Alpha Zealot, what are you expecting from this matchup?
I'm actually really excited to see this, I think
PC Chris is going to stick with Falco most of the way through.
I went to MLG Anaheim with actually my girlfriend at the time and her friend,
two people who knew nothing about the game,
but we were there, front row of the bleachers, cheering,
and it was one of the few times when Melee has really felt like a real sport.
He wants to stay away from those platforms,
he needs to control the bottom middle of the stage.
Oh! Excellent forward-smash from Ken and he gets the first kill.
It was accessible to those who didn't know a lot about it.
You didn't need to know all the technical terms,
but it was a competition, it was a spectator sport.
There we go, PC gets the next kill but he is in trouble.
He's going to have to do something magical here
to keep Ken from getting the next kill.
And that's when I really believed that Smash was going somewhere.
That it was going to be big and important and mainstream.
You know, before it all crashed and burned...
I met them at this tournament in New Jersey, it was in this guy's house
This guy named Kip, he was just beating everyone
I'm like "Who the heck is this Asian kid beating everyone like this ?"
He was using Jigglypuff and he would just do the same thing.
He would just do Back-air, Back-air, Back-air
and then he would just beat everyone just like that.
The funny thing is I used to always, um, like... how can I say?
I used to beat people but beat like them kinda like making them feel bad.
So when I fought him I would talk crap to him, like "stop doing that stuff"
and then, like, I would beat him.
After that he said, you know, to watch out for PC Chris,
because PC Chris was better than me.
I'm like, "Oh he is? He is better than me?" I was like...
So I gotta play this guy.
In high school I had a group of friends we used to skateboard.
There were two Chris, which poses an imediate problem.
I was this "Port Chester Chris" but PC just stuck.
When I made a gamer tag I was just like
I don't want to be "Darkevilprince955",
like, I'll just be PC Chris.
We would all be skateboarding at the same time after school.
It was all I did for about... basically 4 years, like as a hobby
and then eventually I really broke my thumb terribly badly.
I fell down some stairs and try to break my fall
and the thumb got tucked down behind my hand.
You can see when I line up the knuckles, this one is clearly shorter.
It kinda scared me because I had never hurt myself
and I was in a cast, and it was on my right hand
so I couldn't write in school for a while.
I guess I got tired of falling so I was like, let's just play smash.
I remember the day that I wanted to get better.
For the whole day I was like "ok I'm gonna beat my friend",
cause at the time I just couldn't beat him 1v1.
So eventually I was like "Well maybe there's videos of really good players,
maybe we're doing something wrong."
It was when Ken was first coming around.
I couldn't even understand like what he was doing because he was just like...
his character was moving so fast. I just didn't know how it was possible.
I didn't even try to aim for him because I was like, "This guy is too good."
I looked for somebody more local, somebody I could play with.
And Wes from DA was the first person that I really saw who was really good, in New York.
PC Chris came, once he heard about the Gauntlets.
We started attending New York tournaments, New Jersey tournaments.
I'd beat him, Kip, all of his friends.
Wes and all the DA guys were definitely beating us up for a while.
But eventually, we could climb the ranks a little more.
You see yourself getting better, and you start to understand the game more.
Suddenly you're following up on these combos,
when a day ago, they would just end and the game suddenly gets 20 times better.
After a while, we just started training with each other.
Eventually me and Wes started teaming, so you know, it's funny how that works.
With training from Wes, PC Chris slowly became one of the best Falcos in New York.
He was even selected to represent his coast during the FC3 crew battle,
and took 2 stocks from Isai before being knocked out.
"I don't think so Isai! Yes Isai!"
As 2005 came to a close,
PC Chris shocked many by placing 3rd in the MLG national championships in New York.
Right behind Ken, and ChuDat.
It was a sign that new blood was in the mix,
and change was around the corner.
2006 opened up in New York too, so my goal was to place top 3 again.
The MLG opener 2006 was such a big deal,
because everyone knew how big MLG was now.
I knew it was going to be bigger, so I didn't want to be like "oh I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win".
And Melee was starting to get huge,
that might have been the biggest year of Melee's growth, was '06.
You know I was winning the matches I felt I should win, and then eventually came, like,
the opponents, that like, I wasn't sure, like ChuDat.
I actually told him a trick to use to get out of the chain-grab as Fox,
just because Chu was West Coast at that point
and I really didn't want to see Chu and Ken just split all the winnings as usual.
And I end up beating Chu, to have to fight Ken in the finals.
I don't think I fought Ken up until this point, in tournament at least.
"First Matchup starts"
"Ok here we go!"
>> COMMENTATOR: Ken vs PC Chris. Ken has chosen Yoshi's story as his first stage.
I'm gonna go over who is playing here. We got PC Chris, PC Chris from New York,
Port Chester New York, that's where his name comes from,
versus Ken who is the undisputed King of Smash.
>> COMMENTATOR 2: He has travelled around the world
and proven no one has even come close to giving him a challenge.
He has lost a few times in the past but nothing serious.
And PC Chris taking a set from him is huge,
and if PC Chris were to win this tournament,
it would mean so much to the Smash community.
But a question that everybody thinks, PC Chris is a rising young star.
Six months ago, he was only semi-respected.
A year ago, barely known, 2 years ago, not known at all.
And here he is in the final championships threatening to take out Ken... So exciting!
Commentary did not exist before MLG in any facet that I would deem noteworthy.
But when MLG started doing commentary,
it was very few people that wanted to do it.
Unlike now, unfortunately, where they just pass the mic around
to anyone who is wandering by.
I think that's very regrettable.
"LASERS LASERS! AAAAAH!"
If you ask me.
But at MLG it was M3D and JV3x3 and me and Omnigamer.
Pretty much those were the only people that did it.
>> COMMENTATOR: Looks like PC's got Ken in trouble here.
Ken regains control of the bottom of the stage and he is looking to
continue to throw and combo PC to get that last kill
Oh and then... Oh and that's it, the tipper, Ken takes the first match.
It's a lot about control with this game, it's about who is maintaining the momentum of the matchup,
when it's going your way you can just keep it going and keep it going
and get your kills. When you lose it, you're in trouble.
I just remember once I got into Grand Finals,
just wanting to play really really agressive.
So that was my strategy: going in, just being relentless,
with my laser approaching and my n-air approaching.
Just always keeping him on the defensive.
because from what I'd seen, he was always dictating the match with Marth,
making sure the other person was always trying to catch their ground,
and recover, and just get away from him.
>> COMMENTATOR: Ken really invented most of the techniques
that you see Marth players use during tournament play.
Oh, PC doing an excellent job on the edge here to keep Ken off.
Oh ledge-guard opportunity, oh he got past.
Ken making an uncharacteristic mistake.
Oh and that's gonna do it, he can't get back from that!
Alright. One mistake on that forward smash cost Ken that round.
My philosophy is, if you put pressure on anybody they're gonna crack eventually.
As long as it's like perfect pressure they'll mess up before you do.
Even if what you're doing is harder, maybe.
PC was just pulling out all kinds of new
tricks we hadn't seen before.
As long as you apply it correctly, I feel that you can force any good player
to do something they don't want to do.
>> COMMENTATOR: Oh my God, I don't know if people at home can hear you
over the screaming of everyone for that ridiculous combo PC Chris just pulled off.
"OHHHH!"
"Oh my God, oh wow, ok!"
What we saw there, PC continuously did this attack that would've killed Ken.
But he had a perfect, what's called a ledge-tech.
Bounces off the ledge and is able to survive, very difficult to do, especially with Marth.
It was really, really hype.
I mean, since there were so many people, a lot of people were watching
and you know, everyone got really into it, Wes was obviously talking a lot of smack.
>> COMMENTATOR: Ken off the ledge, he needs to get back on.
Oh my God! Oh my God! I thought it was going to end right there but both players are alive.
PC Chris is barely alive. Oh, with the high ceiling, PC survives that attack.
Both players are on their feet again they hit each other, oh my God!
The crowd goes wild! On the left side wow! Did not know where that was going!
Oh man that crowd, like ripped me a new one.
>>WIFE: Again you can hear them, I'm gonna put the mic up to the audience!
You have someone screaming next to your face and stuff, it's kinda hard to concentrate and.. and.. and win.
>>WIFE: It's now 5 to 3 in PC Chris' favour to finish off the best of 11.
The crowd is going absolutely out of control,
we're even wondering if it's going to affect the players' gameplay
and if some more officials might have to step in.
And Ken! Looks like he's gonna win this one.
And Ken is going to take a match, it's just back and forth right here.
Alright, PC just needs one more while Ken needs two.
He started noticing on certain stages his Marth just couldn't even do it.
He'd switch to Fox.
Wow, and Ken with the character switch here.
Now he feels more comfortable playing Fox because of the level.
And it's close quarters here, it's going to be a lot of comboing.
That makes a whole new ball game that you're dealing with one of the
fastest characters when he is running around.
>>COMMENTATOR: Ken with the little hits just keeping him away.
PC can't recover.
Wow this is the last match, it's pretty exciting!
It came down to the last match too, like the very last match of the second set.
Ken taking every hit here because he needs to get the kill soon,
without racking too much damage. Every time he is hit, uh oh, and with ledge-guard opportunity,
he's not gonna make it and... oh my God, 3 stocks to 1.
When anyone wins a match against Ken you kinda say
Ok, well this is just one match of a set of five, it doesn't matter.
And very slowly, you realise that history is in the making.
>>COMMENTATOR: PC has to be careful on the ledge above all.
Careful on the ledge is what PC is gotta be thinking.
Oh that's gonna do it! The finals go to PC Chris.
Winner of the NYC season opener!
Overthrowing the King of Smash Ken!
That's it! 2000$ and a lot of glory for PC Chris, congratulations!
I ended up winning which... I couldn't believe it, especially in front of everybody.
It would be like, all my NY homies had my back...
Just the fact that it was that new up and coming player, you know it's just...
It gave a lot of people inspiration, who were just starting to play Melee.
Like, OK, this guy is still new and he just beat the best player.
An MLG guy came with, like, directly with a microphone and camera.
And I was not expecting this and he was like "you have anything to say to your fans out there?"
And I'm thinking to myself "I have no fans".
There was cameras going off, I'd like to think of it as a little revolution in NY Smash itself.
We, you know, turned the page on something old now, we've moved on to bigger and better things.
Winning a national versus the best player, I was the first person to do that.
I would always beat Azen, and PC Chris beat me, and it was just like, it just gave the East Coast a new hope.
And they were like "Oh, we can beat him"
The East Coast finally had their answer to Ken.
The savvy, new champion, found instant fame.
Not only for his technical skills, but for being what few pro-gamers had been before...
Cool.
He is cool as shit, he's humble...
Well, as humble as a guy that's that good at something, could be.
Cigarettes, phone, wallet, money... Key's in there... All right.
PC Chris was the most laid back person
I have met within the pro spectrum.
He's a very funny guy too, he like cracks jokes, he like trashtalks all the time
Jokingly, though.
They just can't handle me right now!
I'm like those Coronas in the back... Ice cold baby!
This is, waiting for the party to happen.
The party's already happening my dude!
Well some of the stories I might say might get PC Chris in trouble so...
These are all my friends...
Yeah, I bust my ass all day, I'm hungover, it sucks...
Good night good night, I'm miserable, I really am...
Ken is a competitor, which I think is an important distinction among smashers,
and one that I've always preferred.
The competitor to the non competitor.
You're Chu Dats, you're Kens, someone who'll try to the last.
Which is why Chu Dat is one of my favourite players of all time,
even though I spent much of my life
hating him, he does not give up.
He can be down in a set and he keeps playing, and he keeps playing, and he keeps playing.
He doesn't give up half-way through.
And that's Ken, Ken wasn't someone you just stumbled upon with skill.
Ken was someone who wanted to win.
>>COMMENTATOR: Wife, we've got the winners bracket final here, Ken vs PC, are you excited?
Really excited, really excited. For those that don't know, Ken has been the reigning champ of this game,
for a long time. And East Coast or any player for that matter really hasn't been
able to overthrow him. And then last event, at MLG New-York,
PC Chris beat him and won the entire tournament.
Going into Dallas, I obviously felt good about where I stood
because, you know, I won the previous tournaments.
I did well in the time between at the locals and things so...
By my knowledge I was like "let's go for a repeat".
>>COMMENTATOR: For the 1st stage is Dreamland N64, Ken struck Corneria,
so PC can either get that on random or pick it himself.
And PC Chris struck Fountain of Dreams, obviously worried about his short-hop lasering
there on that stage with the low platforms.
I knew Ken was practicing, I just didn't know what he was gonna do.
I'm just going to still go with this agressive strategy,
because his strengths are when he's dictating the match.
And when he is avoiding me, I can just play my game.
And even if I'm not playing my best,
I figured I could still beat him.
>>COMMENTATOR: Now PC the Falco is going to try to get inside of the Marth
Nice double Laser there from PC. And Ken continues to pull out the counter.
It's that move where he puts his sword up, you just saw it again,
and basically takes the Falco's attack and shoots it back.
Despite how cool it might sound it's generally considered, mostly a useless move.
But for Ken to use it repeatedly on one of the best players in the country and 3-stock him, is...
It's impressive.
No one even used the Marth Counter, that's like a forbidden move that you use with Marth.
But I used it against PC Chris, so every single time he would laser me,
I'd counter, and he would jump in and get hit.
He, you know, discovered that if I'm just mindlessly approaching him all the time,
he can just try to bait it and counter my approach with Marth's counter.
>>COMMENTATOR: Ken has been known to reinvent the way to use new tactics and new techniques with Marth
So looks like he's doing it again against PC.
Way back then, Ken invented Marth, look at him go with that Counter, I can't believe it!
Well obviously I knew what he was doing,
I could see what was happening, what's happening to me
but telling yourself to avoid it, and telling your hands not to, it's one thing.
>>COMMENTATOR: So you can't counter unless you know you're gonna get it off but...
Wooow! But Ken obviously showing that he knows when he can get it off.
He says "don't worry guys, I know".
It was brilliant to see. Even though I prefer PC Chris as a person and a teammate,
I enjoy seeing Ken, the viciousness come out, and he did, and reigned him as superior.
>>COMMENTATOR: That's it, Ken wins the set.
Ken works his way back. Hopefully silencing some critics in his mind.
He outplayed me, he beat me he...y'know...exposed me.
It was definitely a downfall after winning New-York.
Suddenly like "wow was it just a fluke, can I really hang with the top players
or am I gonna be this guy whose place is below them?"
Eventually I just had to make a decision whether I just wanted to keep
working and do the normal life thing,
you know... work, school.
Or if I just wanted to try, test this Smash thing out for a run
and, you know, I was at the age where I was like "why not?"
I was flying around everywhere, winning money,
experiencing new places, new food.
Building new relationships with people.
She didn't even look like a Smasher, you know,
she looked good, I'm not gonna lie.
But, you see guys flocking, I'm like "relax, you know, let her breathe, you know."
I was like, "Hey, I play Smash."
And of course, the general reaction came: "A girl that plays Smash ?"
It was hard to break the ice, it was just so awkward.
What can you possibly say to this stranger
that's going to make them feel like
"This guy's definitely not trying to hit on me right now?"
Nothing.
You know what might even attract guys even more is that she's good at the game.
I somehow got introduced to her, I don't really remember how
like, friends, or her friend, like, "PC, this is Milktea"
I was just amazed at his Falco and
watched him and asked him for a photo.
We were at that age where we had
enough similarites to date and like
we were both attending these tournaments, like why not?
We've definitely fought over Smash.
He'd always get so mad at me because I would always hit him during teams.
But we were actually... I thought we were a pretty legitimate team.
We teamed at so many tournaments while we were dating,
and we got so close to winning, where we would come up short.
The day we break up, we go to a tournament and we win.
That's like, that's how you know.
We're still friends to this day.
Buddies.
You know, she was going to college and stuff like that,
so less time for practicing.
Whereas I, you know, I was just playing Melee.
Everyone was like "Woah Ken just figured out the stuff
and now he's gonna beat PC Chris everytime."
It's like everybody knew about it, so I needed to
figure out something to do about that.
Trying to adjust mid-match,
that seemed to be my weakness.
There are certain players that just knew my style more,
like I had trouble against Azen too.
I feel like he is just one of those players
that just knows how I play.
I knew I couldn't be completely defensive
and just try to avoid the counter.
Because, like I said, he'd be playing his matchup
then he'd be forcing me to make bad decisions.
So I just, it's the term I like to use, called "Hot Cold",
sometimes run up and don't do anything,
see what he does.
But at the same time, sometimes I would just approach him.
So like I was just trying to mix things up just so
he couldn't always just be throwing out counter.
And if he did he would get punished for it.
And at least start to think about doing it.
That was what I was trying to do going into Anaheim.
MLG Anaheim came out, the 3rd tournament,
and they had a really great showdown.
>>COMMENTATOR: I think PC Chris is going to stick with Falco most of the way through.
You'll probably see lots of traditional like spacing and stage selections though.
I was there as a spectator, front row of the bleachers and there was
cameras and there was lights and a stage.
And absolutely the energy was there.
Local tournaments you're used to playing at a comic book store,
sandwiched in between some guy that's 300 pounds and some other guy.
And you're like sweaty and you're doing everything you can
just to stay on the TV and play matches.
And then 2 years later I'm suddenly on a stage.
>>COMMENTATOR: The bottom middle of the stage.
Oh! Excellent forward-smash from Ken and he gets the first kill.
Good read by PC Chris though!
PC Chris is playing beautifully right now, he has managed to totally erase that stock deficit.
Well I said he needed something magical and he delivered.
Wow! Wow! Excellent play from PC Chris.
>>COMMENTATOR: Over here, some of the production crew here
they're getting a chance to really watch Smash.
They're realising just how fast Smash players do things on their controller.
It takes a lot of skill to play this game at the level that you guys are watching right now.
It came so close...
Down to the wire.
The last game, last match, last stock.
>>COMMENTATOR: The West Coast crowd is going nuts.
They're chanting : "Cali! Cali! Cali!"
Ken is their hero right now, they need him to get this victory for the West Coast.
This is sort of a revenge match from back in New York where the East Coast crowd kinda tore them up.
We really see them playing really smart.
These cars are juggling PC for a lot of percentage there.
This is exactly what Ken wants.
Wow! The morphing stage.
Little ledge hop from PC!
-Turns it around!
-That could be the game!
That was like... all the butterflies in my stomach went out.
They hoisted him up on their shoulders and
even if PC lost it was still a great tournament experience.
Huge sigh of relief.
I didn't really care whether Ken or PC Chris won,
half as much as I cared that people were actually watching.
Because the Halo kids were watching, and adults were watching, and girls were watching.
That's the direction I wanted to go, I always wanted more for Melee.
I didn't want it to stay as it was. I wanted it to explode into something different.
I wanted it to be like Poker or Nascar where it garners this fanbase that's a little bigger.
Even though I didn't walk home with the win or the money
and people were still saying: "Oh, Ken's better than PC."
but I knew inside that I went there and did what I wanted to do.
I went there and did what I want to do
hi
One tournament that's less known that I went to is the one in Hawaï.
I went to Honolulu. Got picked up by some Smashers
who were overexcited to play me and were very excited that I was coming to Hawaii.
I'm excited to go, why thank you!
Of course I'm gonna do that!
I got to try to learn how to surf.
The competitive stuff and person I am, it just took me so long
to at least catch a wave and start to ride on the board.
And then the next day I was trying to learn how to get up.
And at the time I was like: "Why am I doing this?"
But at the end of the day it was so fun and being able at least to stand up for a couple seconds
was totally worth 10 hours in water.
I win the tournament, so I'm paying for my trip and it was just
honestly the best time of my life probably and I really enjoyed myself.
Everyone in Hawaï who... I mean shoutouts to all of them.
They made me feel like a king. They didn't need to but they did, I had a great time, they were all kind.
Hopefully I can go back someday.
Just being on the beach.
You know, got the beers, got some food...
Got some music, got some friends.
It doesn't get much better than that.
He understood the game decently well but
he would never have guessed he was gonna be one of the best players in the world at that point.
I landed one hit and got wrecked.
You have to factor in the money.
I was all kind of shaken up in my head. I didn't know what was going on.
Arguably the best player in the world at that time and you're down 3 stocks to 1 and about to lose the set.
He felt like he was pushed to the end of the wall in the house.
We have here the epitome of MLG.
His goal was first period.
This is my dream.
Hm... No laughing so far.
You did that on purpose.
Alright. So we're gonna have to talk about the double Dedede theory.
UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
My friend has this theory that on Dreamland in Melee,
there is King Dedede, he's floating in the background.
He swore he's seen two at once, at the same time.
One in one corner and one in another.
And ever since he's told me when we're at party time in friendlies, I'll be on prowl for that double Dedede.
I'll be Falcon and I'll have him just at a favorable position
but I can't see enough of the screen so I run to the other side
just so I can get the full view of the screen.
He says that this needs to be on the documentary.
He swear he has taken a picture of it and I told him if he finds it,
then we'll have something to talk about in the community.
Until then, it's just a theory...
Just a theory.
The Double Dedede Theory.
