This is going to take a bit of a different turn from what I’d typically post. That may or may not be a good thing. As some may know already if you follow me on any form of social media, Shine was this weekend. To preface this article, Shine was the first major tournament series I attended. I’ve been to and hosted small local tournaments, but this was different. I walked in almost uninitiated with the Smash Bros. community as a whole; I knew about a few high-level Melee players and that was it. So, without further ado, let’s get into it. This’ll be more of a reflection article rather than a review or something similar.

About a week before the event, a few of us here at The Lifecast decided we should try and spring for media badges. It’s a local start up event, we’re a Boston-centric start up thing. Maybe it’ll work out. And it turns out: it did. So the day before the gig, Dan, Adam, and I went to get our badges.

Badge pickup was really pleasant. Since Dan and I were there for (almost) strictly media, we got to check out the space before the event started. The setup of the venue was roomy enough to accomodate row after row of setups, a spacious main stage and audience area, a few merch booths, and a backstage area which has caused a bit of controversy in the past few days. We had a discussion about it in the latest episode of our podcast, though, so I won’t detail it here.

During the event, there was a lot of time to walk around and really see what was going on. From what I understand, competitors didn’t feel rushed into their next match. The whole thing was timely and surprisingly organized. Nothing started earlier than its designated time and nothing ran late. Overall I’m really impressed with the ability to have a set schedule and stick to it for such a large, first-time-run event.

The entire weekend really piqued my interest for competitive games in general. I asked so many questions but I’m glad I did. Not only did I find something I’m really passionate about in photojournalism, but experiencing Shine made me want to keep up with a community I had only scratched the surface of before.

And I guess that’s all there is to say about that. It was surreal. Below you can find the curated pictures I took over the weekend. We’ll have other media, including interviews with ESAM of Panda Global and Shi Deng of Big Blue eSports, coming within the next few days so stay tuned for that.

All images featured in this post and in the album below were taken by myself.