Gaming
Bryan “Kpoptosis” Herren on expanding into fighting games and what to expect from Smash Summit 2.
Beyond The Summit started out as a way to showcase eastern Dota to the Western world, but thanks to rapid growth and a very successful crowdfunding campaign back in 2013 the organisation has quickly grown to become one of the largest Dota 2 casting studios in the world. Featuring many of the top casting talent such as David "LD" Gorman and David "GoDz" Parker, and even hosting some of the biggest events of the year, the studio has gone from strength to strength in the Dota world, but late last year the company decided to branch out and hosted their first ever Smash Bros. event as well.
The first Smash Summit took place in early November 2015, and proved to be a massive success, with thousands of viewers tuning in to see Adam "Armada" Lindgren take first place in a back and forth final against Joseph "Mango" Marquez that was just one hit away from a bracket reset, which could have changed the outcome for one of the biggest Melee tournaments ever. The relaxed and casual atmosphere that is present at all BTS events felt like a perfect fit for Smash, with players interacting and joking around throughout the weekend. It all felt like a perfect storm, everything coming together at the right time and the right place to make the Smash Summit one of the best Melee tournaments ever.
After finding such success with their first effort, it comes as no surprise that Beyond The Summit are hosting a second Smash Summit, which is due to take place between April 21-24 at the BTS house in Los Angeles. In order to get the low down on the Smash Summit 2 and why BTS decided to venture into Smash in the first place, we spoke to Bryan "Kpoptosis" Herren, who is one of the key decision makers for the Smash Summit.
“I'm the project manager for the event, meaning I make most of the big decisions, but I most certainly am not in charge of everything,” explains Herren when asked exactly what his role involves. “I have an amazing hospitality director in Grace Lee who handles the players, their flights, and their requests, Rob James oversees a lot of the production and physical setup of the house, we have an awesome graphics team led by Peter Kerulo, and Greg Laird handles sales and partner interactions with sponsors.”
Not only is Herren the project manager but he was also one of the main reasons BTS decided to try a Smash event in the first place. As a long time fan of Smash eSports, Herren was eager to work on a Smash event and it turns out a lot of the BTS team were also up for doing it.
“Some people needed convincing [to do a Smash tournament], but showing off what a Smash live event was like in terms of hype and narratives won people over quickly,” says Herren. “A lot of us here are Smash fans and we thought the player personalities would be very conducive to a summit event. We also really wanted to showcase our ability to put on a quality tournament in a game other than Dota. The first event was discussed last summer, but real plans didn't get into place until about two months beforehand, that's a general timeline for these events.”
Once the event rolled around the Smash community was incredibly excited to see what BTS could produce. The lineup of talent featured many of the best players in the world at the time, such as eventual finalists Mango and Armada and well as Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, and the summit setting would allow them to interact with each other and the fans in a way never before seen, thanks to the constantly rotating analysts sofas and the variety of extracurricular activities. Fortunately almost everything went to plan: players spent a lot of time on the analyst couches, and the atmosphere of the tournament was unlike any other Smash event.
“We were very pleased with how the first event turned out in almost every aspect,” recalls Herren. “Players loved the event, the matches were great, and some community members thought it was the best event they had seen. We definitely see areas for improvement for the next iteration, but as a first run we were very content.”
Of course there are going to be some changes to the Smash Summit for its second iteration. Different players, more planning time and a few changes to the format can be expected at the Smash Summit 2, which should make the event much more enjoyable, as Herren explains.
“We are going to be changing up the format for the first two days to make it more engaging, and you can also expect more fun, post produced content like you'd see at one of our Dota Summits. This tournament is going to be so amazing it will make Mean Girls look like Mean Girls 2.”
With such high expectations set by Herren itself it sure seems like the team are confident that this will be their best event yet. The likes of Armada, Mango, Axe and Mew2King are just some of the big names that will be competing, and are sure to make the competition incredibly close. We asked Herren what he is personally looking forward to at the event.
“Seeing the friends I made at the first event! That's always the best part of any offline eSports competition. Other than that, Mango vs Armada, has been crazy hype for the last couple times they've faced off so I can’t wait to see that. I also hope to see the Axe vs Mew2King Pichu dittos again at some point.”
Herren also reveals that Beyond The Summit are hoping to make the Smash Summit a regular event, much like The Summit, with two events every year. He also hinted that BTS is looking into running events for other eSports but, declined to give any details on what games they may be. What he did reveal however was the players he expects to do well at the event.
“Hungrybox really seems to be on a tear so I think he'll be hard to take down. Mango's on his home court though in a lot of ways so he could make a push. Armada is also always the favourite to any tournament he attends.”
Only time will tell if Herren’s predictions come true, but what we can be sure of is that the Smash Summit 2 is shaping up to be one of the best Smash tournaments ever. With over $10,000 on the line, the traditional relaxed atmosphere of The Summit and the best players in the world in attendance, it would be more surprising if this didn't turn out to be amazing.
For more eSports coverage, follow @RedBulleSports on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
