On self-actualization and progress in a community around modded children’s party game — Trigger Warning: I use potentially offensive language and words like “rape” in this piece. At the time of this writing, I just finished reviewing a rejection letter: “Sorry, we decided to go with someone else….” Ouch. Oh well. I submitted an application to be a leader for my company’s LGBTQIA+…

Down B. Shine. Hit Boxes. Options. Jump? From jump you can aerial, or you can move away, or you can cancel the jump into an up smash, or you can wavedash. And the tree branches off. As a Fox main, I enjoy the rush and reward of technical execution. There…

Carpets are good for catching noises and never letting go. That’s what they tell you when you walk through an empty apartment for the first time. Or at least, that’s what they should tell you if they’re trying to sell you a shitty carpeted apartment. If the prospective buyer is…

Southern California does not have seasons. It has hot days, really hot days, fire days, cloudy days, and rainy days. Five flavors of Summer even in the middle of Fall. I ring my bell and push my cart across potholes and scalding asphalt. Under my arms and all across my…

“The Intellectual” was probably the dumbest thing I had ever seen used to describe Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The game was not a harder game than 64 or Melee. Sure, it required a disproportionate amount of thinking vs technical skill, but that did not necessarily qualify it as “the thinking…

This piece contains spoilers for the game, “Celeste.” You have been warned. — Once I cleared Chapter 2 of Celeste, I had to step away from the game. I was becoming a little too emotional. A little too invested in the main character, Madeline and her quest to scale the mountain, Celeste. …

It was a tender moment for Josh “Fendrick Lamar” Fendrick. One of his tens of thousands of followers on Twitter had made him a gift. It was a book. A collection of @FendrickLamar’s most significant tweets. A history of his time on the platform. He opened the book and on…

Despite containing myself in a niche corner of twitterland I like to call “Smash Twitter”, I’m still exposed to the same social trends that plague all humans addicted to social media platforms. I am at a higher risk to suffer from increased anxiety and/or depression depending on the interactions I…

A former smasher’s reflections on a history of “tournament tunnel vision” — The following was a Facebook post made by my best friend, Ricardo Diaz. He used to compete in Melee, Brawl, andSmash 4 under the tag, “Hall”. With his permission, I’m sharing his post for others to read. Enjoy. “It’s wasted on me. You trying to get me back in to…