I’ve competed in a lot of Smash Brothers tournaments. Over 500 and counting. My proudest moment in my life takes place at one of them. So what differentiates that one from the others, well to explain that I have to explain to you the medium-length story of how a boy in Smash Brothers meets another boy in Smash Brothers.

I have always been a very outspoken person in my life. This may be to overcompensate due to anxiety, this may also be because I grew up as a gay latino man in a household of latino lawyers. This allows you to be pretty forward when you want something, and this comes to benefit you when you’re dealing with a guy who is incredibly nervous that he is misreading your constant flirting.

See I really liked this one guy I met at my friend’s “Smash-fest” which is basically a nerd party where we play Smash Bros. His name was Christian and he was super sweet and a fun presence to be around. I wanted to ask him out but with my lack of experience I wasn’t quite sure how to, so I started being pretty flirty with him in our communications. Jokes about going on dates, Jokes about us being a doubles team, you know all the classic romantic stuff. He struggled to understand what I was doing, or was nervous he was reading into it (He claims the latter, I claim the former). So I planned on actually meeting with him alone and we could do something fun.

Christian lived in the city which wasn’t the most convenient for me since I lived around an hour outside of the city if you include traffic, and there is never no traffic. I wasn’t sure when we would meet up, however I did know the next time I would be in the city. See I went to a weekly event in New York City, specifically in Chinatown called “The Nightclub”. This event had some of the best players in the world in attendance, specifically Aklo, a Top 10 player whom I have never beaten before, and Hax (Also known as Hax$), a top 20 player whom I had never beaten before. These two won constantly, trading weeks and taking home the prize every seven days. I asked Christian if he wanted to come to the event but he told me he was busy, so with that answer I went alone to a tournament I did not think was possible to win.

So I showed up to the Nightclub aiming for top 3, which would get me access to payout and most likely end in me getting a good win for my resume. I was excited to compete and overall giddy over the fact that a boy I liked was messaging me. I played my first few sets and low and behold I was able to get to Winners Quarters, a round before I’d play the first very hard opponent Hax. I was sitting down at a table enjoying the atmosphere waiting eagerly for the next message from my crush to arrive when I looked up and suddenly there was the boy I had just been messaging walking into the venue.

He looked right at me and had a dorky smile on his face. The son of a bitch surprised me and as I feigned anger I was insanely excited just to hang out with him, that honestly the tournament felt like a side-show. Which made what happened that night even more crazy.

I won my next set and had to Play Hax, a player I had never beaten, in front of my now present “date”. Which is not something I had been prepared for before leaving, but to be honest it did make what happened next more fun.

I won, and with that conquered a demon and a well known player in front of my date. That felt kinda badass and well I could tell he very much enjoyed seeing me win. He was so supportive and we got right back to flirting and chatting, which made the night that much better. Honestly it was just such a cool moment and I was so happy he was there…

However that’s not my proudest moment of the evening.

Aklo, the best player in the venue, turned out to have showed up late, he wasn’t disqualified from the whole event but he was Disqualified out of winners bracket. This meant my next opponent was a long-time friend and fellow Peach Player Wally, someone who had won the vast majority of our sets. I sat down on the stage again in front of my date, and with a newfound confidence…well just watch.

I got away with it again, I had won Winners finals of the tournament against Wally in front of my date. This now meant two things

1. I will now be playing in Grand Finals against the eventual challenger who got through the losers bracket, meaning I was now playing with 2 chances to win the event.

2. I have to play it cool and act like this is a normal thing to impress the boy sitting next to me

These two feelings are hard to manage at the same time, but I think Christian would attest that I held it together pretty well.

So after another solid hour of chatting with Christian doing your casual flirty arm touches and giggles, I watched Aklo win Losers’ Finals over Wally, and meet me in Grand finals

Normally I would be incredibly nervous, however having just done the most impressive thing I could on this date I was just so happy Christian had watched the whole tournament run I just had. But one thought lingered in my mind…

“Imagine how impressed he’d be if I won”

I won the whole event, in front of my surprise date, for the first time ever over those players. This was my proudest moment, a literal storybook ending where the boy I liked got to see me climb the hill I had longed to reach the summit of. I felt incredible and couldn’t have been more grateful he showed up. To be honest I still get emotional just remembering how awesome that day was. It was the start of a big emotional comeback for me, which led me to reaching my first Major top 8 a few months later, and allowed me to now be in contention for being a top 30 player in the world

If you take anything away from this, I hope it’s this. Sometimes you achieve your dreams just at the right time under literal storybook circumstances.

And if you have the ability to win a big tournament in front of a date it really helps secure yourself a partner <3.