Buh-bye 2018!

2018 was a fantastic year for me! Honestly, it really couldn’t have gotten better. Let’s get right into it:

Smash

• Genesis 5
  • 1/19/18 – 1/21/18
  • Oakland, CA
  • : 129/674; made out of pools
• Frostbite 2018
  •  2/9/18 – 2/11/18
  • Detroit, MI
  • : 257/866; two away from bracket
• 2GG Breakthrough 2 – An Arcadian Story (SoCal Arcadian)
  • 2/24/18
  • Long Beach, CA
  • 145/384
  • Only won 3/7 sets in my round robin pool which was the saddest thing in the world (losing 4 matches within the span of half an hour feels horrible)
  • 4-2 in Division 2. Felt like I played much better in this bracket, and my losing sets were close.
• No Johns, All Payne #3
  • 2/25/18
  • San Diego, CA
  • 9/49
  • Beat the Breakthrough 2 champion, only to losing to the same character in my next match lol
• Kawaii Kon 2018
  • 3/2/18 – 3/4/18
  • Honolulu, HI
  • 25/108
• 2GG Switchfest
  • 4/21/18
  • Long Beach, CA
  • 65/162
    • Actually the most stacked bracket ever! Losing to Ketchup in loser’s round 2 when we’d sometimes play in locals for top 8 lol
• MomoCon
  •  5/24/18 – 5/27/18
  • Atlanta, GA
  • 65/323 (RR pool survivor!)
• No Johns All Payne @ TGEX
  • 6/2/18
  • San Diego, CA
  • 13/80
• E3
  • 6/12/18 – 6/14/18
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • DK Rap during the invitational was actually the best thing ever
  • Being the first DK main to get a hold of Ultimate was a true blessing
  • Bless Sakurai

• Hyrule Saga
  • 6/23/18 – 6/24/18
  • 97/780
  • Made it out of pools!
• EVO 2018
  •  8/3/18 – 8/5/18
  • 129/1358
  • Made it out of pools!

Gaming

After Ultimate’s announcement, I bought myself a Switch, the first home console I ever bought for myself! I ended up playing the following games which renewed my love for the storytelling and aesthetics that only video games can provide:

• Super Mario Odyssey
• Bayonetta 2
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2
• Celeste
• Hollow Knight
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
• Slime San

Drawing

I fell in love with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 so much that I couldn’t help but recreate the world of Alrest and its beautiful inhabitants. I drew my first full drawing (using pen and color pencils) in May 2018, averaging a piece every 1-2 months. I got a piece with over 300 likes on Twitter! And I even completed the entirety of Inktober, on my first attempt nonetheless, committing to the standard prompt mixed with characters, objects, and places from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Concerts

These concerts were so fantastic that simply attending them is worth adding as highlights in this post.

• Lindsey Stirling + Evanescence
• Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert

The Book!

I have actually been working on the book on and off in secret for maybe about three years, but when Ultimate was announced, I just had to finish it up before the new game was released! After EVO 2018, I spent the majority of my spare time and most weekends trying to wrap it up. It was an interesting experience not only in the writing and appreciating how good Smash 4 was for my life, but also in everything that I had to do outside of writing that I didn’t expect:

• Hiring an editor
• Formatting
• Cover design
• Looking up self-publishers
• Working with IngramSpark, my distributor/self-publishing website of choice
• Actually publishing
• Learning about ISBNs and copyrights
• Marketing
• Creating an eBook

Reading

Frankly, I hadn’t read as much this year, but I did keep up with a decent 14 books throughout the year (in comparison to ~30 the previous year however). Many of the books of choice were actually about writing and publishing, which made me feel a lot more comfortable with the whole process of creating and selling my own book.

Going Into 2019

Planned Events

• Poi Poundaz 2
• GENESIS 6
• Smash n Splash 4
• EVO 2019
• More! (the above are 90%+ guaranteed)

Smash Goals

• Secure PR spot in San Diego (bonus: SoCal)
• Learn Peach/Daisy
• Be recognized as a undeniably notable DK player
• Survive pools; make a few upsets
• Don’t keep expectations too high – it’s a new game!

Creativity Goals

• Create a business card for my book(s)
• Create a Smash notebook to sell
• Aim for a drawing composition at least once every two weeks
• Learn how to draw on tablet + Photoshop
• Become notable enough as an artist to have confidence to apply to an artist alley
• Create YouTube vlogs for travel adventures

Miscellaneous

• Book tour?
• Have a regular sleep schedule, ideally sleeping at midnight at the latest
• Continue regular gym routing + entering races