Interview with Tom Scott of SmashUK
Tom Scott (usually known as G~P) is the owner and creator of SmashUK! His insanely popular group represent the competitive Smash Bros scene of the United Kingdom. Tom has kindly taken some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for 3DSBlessed.
Please provide our readers with a brief history of SmashUK
SmashUK started as a simple group to organise. Our (very small at the time) competitive scene aimed to provide a place for Smashers to see what events were happening and when. Back in 2012 when I made it, hitting 100 members was a huge achievement! Over time it’s grown as we’ve advertised it to the larger crowd and since Smash 4 came out it has exploded. We’ve doubled our members since the 3DS version came out up to 3.5k members!
What can Smash fans new to the group expect to find at the events?
Honestly, that depends on the kind of events you attend. There are casual and competitive events happening alike. To be honest the events I run are the apex of competitive play in the UK ; where it’s all about your performance and we do the best to squeeze as much competition (and people into said competition) into our timeslot at the venue. At the last tournament we had around 100 people in attendance, which was fantastic, albeit sweaty.
Which Smash Bros title is most popular at the meets?
Well once again, that depends on what meet you go to. No tournament will have all of the Smash games being played. But usually Smash 4 (WiiU) or Melee are the main games. They’re on close to equal footing at the moment, and I don’t really see that changing much.
How do you, personally, feel Smash 4 on the 3DS compares with the other releases in the franchise?
The 3DS version was nice. And for us competitive players it’s a good way of practising on the move, but in all honesty it’s not really on the same level as playing on a console. It just feels like there’s something missing from the experience. Plus there were a few big problems with the game on 3DS (blastzones, which refers to an area on a stage that a character cannot cross without getting KO’d, being too big, lack of competitive stages, lack of controller usage, etc) that caused it to be a bit iffy to use. The Wii U version fixed all of those issues and the game is much better for it. These days the 3DS version is just for training on the move.
Who has been your most famous attendee to date?
We’ve had some top players come across to us from Europe, Such as Armada and Ice for our Melee events. Thus far we haven’t had any major Smash 4 players come over, but that should be changing soon…
Which companies (such as Nintendo) have pledged support, and what has this entailed?
This is a really dodgy situation to explain really. We work mostly independently, and Nintendo themselves are fairly reluctant to put money into a competitive scene because of the way the company itself works. But we have a couple of links that I’m working on, although I can’t disclose any of that myself.
What are your hopes for SmashUK’s future?
I just want SmashUK to keep working as it is now. It’s a machine used to keep the UK scene alive and it’s getting a bit difficult to control now because of its size. But it’s still a central hub for Smash in the UK and I’m glad of that.
SmashUK links :
Official website : http://www.smashbrosuk.com/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/SmashUK
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperSmashBrosUK
Twitter : https://twitter.com/SmashBrosUK
Twitch : http://www.twitch.tv/supersmashbrosuk
Tom Scott links :
Twitter : https://twitter.com/VwS_GP