Celebrating the players of the Edmonton Smash Bros Community

Vincent "Teal" Choy

 

"HELLO! My name is Vincent Choy, I go by the tag "Teal" and I prefer to play Melee using Falco. I've been playing competitively for about 5 months now. I got into the competitive scene through the documentary like a lot of other noobies. That eventually ended with me finding out about the group at the U of A."

"Currently you are considered by many of the top Edmonton players as the fastest improving melee player. Especially with your 9th place finish beating Nugs at Metroid Shoulder Slam, at your 4th place finish at last week's local. What do you think is the biggest reason you are seeing so much success as a rising smasher?"

"Seems legit. That fourth place was pretty fraudulent just to clarify. But the reason I think I'm having so much success compared to others is because I feel like no ones motivated to get better. I didn't realize this until I went to Salt Flats 2 and compared the Edmonton scene and the Calgary scene. I could feel everyone was there to compete and get better. It's just an atmosphere I don't seem to get here in Edmonton."

"How would you describe the atmosphere here in Edmonton? What are some suggestions that you would give for any new players who are striving to improve, and do so relatively quickly?"

"The atmosphere is pretty friendly and more casual since the rankings are so stagnant there's no one threatening the spots in gold. I would say to go to setups where you'll get wrecked on and to ask the players what you're doing wrong because everyone will more than likely give advice. Also pester Ron or people that you think look like Ron."

"At Metroid Shoulder Slam last month, and I believe it was your first major local tournament, you defeated Nugs and went on to earn 9th place. Nugs, although a top Silver player, is known to be really strong in the Falco match up, defeating Scythe locally and Crusayer at Alberta Beatdown, a Gold and Platinum player respectively. How did you feel about your win over Nugs? What was going through your head before, during and after your set?"

"I actually didn't know that Nugs prided himself in the spacies MU until after the match was over. Usually when I go into games I think about the expected outcome and going into the game I knew he was favored. I just decided to gauge my skill not expecting to win. But as the match start I realized that the game was going 50/50 and I started gaining momentum and eventually clutched the set. After the set I was pretty relieved and I think it was pretty evident that Nugs slept on me the first game and choked the second. Nonetheless, it felt pretty awesome to defy the chances rather than to just roll over. Then right after Nugs started rolling me in friendlies."

"What was your draw towards maining Falco? Typically when new players start playing Melee, the play less mechanically intensive characters like Marth. Was it difficult to get past the intensive learning curve that is required to play a character like Falco?"

"I actually started out with Marth learning the fundamentals but eventually 
I wanted to main Falco after seeing the dair shine combos and watching the pros play I just thought how cool he looked. Learning to play Falco just came in learning small parts of the character at a time. For me it wasn't that daunting but I did quickly learn how glass cannon. To answer the question, no it wasn't that difficult in retrospect."