Fool me once - goes the famous old phrase - and the shame is all yours, but if you fool me twice, its shame on me. Melee fans are traditionally a bunch that knows how to hold a grudge or stick in position regardless of how the evidence changes, but does that still apply when it comes to tournaments that have gone awry in the past, or do we forgive and forget faster than a goldfish if the prize is right?

There are two competitions in particular that have brought this question to the fore, and the first of those really should need no introduction. From the founder and owner sexually harassing members of the community, not all of whom were of legal age, to a venue with a collapsing roof that never had the capacity to host the event anyway, Apex 2015 was such a cluster of congress that it will live long in the negative memories of Smash players. Eventually, Twitch came to the rescue and bailed the event out, but not before the reputation of both Apex Series owner Jonathan ‘Alex Strife’ Lugo and the tournament itself had taken some serious damage.

Another incredibly significant event that happened a while back is also due to make a comeback in 2016 -- that being the Pound Series. One of the reasons it is not as famous today as Apex is that the explosive growth of the scene came a couple of years after the most infamous Pound event, but if you speak to any old hand of this scene, they’ll tell you all about what went wrong. In a nutshell, prize money is the main reason TO (Tournament Organizer) Jonathan ‘Plank’ Graybeal has a reputation similar to a snake in a henhouse with older players, as poor planning and (some say) possible shadiness meant that the end of Pound V saw the prize money withheld.

Given that the event was some time ago now, it seems like a long time to hold a grudge, but as one commenter on reddit said, ‘most TOs - even the shoddiest ones  such as Alex Strife - pay out’. On one hand this may seem vindictive, but withholding prize money is essentially seen as stealing from the players in the Melee scene and something of a cardinal sin. Recent rumours that Plank had begun contacting those still owed money with the intention of repaying it have emerged, and we can confirm at least some of those still owed payment saw the money arrive in their accounts eventually.

Now, both of these groups are back this year with an attempt to right some wrongs made, namely money being paid out and Strife ostensibly no longer being a part of the Apex group. For some Smashers, the fact that Strife’s partner Cristin ‘Crismas’ DeSaro has not confirmed her departure from the Apex Group is still an issue, as it leaves open the idea the Strife himself could still get paid from the event existing. Despite him being called out on the most electrifying of platforms, most seem to accept Plank’s major mistake last time was planning for more success than he could achieve rather than deliberately trying to cut and run with the entire prize pool.

It should be noted that even a few years back, running an event was at least as much of an undertaking as it is today, and way riskier then with the more fragile scene. Robin ‘Juggleguy’ Harn is one of the most respected and successful TOs in the states, and had this to say about the sheer amount of work and pressure on his shoulders in the run-up to a big event. “It consumes months of my life at the level of event planning required now. The payoff is, we impact the lives of thousands of attendees, and create something amazing as a team and community that we can look back upon as a significant milestone in the growth of the Smash scene.”

He did stress that events don’t all have to follow a cookie-cutter template, but made it clear the fans have to trust the people in charge to do the right thing. “Events can take on all kinds of shapes, sizes, moods, atmospheres, but as long as I come away from an event with the impression that the organizers did everything they could to create something amazing, then I feel good about supporting it. I think our attendees feel that way every year.”

That is clearly not true for all events, and especially Apex 2015, where organizers did anything but their best, and yet still the average Melee player will probably not have that many options for attending a ‘big’ event in 2016. As a result, if an Apex or Pound is due to happen near a passionate Smasher, it is almost the automatic reaction for players to book a ticket and look at sharing a room with a friend. But, are such events returning healthy for the scene, and how should a player decide where and when they are going to travel for Smash?

“As a new player I would look closely at the track record of an event series and talk to previous attendees about their experience,” said Juggleguy. “The first thing I look for when deciding to attend an event is whether the organizer has a proven history of good events. Pound is a legendary tourney series that changed the landscape of the Smash scene back in the day. Plank is one of the best organizers in my eyes, having gained inspiration from his old school majors and having worked with him at Super Smash Con last year.”

Harn is definitely understanding of how Pound V went wrong. “The Pound 5 financial mishap was definitely a setback, but over time I've empathized more and more with it, because I think it could have happened to almost any organizer at that specific point in time. We were all learning how to scale tourneys from the dark ages to the platinum age.” His sympathy for Apex is less pronounced, though. “I've attended Apex in the past, but after the disastrous 2015 installment, I'll have to sit back this year and see what the new team is capable of before I consider attending again in the future.”

The new organizer of Apex is Andre ‘Bifuteki’ Augustin, a man known in the Melee scene and also someone who has worked on previous versions of the event. As we’ve mentioned, there is some thought that he may even be a front for the Strife/Crismas team. This would fit with Lugo’s assertion that "I own Apex and still run it...albeit behind the scenes, cause ppl [ sic ] like to make stuff up", made in February 9th, 2015. That - and the words of experienced TOs like Harn - should be good warning for anyone thinking of making the trip to Apex 2016, and could end up as the nail in the Apex coffin if lessons aren’t learned.

As for Pound, the gap between the disaster and now is so huge as to almost have made what was once a tragedy into a comedy. It must be said, however,  that the scene reacted in a more balanced way to the outright incompetence of Plank than they did to the sexual misdemeanours of Alex Strife. Some top players are making the trip, even from as far afield as Europe, and top Fox main VWS star Aaron ‘Professor Pro’ Thomas has some semi-encouraging words for Plank and his team ahead of making the trip from London to NYC. “I'm pretty confident there will be no payment problems for Pound”, Thomas told us.

“They went out of their way to pay people to show that they want to get back into the scene, and I'm pretty sure they don't want to 'Apex' their reputation”. His use of ‘apex’ as an verb here is telling, and suggests Pound has less distance to travel to redemption than Apex does. This is only right and proper of course, that Pound is given more of a chance to resurrect itself than Apex by those with the means to choose, as mistakes are not the same as deliberate, bad behaviour. It is also worth noting that Plank was trusted by Michael ‘Nintendude’ Brancato and Juggleguy to work as a TO on SmashCon last year, and maybe a sign of his rehabilitation, although many would argue that is a big step down responsibility-wise from his initial role at Pound.

On the other hand, with Smash growing exponentially and the big N looming over everything else, it could be said that we have enough evil corporations already, and are attracting more each month. With events like Dreamhack, Evo, CEO, The Big House and SmashCon thriving, it might be time to leave the likes of Apex in the past, where they belong, and instead move forward with folk like Juggleguy and maybe even the Twitch people holding the compass. Lord knows they’ve proven themselves capable and trustworthy, words that cannot be applied to Strife, and that Plank probably still needs to earn back in the eyes of the public, although he's well on his way.

Images courtesy of Motherboard, NintendoLife, NJ.com and WWE Entertainment

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