – but, other than that one matchup he’s been playing Peach for pretty much the entire time. You know, even Mang0, who plays dual spacies and has gone Marth or whatever, while he was on the come up he was just playing Puff. Even Mew2King, who plays a bunch of different characters – when he was on the come up, he was mostly playing Fox. And that’s just a pattern that I’ve noticed. People that have gotten good while playing multiple characters are moreso exceptions than the rule. So that’s like the first thing that I’d say.
And then another thing I think that I see that people make mistakes with when they’re newer or starting out is… Sometimes I’ll play friendlies vs. someone, right? And this is not a knock against anyone I’ve played friendlies with, ‘cause I totally understand the feeling. But I’ve played vs. people, and they’ve like, left the setup. ‘Cause they feel like they’re wasting their time or wasting the other person’s time or they’re not gaining anything. I heavily disagree with that. I feel like even if you end up bashing your head against the same wall of playing a really good player, I think that that’s good practice. And I think that eventually, if you’re really in it to win it and you’re trying to like, adapt the whole time, you will make progress from that. Even if it’s against someone who’s like really really good – I’m not saying that your only practice if you’re an 0-2er should be Jmook or something. But if you can get Jmook games, I don’t think you should look a gift horse in the mouth, you know? You can use that as something to try to get better or at least get new ideas in your head.
I was in it to win it every single game. I wanted to win every single friendly, I wanted to win, like, I wanted to make adaptations and I wanted to beat them, even if they were a lot better than me. And I think having that ambition while you’re playing people who are really good is really helpful. I think that people have this thought process that like, if they’re playing vs. a top player they’re wasting their time, right? And if the other person doesn’t wanna play vs. you, then they’ll leave. And that’s fine if that’s the case, right. But if they’re playing with you, then they’re probably fine with it. And I think that that’s good practice, you know? You can only make so many waves if you’re only playing against people near your skill. I think playing people around your skill is also super helpful but you can get ideas from better players. You can try to adapt vs them. You’re kinda getting thrown into the wolves, and have to find a way to survive.
Another thing that really surprised me – I didn’t think that this was ever something that really needed to be said, because the way that I got into the game is just different from some people – I see some people who are struggling with finding solutions in some matchups or finding ideas. And I talk to them about Melee and it seems like they don’t watch it. Like at all! And that’s always been bizarre to me. Because Melee was a spectator sport to me first. But I think that watching top level Melee is super good for improving, especially if you’re watching it with an analytic lens in mind. I think that there’s a lot to be taken from there. And even if you’re just watching it for entertainment I think that it gets you familiar with the characters and with new options that are on the rise. Like, you’re not gonna get super surprised when someone starts copying what Cody did because you saw Cody do it too. Or if someone’s playing your character, if you’re a Fox main, you can watch Cody and see what he does and try to imitate it. And even if you’re not doing it perfectly, and even if you’re not doing all the crazy like… you know, read shorthop up airs that Cody does, you can see his edgeguarding flowcharts and be like “oh, I never Marth Killer there, but Cody does! Let me try it in a match,” and see where that takes you, you know? And I feel like that’s a big part of my improvement personally.
Another thing is to be curious about the game. Someone actually asked me and Maples this at Collision. I told them to learn about the game, and try to make it fun to learn about the game. That part kinda came naturally to me, so I don’t know how to make it fun if you don’t think it’s fun. But I think it’s really good to explore the game and how things work, and the engine itself. And even if you think “oh it’s so niche,” or “it’s another character’s option,” it’ll give you a foundation of knowledge that will help you be able to synthesize solutions afterwards. Because you’ll know the ins and outs of everything, you know how stuff works. And I’m not even talking about like, knowing that x move comes out on x frame. I don’t think that that’s super important. I mean more like, how stuff works. How do these interactions – how do these moves interact with each other, looking at hitboxes, stuff like that. And even stuff like another character’s technique, it can be important to know how to do it, because if you know how they do it, then like, that could be a potential weakness.
Like, if you keep getting ASDI’ed down when someone’s dash dancing or whatever, and you don’t know how to beat this – knowing that they have to hold the C-stick down can give you answers because that limits you from some options. Even if you’re using Z jump or whatever controller, you’re still using the C-stick, right? So that makes it a little more awkward to do a shorthop drill while you’re ASDI’ing down. A lot of people will dair with the C-stick… not too many people do that with A I think. And so that can inform you and tell you that’s part of how to beat it. You know that they are limiting their options in a way, and so you can kinda play around that. And I think that’s just really important in Melee in general. ‘Cause even if it’s not a situation that you’ve specifically looked into, if you know about the game, you can intuit it a little more often. That’s been big, I think. Just knowing a lot about the game and knowing a lot about the engine, being familiar with it. And then, there was another thing that I am forgetting but I feel like it was important, haha.
I noticed you didn’t talk about a couple things that most people say are the most important to work on when you first start playing Melee. I feel like the first thing that most people will say is to get comfortable with your movement and tech skill. Do you think that this is less important or something that’s harped on too much?
Well, I play Unranked. That’s not what the kids need, haha. You know? Like, I see people playing in Only Noobs, they know tech skill. They’re all good with that. I’m not saying that people focus too much on tech skill, but people are really good at tech skill nowadays. Even people who aren’t going crazy at tournaments. So I wanna go a little bit deeper than that just because I feel like that’s what everyone is told. I think that tech skill is definitely super important. But at the end of the day, like you can have the best tech skill in the world, but you need to understand the game and you need to understand how things interact with each other, right? Everybody knows someone who can do, you know, 12 shines in a row into jump cancel grab, but they go 1-2 at the local. Tech skill is only one part of the puzzle. And then this is also kind of basic, but try new options! I feel like it should be self-explanatory but it’s really easy to get caught in this pattern of having the ambition to just try and win, even in friendlies.
But when you’re losing, you don’t just like, dig your heels in, you know? There’s a time and place for practicing game plans, but if you’re really getting rocked then you’re probably gonna need to make some changes and just try new things, even if you think it’s not going to work. Even if you think that that’s stupid, just giving it a shot and using options to see when they’re good and when they’re not will help you be prepared for those options later on. If you’re just playing your tournament gameplan every single time that you play friendlies and you’re not mixing in anything, it’s hard to be able to expect growth because you’re just doing the same thing over and over. It’s like if you played violin and you only practice one song – you’re gonna be really good at that song, but then when someone asks you to play a different song, you’re not going to know what to do. If you practice your scales and you can read sheet music, that can help you sightread a different song. The same thing comes into play in Melee. Sometimes you see a situation that you haven’t seen before or someone finds a counter to your playstyle, and you’re going to need to do something new. And getting ahead of that and trying new things a lot is very important, especially in tournament. Because sometimes people will try a lot of stuff in friendlies but they always default back to the same thing in tournament and that can also kind of stunt your growth I think.
In the modern age I guess this is worth saying. I think that Ranked – people swear by it and people also swear against it. Some people say that Ranked is completely useless, that people spamming ranked are just wasting their time. Some people swear by it. They only play ranked for their practice. I’m kind of a ranked centrist. I think it depends on how you use it. And I think it can be a really useful tool if you use it right. But I think unfortunately a lot of people get caught in… just the cycle of it all. They’re almost auto-piloting through ranked sessions or just tilt-queueing or whatever you wanna call it. And I think that Ranked can be very good if you use it pointedly. What I’ll use it for, if I ever do use it, is like I know that Ranked frustrates the hell out of me. But what also frustrates the hell out of me is losing in tournament. And it’s kinda the same feeling. So sometimes I’ll go into ranked and more than even trying to win, I’m trying not to feel so bad when I lose. I’m trying to be the zen master. And I’m never going to be but having that field experience, so to speak, is important. You can think about your mindset all you want. You can tell yourself these good things all you want, but in the moment it’s always going to be different and ranked can kinda help you microdose that, which can be useful.
Similarly, I think anxiety can also be practiced really well with ranked if you’re doing it pointedly. If you have techniques that you want to work on going into the ranked session – for example, I said earlier that I like trying to make sure my muscles are relaxed. A lot of people will end up not breathing when they’re in really tense situations and focusing on the breath can be helpful for some people’s mentality or nerves. And I think that focusing on those two points can be really useful. I think that just trying to like bash your head into the wall and try to climb is gonna be less efficient than if you’re doing like pointed practice. Because when you play ranked, you get three games versus somebody and then that’s it. There’s like no time. You can also practice adapting in tournaments, but you need to figure out solutions over a longer course. And ranked sometimes will make your practice very disjointed. You can play a Fox and start to figure something out, but then you queue into four Falcos in a row and then maybe that stuff with Fox doesn’t really stay in your head. You kind of need to relearn it afterwards. So I think mindlessly doing it has its benefits, but isn’t, nearly as good as if you’re using it with a purpose. This is true for a lot of things in Melee, but especially Ranked, I find.
And then, last but not least, find people who can explain the game to you in a way that you understand and resonate with. And then if they’re down for it, just ask them questions. Like a lot of the Puff players in my region will just go into the Discord or whatever and just ask me stuff and like… people are willing to help if you ask pointed questions. And even if you’re not asking someone specifically, you can go into a Discord of your region or a Discord of your friends or whatever and be like “hey guys, like, I’m having trouble with this situation. Does anyone have any ideas?” And sometimes people don’t know. But sometimes you can come back with useful stuff and sometimes people who play your character come in with a different perspective and give you a lot of insight on that. And I think that’s important. That’s something that I’m not super good at, like, I want to do things my way and I want to figure it out my way. And whenever someone tells me to do something I’m like, screw you – it’s not like you don’t know what you’re talking about – but I’m very stubborn. I want to figure it out myself. But that’s not necessarily the best thing to do, especially if you’re not the type to really want to do a lot of labbing yourself or whatever. It can be hard to figure out everything on your own.
So I think that asking questions and just trying to make it something specific. I know that I don’t really mind that much if people are like, “any tips?” Because I’ve got all the stuff that I’ve said here! But some people don’t like that. Some of the better players don’t really like getting asked just like general questions. So try to make it at least like “what do I do in this matchup” or “what do I do in this situation” or whatever. And then obviously, you know, play friendlies, practice, solo practice, analysis, yada yada. That stuff’s been said to death. I think everyone kind of knows that they should be doing that. But it is important.
Yeah, that resonates with me a lot. Ranked for me is just practicing tournament play and mentality/emotions. I feel like trying to practice matchups in ranked is just a total trap since you can’t ever really Practice more than 3 games consistently. That’s for direct. But having servers or things like that where you can ask questions is really important, I have a couple channels in my server that are just focused on in-game situations or mentality/tourney-specific stuff and it’s been a really awesome resource for people to pull from and ask for help in.
Yeah absolutely, absolutely. I think the only matchups that you should ever turn to ranked to are the ones that don’t exist for whatever reason. It’s hard to find mid-tier practice, and it’s hard to find Peach practice, or Yoshi practice, or ICs. With Puff, it’s a little bit easier because there’s kind of like this culture of people wanting to practice against Puff because they really hate losing against Puff. But for whatever reason, I don’t think that applies as much to the other characters. I guess people just think they’re not as common, so people don’t deem it worthy. But I think a lot of low tier players are very burned on trying to play people because a lot of people get very salty at them and end up being very mean. And so they all end up playing Ranked because that’s the only place where they can get games without people just quitting out or being toxic.
So it’s not ideal, but if you’re really not finding any Samuses anywhere else, there are probably gonna be Samuses on ranked. I think I was the best at the Samus matchup when I was playing ranked the most just because there’s just a lot of them. I remember there was one morning I played like eight Samuses. So I think it can be useful for matchups in that sense but it’s one of those things where you should only use it for that when you’re forced to. And you can’t really expect to just get better at something like the Peach matchup on ranked because you might just not run into any Peaches. But it can be a nice added benefit when it’s hard to find practice. If you can, direct is always way better for practicing matchups. Every single time. But if the only way you can get games versus Luigi is on ranked, then who am I to say no?
Yeah, I think something people don’t take into account about Melee is that a lot of getting better at fighting games is just doing your homework. I know some of the people that find frustration with the learning grind really just wanna press buttons and do things fast and get their brain scratched. It makes sense because Melee, first and foremost, was more about doing cool shit and being really fast, at least back in the day. I don’t think most people really sat down and thought that they wanted to play Melee because they loved the slow and patient parts of the game. But sometimes you need to sit your ass down and play the Samuses and Luigis and DKs even if it might not be as fun as playing Fox Falco for hours or something like that. I feel like lots of people just want the win and don’t necessarily want the grind because growing was never the point, it was winning and being cool. But I think it’s even cooler when you win and get to be cool because you’re so good at the game now.
Yeah, they want the result, they don’t want the journey, you know? They wanna take a plane, they don’t wanna take a hike. I definitely agree with that. But I think it’s also that… it makes sense looking at my life that I’m like this in Melee because when I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do in video games was try to find glitches or do glitches that I see online or whatever speed-running tricks or whatever the hell. I always liked finding quirks in game engines; I always thought that that stuff was so cool and there’s so much stuff like that in Melee. There are so many different characters all interacting with each other in such a fluid way that there’s like, a million in one different niche scenarios. And that’s always been awesome to me, you know? So for me, Melee was kind of a perfect match because it’s both a competitive outlet and also this endlessly fascinating engine that still has so many surprises so many years later.
How do you balance competition with other aspects of your life? You mentioned having other hobbies outside of melee. What else do you like to do?
So, first one that I’ll mention is technically still Melee, but it’s not playing Melee. I really like commentating. That’s like, one of my side passions with Melee. I would love to commentate a national someday, you know, we’ll see what happens.
Are you trying to run a block someday?
I would love to! I would absolutely love to.
I feel like doing comms is so sick but I feel like I’m spread so thin as it is between real life stuff, as a player, starting up this series, I’m trying to start up a local too – comms are so fun but it’s on the back burner for me. If I ever find myself in MDVA I would love to just hop on the INYIM comms if they’d let me. I commentate at my local (shoutouts to Abbey Tavern!) sometimes but it’s usually just fucking around on the mic at a bar and not particularly giving much insight. I used to do that more at Guildhouse (another NorCal local) but I haven’t been in a while.
Yeah, I would love to do a block. I gotta go to an INYIM and just do comms the whole time. I gotta do that at more tournaments, ‘cause I used to do that at our weekly, The Cave. Every week I would just run the stream and just do comms and it was so fun. And it was really nice that the people in the region liked it and stuff. But yeah, as for other hobbies, this one’s…it’s something that I like doing but it’s not necessarily something that I practice or whatever. But I really like singing. That’s something that I have fallen in love with since I started driving because that just gave me a place where I could just sing my heart out without any judgment. I’ve always lived with people, and now I live in an apartment so the main time I get to sing is in my car. But I love singing, it’s very fun and I do it every chance I get. This isn’t as much of a hobby but I definitely have a passion for psychology and I think that that’s something that interests me a lot. And I’m studying it in school and I want to do something like that with my life.
I also play a lot of other video games. I don’t really do any of them competitively like I do with Melee, but like, you know, I’ll do some casual 16-star runs every now and then. I think those are fun. It’s a nice little party trick for people who don’t really play games. You can be like, “Hey, you want to see me beat Super Mario 64?” And they’re like, “uh, sure.” And then you do it in like 30 minutes and they’re like “wow you really did that.” And I’m like “yeah!!” And 30 minutes is not even a good time at all, but to a casual it’s like, crazy.
And I’ve really liked rhythm games for a long time. Although my long lost love is Osu. I know people hate that game, but that’s – that’s the one that got away for me because at some point I just had to pick between Osu and Melee just for my hands. I could not do both of them at the same time. And I had to pick Melee. Rest in peace to Osu. And then I also just like hanging out with people, I like going to parties. You know, standard fare. I guess I don’t really have too many like…pointed hobbies that I really like, put a lot of time into other than Melee. It’s just a lot of small stuff.
What was your peak in Osu? Did you play seriously back then?
In Osu? I don’t know what my actual like, rank was. It was nothing that crazy. I could do decent scores on like a five star sometimes. I was mostly like a four star gamer though, like high four star, maybe low five star. I talk to a lot of Melee players and they’re crazy good at every other game. I think I’m pretty good at other games, but I’m really not anything super special in other games. I used to play League. I peaked at Plat, you know. That’s like, fine. It’s not bad, but it’s not necessarily that crazy. Same with Osu, like, I’m okay at it. Some people are really good at Guitar Hero. I’m okay at Guitar Hero. I can do some of the songs on Expert. I can’t do all of them. Um… you know. I’ve always been like, good at games but… Melee players are crazy. Even Melee players that are not as good as me at Melee, they’re just crazy at every other game, I don’t understand it.
Yeah, back when I played League I used to be Challenger for a couple seasons, I was immortal in Valorant, I used to play chess and stuff at a pretty high level as a kid. And even so, I’m not jack shit at Melee yet. But sometimes I feel like we as Melee players just end up here eventually because it’s so sick and endlessly deep.
Yeah see, this is what I’m talking about! Plup’s a freak at every platform fighter. And I’ve come to peace with it because, like…I know it’s fine that other people are better than me at other things, blah blah blah, you know, I don’t need to pep talk myself. But I used to be a little insecure about it because two of my closest friends, Akir and Ossify, are both freaks at every game. They’re so good at every game they play. And I think Akir is just really good at the learning process and grinding it.
But Ossify, I don’t understand. He’s actually so good at every single game he touches. Like, IMMEDIATELY good at every single game he touches every single time. He’ll be playing like the worst Valorant hero and be getting like 1v5 comebacks and just laughing about it. Like he’s just so nonchalant, it doesn’t even register to him. He’s like top rank in Hearthstone, he’s just so good at every game. And I think, damn, am I just ass? Am I just cheeks? Like this guy’s clearing me in Melee AND every other game? LIke what the hell, man? But you know, it’s all good. We all have different strengths as humans, you know.
Yeah. Not to brag but historically I feel like I’m usually the Ossify in the friend group. I come from the other side. The 1v5s will always feel insane but sometimes I would sit there after the call ends and be like damn, I’m really only good at video games and other people have other things going for them. But like you said, people have different strengths.
Yeah, definitely, haha. Absolutely, absolutely.
Do you have a favorite in-game feeling in Melee?
I mean, getting crazy clutches is really cool and getting rests is really cool, but I feel like I should give an answer more specific than that. Obviously I like getting rests, I’m a Puff player. There’s a really funny reset setup – and this is a whole tangent – but a bunch of people in my region started saying “that’s the Eve,” and I’m like no, that’s not the Eve, I got that from a tips and tricks video in like 2016. But recently, when I beat Maher with it, Nicki, independently of anyone that I know, called it the Eve. So I guess it’s the Eve now. But it rolls through Marth tipper and then you rest him. If Marth is about to f-smash you and you’re right at that spacing where it would tipper, you can read it and roll right at the same time that he does it. And if you get it at the right time then you’re at the perfect place to just press down b and rest. And it’s awesome because I think that everyone loves reading Marths when they forward smash. I think that’s a great feeling that everyone can relate to. No matter how good the Marth player or how good the forward smash was, it always feels like you’re beating them for doing that scrubby option or whatever. That’s a fun one.
So that’s the Eve now.
I guess so! Another one that I also stole that people are trying to call the Eve. Shout outs to Leighton – that’s where I got this one from. Leighton was formerly known as Big Kid but he does not play anymore unfortunately. I’m trying to carry the torch on this one. When Falco does approaching laser, you can wavedash underneath the laser and read him coming in and rest him. And it works out in such a way where – and this is what I was talking about earlier where knowing what the enemy’s inputs are can actually help you – Falco is fast falling right at the end of his laser animation to try to get the laser out and yeah, they’re holding straight down. So even at zero percent, you can sometimes get kills with this where they’re holding straight down, you rest them and they just fly off the stage and just die. And that one is really satisfying to hit because it’s also like, a hard read and a lot of people don’t know about it at all. And so I’ll do it and they’re like, “what the hell?” And getting a rest and having people visibly shocked is an amazing feeling.
And just on the topic of little things that I do that maybe other people don’t know about – now that Unfrozen Stadium is back, you can actually, as Puff – this is one of the few uh like, you know, humanly viable fully invincible stalls that Puff can do is specifically on the rock ledge, the ledge on top of the rock pillar on the left. If you getup attack with Puff, her ECB is too big to fit on there when she’s doing that animation. And so she instantly just falls off as she’s doing it. If you fastfall while she’s doing it you can just get it fully invincible and just loop it over and over and since it’s a getup attack, it also has a hitbox. This is only below 100% of course, but that one’s funny. That one’s also a good feeling where like, you don’t have anything to do so I just do that and they always laugh and that’s always fun. But yeah those two rest setups are really fun. Um, I think honestly an underrated one that I really like is getting out of SDI and then clutching on somebody where it’s like, the GTX, it’s the Hungrybox or whatever right?
Yeah, I think that was GTX 2017 in the grands reset, game 5 vs Armada? Armada got an upthrow upair but Hbox SDI’ed it and ended up clutching the tourney. That was an insane set.
It’s such a great feeling because from the Fox perspective, Fox may see the SDI out as evil. But in my head I’m the hero. Fox is the villainous guy trying to kill me and then I evaded the villain’s plan and was able to best them, you know? It’s like a storybook ending. That’s always a good feeling. This is something that I don’t really do as much anymore just because it’s really risky but I used to really like doing it. There are certain combos that just barely don’t work and you can rest them out of it.
Something that I used to do – Foxes are a lot better at not doing this now though – but when Fox or Falco up tilts you and you don’t get put into knockdown, back in the day people would just jump right into you to try to hit an aerial and I would just rest them. That was always really funny – taking what they thought was a good position and resting them for it is always really fun. And then also I really like drill edge cancel rest. That one always feels really good to hit. In doubles, I love hitting an RTC rest that my partner set up. I think that’s a really satisfying one because it combines being able to just hit the RTC rest when I’m not even expecting it and also being aware of what my teammate is doing and being in the right position and all that good stuff. It’s just very very satisfying. And so those are probably all of my favorites.
As a Fox player, I gotta say that he’s the villain in almost every matchup. The only matchups where he’s not the villain are probably Marth and DK, in my opinion.
Haha, yeah yeah. I agree. I literally said this in chat the other day. No hate to Junebug or Akir, they are both amazing players who are also really good with other characters. But with DK… you know in the Spongebob movie when Plankton takes over and he mind controls everybody and they’re all like, “all hail Plankton?” That’s how it feels with DK where they’ve mind controlled the casual player base to be like “oh my god I love DK, he’s so hype!!!” And people like us are watching it and we’re like, “this is what you love about Melee? Up throw up air up air up b?” And it’s tough because like the parts that the DKs are so good at are so invisible, right? Like if you, if people at home have ever played DK, it’s really easy to get hit as that character like it’s REALLY really easy. And the good DKs are really good at neutral. They’re really good at finding their spot, they’re really good at not getting hit. But that part isn’t as hype as when someone’s hitting a cool combo or like a big finisher or whatever. So it almost feels frustrating cause they’re cheering for the wrong things, you know?
Yeah…. no one appreciates the movement and neutral. I can appreciate really clean DK neutral but in general that character’s punish game is just not that interesting to me but people love the mid-tier monkey so much.
Absolutely not, yeah.
Do you have a favorite out of game aspect about Melee?
Not to be cheesy but just the friends we’ve made along the way. I’ve never been like super duper hard pressed for friends. Like I’ve had people in my corner, don’t get me wrong, but it’s another level with Melee. I do not really feel wanting for friends anymore really because like I know that there are so many people in the Melee community and in my local scene and whatnot that rock with me and that’s just so comforting to have almost like, a family that you can always turn to and so that’s awesome. I don’t know if Melee Stats wants this part in, but uh, honestly, I gotta give a shoutout to the smoke circles. Those are always very fun. That’s a part of Melee that I quite enjoy out of game. Can I say that?
Yeah. I ran it by Mr. Big Boss Edwin and he was like, “yeah, everything’s fair game as long as she doesn’t talk about wanting to play Ganon.”
Haha, right. Well Edwin Budding and I, we have come to an agreement then. Because I am a HUGE Ganon hater. I do not like that character. I think that Ganon is deceitful and dishonest. He is not upstanding. He’s not of good moral character. None of the above! I don’t like that guy.
I mean he’s literally the king of evil.
Literally! He’s the incarnation of evil. How am I supposed to like him? He’s the incarnate of evil. And he takes over his playerbase like the Green Goblin mask, it’s crazy.
And then, I mean like we said earlier, I love commentating. And I also really really like when people ask me questions and I actually am able to help them effectively. When I’m able to really sit down and explain the stuff and they seem very receptive and they’re appreciative, that’s like a great feeling to me. I always want to lift people up. I wanna lift up my friends and so being able to help people with that is really nice. Um, same thing like if people are asking to lab out a specific thing and I’m able to help them out with something, that’s always awesome. Something that I’ve grown to appreciate more and more is just having people root for me, you know? I don’t necessarily love it when I’m actually playing because I can find it kind of distracting. Which is not against anyone who’s rooting for me. Like, you don’t have to stop rooting for me. Anyone who’s reading this doesn’t have to stop rooting for me. But if I win and I turn around and I see all those people happy, that’s awesome, that’s amazing, you know? That’s what it’s all about. And just being able to connect with people about so many different things I think is just my favorite part of everything.
Okay. This has been running for a while so I’m gonna run through some more random fun questions. If you could have dinner with any Melee player, who would it be and why would it be Juan Manuel Debiedma?
Haha. So, okay, to answer the second part first, uh, if we are supposing that it would be Hungrybox, I’ve actually warmed up on him. I think that he’s done a lot of growth as a person. I’ve talked with Hungrybox a little bit at tournaments every now and then. He’s friends with Agent and I’m friends with Agent so we end up in similar circles. And I think that he’s very interesting because he’s so all-in on Melee and content and stuff, AND he could probably pay for my dinner. So that’s pretty cool too. Um, as for actually who I would pick – sorry Hungrybox, I don’t think I would pick you – and I’m not gonna pick people that I already get dinners or lunch with at tournaments because that’s boring.
I think it’d be cool to have dinner with Magi. We’ve interacted like a couple times in passing. And she’s always seemed cool. I’ll say hi to her at tournaments and stuff but never really talked to her more in depth. But it seems like we share interests. We were both lamenting the fact that… oh who was it, Moky? Moky didn’t wanna watch the Sonic Movie 3 with Shadow in it. Magi was trying to convince him. And she was like, “have you seen it?” and I was like, “yeah, it’s peak!” And she was like, “that’s what I’m saying!!” So I think that would be cool. I think it’d be cool to have dinner with Magi.
I also would be very interested to have dinner with Plup because I’ve really never interacted with him at all and I’ve only really seen him in Melee but he seems very very chill. So I would be very interested to see how he interacts outside of Melee. I’ve also barely talked to Wizzrobe, but I think he’s very similar. The way that he articulates things and the way he expresses himself I think is cool. That would be like my top 3 I guess. Magi, Plup, and Wizzy.
Who is the strongest Melee player you think you could take down in a fistfight?
I… I am NOT a fighter, let me just get that out of the way, haha. When I go to the gym, I work legs. I do not work my upper body. Or I’m doing cardio or whatever. I don’t lift, I don’t fight, I don’t really do any of that so like… I’d have to pick like a really weak player to be my strongest that I could beat in a fight.
You think you could take down OG Kid?
I think I could take down OG Kid. I’ve got some years on him, I’ve got some weight on him, I’ve got a little bit of height on him, you know? I think that would be a good matchup for me. In arm wrestling though, I’m randomly really good at arm wrestling because one of my friends from high school was really into arm wrestling and taught me a bunch of techniques and stuff. So somewhere out there there’s a video of me 3-0ing Seven in an arm wrestle.
Dude, I am so randomly ass at arm wrestling. I feel like I don’t have any tech.
Lowkey, it’s all in the tech. Obviously you need some strength as a foundation but leverage in general is so important, to the point where sometimes I’ll arm wrestle and some people will be like “that’s not how you’re supposed to do it! You’re supposed to just grab onto each other’s arms and just GO.” And I’m like “no man, you play Melee! How can you say this!” Like it’s not about brute strength, it’s about the technique and stuff and how you use it! But it’s such a difference that people will get frustrated like arm wrestling against you sometimes, because they just think of it as a thing of strength, but there’s a lot a lot a lot of technique to it. So, I don’t know, maybe I could teach you sometime.
I remember I was in a hotel room at GOML a couple years back with some girls and I remember getting so trunched against literally every other person in that room. It was fucked up because I feel like I should’ve been stronger than them on principle… But yeah, no. Please, please teach me how to arm wrestle. I can’t keep living like this.
Okay, uh…most important question of the whole interview: Do you fuck with Taco Bell?
So I like Taco Bell. I do. I do. But, you know how songs are overplayed? I think Taco Bell is over-eaten for me. I really fuck with it but I’ve had it so many times throughout my life. If the car that I’m in is going to the drive-thru, who am I to say no? I’m probably gonna order something. But, you know, if my girlfriend’s like, “what do you wanna eat tonight?” I’m probably not naming Taco Bell necessarily. I feel like the amount that other people want to go to Taco Bell and then I’m like “that’s chill” is enough for me, you know? So I would say I do fuck with it but I’ve like, I’ve almost overexposed myself to it.
Do you have a favorite fast food place?
Favorite fast food place? I think right now it would probably be Popeyes. It’s not very nice to my stomach the day after. But while I’m eating it? So, so good. I get the spicy tenders, with the sweet and spicy sauce, with the fries and the biscuit of course, with a lemonade. Like you know, it’s terrible for me but it’s bliss while I’m eating it, you know? It’s great…
I gotta put you on ball, have you tried the red beans and rice?
The red beans and rice? At Popeyes? No I haven’t… mmm. I’ll definitely try the red beans and rice. Don’t be disappointed if I end up not liking it. I’m an extremely picky eater. That’s like, that’s another thing about me. I’ve been like this my whole life. I don’t wanna be like this. I know people are very mean to picky eaters online, I swear to god it’s not because I don’t try stuff, I do! I just don’t want people to have their expectations be tampered or be uh, tapered? Wait, what is that expression? I don’t know. Anyway, that’s not the important part but um, yeah I’m an extremely picky eater. I promise everyone I try stuff, I really do. I try. I don’t have a choice. I wish I liked more things. And there have been some success stories, a few things that I’ll keep trying and eventually I’ll like them but a lot of times I don’t.
Recently I got a big one. I’ve unlocked liking ramen. For the longest time I didn’t like ramen and now I like ramen. And so now it’s super funny because like, the two noodle based things I like are pho and ramen. I honestly don’t really like Italian pasta. Which is funny because that’s a super picky eater kind of meal. LIke picky eaters usually love pasta but I don’t. But yeah, random fun fact about Eve, I don’t like a lot of food.
How long would it take you to beat Cody Schwab if you were locked in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?
Uh, in what? In a game? In a set?
In a Bo5 set. How many sets do you think it’d take?
Mmmm. This is tough, this is tough. I don’t know the exact amount of sets, but honestly, if we’re playing like, 24/7, I’d say max a couple of weeks. I feel like I can get one. Like if we’re really playing like every single day, I’m gonna get my one eventually. I don’t think it would take me years or anything like that to get my one.
Melee has been growing as a hub for trans women to compete and find community. Back in the day, we pretty much just had Magi on the national stage as a highly visible woman. Were you around back then, and do you have any thoughts about our community’s demographic changing?
I love it, personally. When I first transitioned, there were not many other girls locally or nationally or playing at all. I played in the Smash Sisters stuff for a bit – as a quick addendum, I love Smash Sisters so much even though I don’t always get to play. I don’t mean it in that way but it feels egotistical ‘cause last time I just kinda wiped their whole crew. Maybe I’ll play Fox or stick it out to see if Salt or Zamu or Magi show up. I really like having more women in the scene ‘cause back when I used to play, Smash Sisters used to not be that many people. Nowadays there’s like a whole gaggle of women in my local scene that I’m friends with. And that’s awesome because for a long time, I didn’t really have anyone to guide me throughout my transition.
I talked about Louise, but we kinda transitioned together. But I didn’t have anyone that I knew that had been trans for years. That was hard and a great unknown for me. After COVID, there have been a lot more trans women in the scene. It’s awesome because I know firsthand that it’s hard to go through all that without anyone who’s like you. Even if you explain stuff to people, if they don’t live it, they’ll never understand, and that’s not their fault.
It’s awesome to have people go through it with you and have people that understand and people you can look up to as the light of the end of the tunnel. It can be hard to not have anyone to ask questions to and get reassurance for and anything like that. I’ve been lucky enough to be cited as an inspiration for people. I think it’s awesome, I have some friends that told me about it. I had someone come up to me at Supernova and say that I was an inspiration to them. It’s extra meaningful when it’s coming from another trans person or trans woman. And that’s always awesome. Having that kind of community is really cool. The scene has had issues with casual homophobia and transphobia and having a larger base of people who are affected by it has made the community more conscious about this kind of stuff.
There’s good and bad, Smash Twitter can be really bad regarding the transphobia, but in person it’s become a nice safe space and it helps to bring people into our scene. They know the community is very friendly towards trans women and that motivates them to start playing. Like I said, I was one of very few trans women back in the day and seeing that blossom before my eyes has been amazing. I’m grateful to anyone I may have helped in their journey. Smash has given me multiple opportunities to do that. And I think that’s really special.
If you don’t mind me asking, when did you start transitioning?
It’s something I had known about for a long time. It’s funny. It sounds stupid but I compare it to how I felt about Smash 4 and Melee. It might be hard, but why would I do something that I don’t even enjoy if there’s something else that I’d enjoy more? It was just this sneaking thing in the back of my mind. And I knew the truth, but I went in cycles of repressing because I felt like other people were so strong. I thought I could never be that strong or make it. But eventually it got to the point where I either do this or bad things happen. And I didn’t want that to happen.
I knew for sure in my senior year of high school. But I was almost all the way through school, so I waited a bit to make it easier. I don’t think this applies to everyone. If anyone thinks they need to do it now, please don’t let my experience stop you. This is how it played out for me and I regret it sometimes, cause I could’ve just gotten started and not told anyone and I would’ve been fine. But I was under the supervision of my parents and it was scary. I went through most of senior year with that being something I kept to myself.
When I graduated, I started transitioning and came out to the local Smash community first cause it felt less risky. I got more connected after I started transitioning, so if people didn’t like me, it was whatever. They would have to deal with me cause they couldn’t ban me for being trans. And slowly throughout that summer, I came out to everyone else. I’ve been on HRT since the end of 2019. That’s when I started everything.
Yeah, I actually did get started and didn’t tell anyone.
Lowkey, that was the play! I was tripping, I think I did that wrong thing in retrospect, hehe. I don’t think it actually mattered, but you know.
What would you say people in your community think about you?
This is hard. I don’t wanna sound egotistical or anything like that. I have trouble giving myself praise. I’ll try to get over that temporarily.
Go for it! This is your time, anyway.
I’d like to think that people see me as a compassionate person in the scene, and to a certain extent, as a community leader. It seems like in my region people respect my opinion. People seem to think I’m very knowledgeable. It’s funny – I’m in a discord with MDVA people and there’s a channel that’s just about asking Eve things. Which is cool. I think people in the region really like my commentary. I’d like to think people respect my skill. I have trouble thinking that all the time because of the Puff stuff sometimes, but you know. From what I see, in my region at least, people will hate on Puff and say “oh, but not Eve though”. It’s a mixed bag but it’s cool to be exceptional in that sense, I suppose.
More than anything, I’d like to think people see me as a genuine and compassionate person. I try to be upfront about things but I don’t like being mean. I care a lot about other people and their emotions and I really, as much as possible, try not to ruffle any feathers and say things in a digestible and kind way. I hope that comes across. I hope people see me as genuine and compassionate.
Is there anything else that you’d like people reading this to know about you?
Hmm. That might be the toughest question so far. Like what?
It can be nothing or everything or anything.
Well, I wanna give some sort of answer. I can’t be that boring, I gotta have something about me.
You’ve been speaking for like 3 hours at this point. Surely no one that’s read this all the way through thinks you’re boring. That would be insane.
Yeah, I guess that makes it hard. I’ve already spoken so much of my being into the questions. I guess I’ll do some fun facts about me ‘cause I think we’ve covered most of the important stuff. I care about the women in the scene, the other trans people in the scene, the scene in general. More than anything, I really like lifting people up and helping people. But I already talked about that. So we’ll do some fun facts.
Hmm… I don’t live there anymore, but at my parents house, I have had, like, 9-12 cats at any given time. I’m a huge cat lover and I’ve always had a ton of cats. It’s interesting having so many cats cause there are these social webs that develop with the cats, some are homies and some have beef. It’s crazy, it’s like high school for cats. I play the drums, pretty amateurishly. I took lessons for 2 years. That’s pretty cool. Music is really awesome to me. I’m a huge fan of The Beatles, Pierce the Veil, various emo music. I love all that stuff. I love hyper pop, pop, Taylor Swift, I like a lot of different kinds of music. I like rap. Kanye’s a bad person but I gotta say that he made a lot of bangers. Uh, I have blue eyes. That’s an important fact about me. It’s central to my being.
Do you think your blue eyes influenced your Puff color choice at all?
You know… in a roundabout way, yeah. Part of the reason I love blue so much is because my eyes were always something I always liked about myself, and that was rare to me because I felt out of place in my own body and had so little self confidence pre-transition. My eyes being something people would compliment me on felt nice, and it was always a positively associated trait for me. So in a way, it kinda did make me end up playing blue Puff.
In one word, how would you describe yourself? It could be you as a person or you as a Melee player.
One word, huh?
Just one word.
Should I expand on my answer or just drop the mic and say the word?
This is your time, Eve. You can do whatever the fuck you wanna do. I will say that your one word is gonna be in the title of the article.
Hmm. That’s fair. Mm…okay. I’m gonna explain myself but it’s not so I can cheat the word limit, it’s just so I can clarify what I mean. My #1 thing that informs a lot of other things about me is empathy. I’m very empathetic for better or for worse. People joke about it, like the whole “I’m an empath” thing. You kinda say it to mean you’re better than other people.
I really don’t mean it like that. I think having some empathy is good but I don’t think it’s always positive. I think empathy can be bad in some ways. A lot of times I end up caring too much about how I affect other people and it might even lead me to having worse social relations. I care a lot about how I come off to others and I don’t wanna step on others’ toes and get distant and stuff like that. I care too much about things and I can’t let things go regarding my influence on other people. But at the core of my being, I feel very strongly about my impact on other people and my place in the world and what I’m here doing.
At a certain level it’s self preservation. I do things for myself, but a big reason I’m in psychology is because I want to help people that were in the same situation I was in, feeling hopeless. My favorite thing in life is when I get to help people. For example, helping trans women with their transition or helping people with Melee. I really care about my impact and the people around me. I had to grapple with that in Melee because people don’t like Puff and I had to learn how to prioritize myself and try to win and not get in my own head about whether people enjoyed playing me. It’s my biggest strength and my biggest weakness. I definitely went over the word limit, haha. But I really think empathy is a double edged sword. It’s hard to do things for myself cause I can get so caught up in what other people are thinking or feeling. But it’s who I am.