Nick McMillan

Professor Bailie

English Comp

November 13th, 2019

Assignment 3

The discourse community that I am actively involved in is the community of competitive Super

Smash Bros. 64 players. This is a long running video game franchise owned and developed by Nintendo.

This community meets Swales’ six criteria for being defined as a discourse community as well as fitting

into Mirabelli’s concept of multiliteracies. In the following paragraphs, I will explain how these concepts

apply while detailing my rise from the average player to a nationally recognized player and among the

best in the state of Ohio and the Midwest region of the United States.

I feel it is necessary to provide a brief history of this hobby of mine before beginning my “rise”

portion of the narrative. This all began when I was playing Super Smash Bros. casually with my

roommates four years ago, I was able to combo one of my roommates in a way I never knew I could do.

This intrigued me, so I searched for competitive play for this game on Youtube and was not

disappointed. Seeing people play the game my friends and I have been playing for years the way they

were, amazed me. Nintendo had designed a party-style platform-fighter meant for anyone to be able to

pick up and play had accidently designed the most unique fighting game the world of competitive

gaming has ever seen. The seemingly simple game had deeper mechanics that players discovered and

formed a meta around. After watching some of these players fight, I decided to search for tutorials

(again on Youtube, first link is access to a playlist containing several tutorial videos for beginners to

competitive play) on these deeper mechanics that explained how these players were able to move so

quickly and perform these combos on each other. For the next two years I was a low-level player who

ascended to average until I learned more efficient ways to get better at the game.

However, over this past year I began understanding mechanics with greater depth as well as

improving my technical skills; that along with maturing as a player; I began to read my opponents to

develop in-game mind games to press my advantage upon them. To avoid going into too much depth I

will refer you to Figure 1. These are known as the four pillars of smash, they are the amalgamate of the

entire meta game at a conceptual level. These concepts are applied to the phases of game known as the

neutral game, punish game, edge-guarding and combo ability. The neutral game can be described as the

phase in which both players are spacing each other out to get a feel for them and watch their movement

closely to find openings and exploit them. The neutral game is really what separates the men from the

boys in this community, if you can’t hit your opponent, you’re in for a tough time. Punish game is

understanding that your opponent made a poor decision in their spacing and then capitalizing on it by

either getting a fews hits or a full stock (a stock is the unit measure of lives in the Super Smash Bros.

franchise) after your opponent’s mistake. Chaining together multiple hits before your opponent can

move (a mechanic known as hit-stun occurs after the character has been and is therefore unable to

move for a certain number of frames (60 frames occur per second)) is known as a player’s combo ability

or combo game and is crucial to taking stocks off your opponents. Finally, edge-guarding is the phase

where you have knocked your opponent off the stage and your goal is then to keep them off. Smash

Bros. is known as a platform fighter which is different from your everyday fighter like Street Fighter,

Mortal Kombat, and Tekken. On Smash Bros., there is a floating stage with platforms that characters use

to fight each other within a two-dimensional plane. Edge-guarding can only occur in platform fighters

because there are no edges in traditional fighters.

I began using a strategy that top players use, which is watching their own footage of themselves

playing to understand why they were losing. In the beginning of the year, there was a tournament in

Indianapolis I attended with a total 61 in attendance. It was comprised of the usual suspects of the

region (Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan have been in cahoots for years and organize tournaments together)

and with the top players all at one venue, it was a tournament with a lot of hype. In Figure 2, it lists the

playable characters in the game featuring the biggest names in Nintendo at the time and in tournament,

I “main” (a player’s primary character is refered to as their “main”) the explosive yet fragile character,

Captain Falcon. My tag (name to which I am referred to) is Elrond, yes, the same name of the character

in The Lord of the Rings. Figure 2 is also the tier list for the game, which is our ranking system for the

characters as far as how efficient they are in tournament play.

I had usually placed around the top end of the “middle of the pack” around this time but I had

studied the game more going into the tournament and I felt I was ready to break through and challenge

some of the lower end players considered to be in the next tier. I made my way through the waves of

pools and was seeded in a top sixteen double elimination bracket as the twelfth seed. In my first set of

the bracket I faced fellow state member, Ace, who was ranked higher than me in the state at the time. I

have had success against him in the past and I felt confident going into it. I ended up besting him two

games to his one in a best of three set and claimed the upset. Unfortunately for me, I faced Indiana’s

top player the next round. I surprised myself by taking a game off him during the set which was great

for my confidence, considering he is nationally ranked, and I was not at the time. In the loser’s side of

the bracket I made short work of the Kirby player, Amida, and found myself in my first top eight at a

regional tournament in my career. Now in round four of the loser’s side, I faced Indiana player,

WalkrofSky, to advance. I had beaten him the last time we played but it wasn’t by much and in another

close set, he bested me that time. I was congratulated by my fellow Ohio players for making it at far as I

did and outplacing my tournament by placing seventh as the twentieth seed overall. As glad as I was to

see that seventh-place finish for my first time in bracket, I knew I had not yet reached my ceiling and my

desire to become a stronger player grew. I watched myself play in tournament by watching the past

broadcast of it on Twitch to see where I went wrong and began the process I use today to get better.

Fast forward to July of 2019 to a summer tournament (Figure 3) where I showed that I could be

consistent in my tournament placing. Unlike my previous tournament, where I also placed high, this

time I did not do as well in my pool matches and found myself with the tenth seed in the top sixteen

double elimination bracket. I ran into fellow Ohio player, Ace, again and knew that if I beat him again, I

would receive respect. Sure enough, on a live stream, I brutally dismantled Ace in round one of top

sixteen and just like the last tournament, ran into Indiana’s number one in round two of the winner’s

side. I kept it close, I scrapped, I made good reads and executed, but Patrick was still too much for me

as he beat two games to zero in our set. I played him a lot closer than I did the last time and that surely

kept my confidence up going into the loser’s side of the bracket. In the loser’s side, I quickly made work

of Michigan player YOLOFT (pronounced yolft) and proceeded into top eight again. My fellow Ohio

players and were talking before top eight began, and a few of them insisted that I would be quickly

move up the rankings in both ohio and the region if I could get a win in top eight again. Now that my

friends have put all this pressure on me, I returned to the live stream set up to face another Indiana top

player, NiT. He was a rare Jigglypuff main which is good counter-pick to my Captain Falcon and I was a

bit worried going into the set, so I did something gutsy. Instead of picking Falcon, I chose Samus. This

was an interesting choice because Samus is viewed as a low tier character that has trouble against most

of the cast with match up disadvantages, but her one good use is to fight Jigglypuff. I had been working

on Samus recently for Low Tier Brackets (a bracket style where one can only choose characters ranked

as “low tier”: Samus, Link, Donkey Kong, Ness and Luigi (Sometimes Mario)). The look on NiT’s face

when I selected Samus is one that I won’t forget. In my peripheral vision, I caught a smirk and a brief

eye roll as in “this guy thinks he can pick one of his lesser characters for a match up advantage and win”.

He and I were exactly right. In front of an audience of people in person and on the internet. I destroyed

Indiana’s third ranked player in an aggressive and dominant manor. I was stoked as I found myself in

the same position as last time, fifth place locked in (outperforming my overall tournament seed again)

and shot at fourth. After being swarmed by my buddies from Ohio on the big win, I checked the bracket

to see who I would be playing next. Unfortunately, there was an upset on winner’s side in the

semifinals. Top Michigan players EG and Andykins had a close set and the former lost to the latter. EG

(a Captain Falcon player too) is Michigan’s top player and was voted the breakout player in the North

American scene last year and has built a resume for himself over the past year and half to get a national

rank. Andykins is their number two, but is noticeably behind EG in skill, but that didn’t stop him from

having a great set and beating his fellow statesman. I knew I was going to get blasted in loser’s quarter

finals, I would have had a better chance at Andykins. I have played Andy in the past and have kept it

close against him and would have had a better chance if he hadn’t completed the upset. Before my set

against EG, I was nervous so I chugged half a beer to settle my nerves (this is a gamer pro-tip, however,

drinking too much will make one suck as they lose motor functions) and went in to the set with a clear

mind. I got dominated the first game and was only able to manage one stock off him, but the second

game was mine. I was all over EG and my combo game was perfect. I tied the set at one game a piece

and the next game determines the set, with Ohio and Michigan players yelling and cheering for their

respective statesman, the final game commenced. If I was able to take this set, it would do so much

more for me than my last big tournament would. EG however, wanted to part of it as he cleanly bested

my in the final game. We shook hands after the set, and he told me that I was improving so fast and

that I would soon be at the next tier of smash players. Even though I lost, the way I played and the

acclaim I was getting was more than enough to ease the pain from losing.

Mirabelli’s concept of multiliteracies can be applied to this discourse community because there

is more than one way to read to a situation. Given a certain in-game scenario, a player may read the

situation different than others or in greater depth than others. It’s similar to Mirabelli’s comparison on

the serving industry, there is more than one thing to read in a scenario, the menu and the customer.

Swales’ concept of what makes a discourse community and it’s six criteria are met in my discourse

course community as well. The first goal being a broadly set agreed upon goal(s). Our goal in the

community is simple, have fun and advance the meta, which is always being accomplished. The second

being a medium for communication which we have several of. We have Facebook group pages such an

entire community page to smaller groups based on where you (we have and Ohio Facebook page) and

which character you play (there are pages dedicated to advancing the meta around a specific character).

We have group texts to keep us in touch for whatever information (or trash talk) we may need. The

third concept, which are participatory mechanisms to provide feedback occurs when we attempt new

tournament styles (we invented a tournament style known as Waterfall, too much detail to go in depth,

but it is essentially a way for players to give themselves a chance to earn a higher seed when put into

double elimination brackets). The fourth criterion, possessing and furthering more than one genre is

also met. Since there are twelve characters in the game, each character would be considered a “genre

of study” since they all have different tools unique to them. Each character requires time, experience,

and repetition to be formidable against other players of a similar skill level. There is specific lexis to this

game (fifth criterion) as one could tell from reading: Edgeguarding, neutral game, punish game, hit stun,

et cetera. These are just a few of the many terms we in this community use to describe our game.

Finally, we have plenty of players and several “best-in-the-world” caliber players in community to meet

a threshold (Swales’ sixth criterion) of total players. The top players don’t talk too much about their

strategies, however, because they’d expose game plans against those they compete with, they only help

lesser players with simpler concepts.

After my break out performances this year, I am hoping to keep pushing myself to reach the top

spot in Ohio. I never thought too deeply into how our community works, but Swales and Mirabelli both

explained to me how my community that I have been a part of works, which is something I never

thought I would get out of a college course. Their concepts are now glaringly apparent when I interact

with other players through whichever medium we choose.

Link to tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRRp1_oLOK_GiEwNX_d8UIPvlqi34_VHn

Figure Table

Figure 1

Figure 2

(From left to right starting from the top: (S tier) Pikachu, Kirby, (A tier) Captain Falcon, Yoshi, (B tier) Fox, Jigglypuff, (C tier) Donkey Kong, Mario, Samus, (F tier) Link, Ness, Luigi)

Figure 3

Double Elimination bracket