With our different venue of “The Menai” in Upper Bangor, we
were unsure of what to expect, even though we had trialled the venue a few
months back for a smaller event. The weather was absolutely awful, with howling
gales and pouring rain, so it was little surprise that we turned up at 10am to
find buckets by the front door to catch the indoor leak! Nevertheless, the kind
owners still let us hold our event, as long as we used the side door for
access.
On we went with the setup. The big projector started off
with freeplay Smash Wii U, as we needed people to test the screen for quality
and playability. We had a second screen on a table, where people could either
play N64 Mario Tennis; or something from the main Wii U. (Originally planned to
be Warioware, but people ended up playing all sorts of games!)
We also had a Pokémon corner, which also welcomed card games, run by Tristan of BUMPS.
We also had a Pokémon corner, which also welcomed card games, run by Tristan of BUMPS.
Most people arrived before 11am, or almost right on time,
despite the weather! We weren’t expecting a huge number of people, but we were
also hoping for a good turnout, since it was the Final of the SPGL Smash, and
also Basingstoke’s Jeremy had brought up his unique amiibo music box for people
to hear!
Sign ups started, with a main tournament of Mario Tennis and
a Mario Kart 7 session. The SPGL Final
was by invite only, and was for the top 8 on the table that had been built up
throughout the year.
12pm saw the first tournament kick off. This was the first
tournament organised where the actual hosts did not own the game! One of the
regulars stepped up and provided the game, but also oversaw the running of the
matches to make sure people knew how to play, as many had never tried the most
recent Wii U version before. All rounds were done on the big projector for the
Wii U version, until the final which was played out on the N64. John took 1st, Rhys was 2nd and Derwen was 3rd; winning £20 of eShop, £10
of eShop and an amiibo of choice repspectively.
After the tennis had finished, we served two traybakes, to
mark what would have been Iwata’s birthday the following day. People could
choose between chocolate or vanilla.
We quickly got on to the SPGL final. The Top Cut of 8
players were eligible. With one not being able to attend, and another
unfortunately being disqualified, it meant that two of our other more regular
members were able to squeeze in on the day! The brackets were single
elimination, best of 3. The first round used random characters, smash ball and
a random “alpha” stage. The other 2 rounds were For Glory. There were three
slightly more “hardcore” regulars who were favourites to win, alas two of them
got pitted against each other in the first round, so unfortunately The Mole got
knocked out earlier on. It wasn’t until the final that the other two met
though, where Ben took 1st and Drn took 2nd. The surprise
was the 3rd place play-off, where Cat and Chan fought it out for the
3rd trophy. Chan came away (or Mega Yoshi did!) in the end, after a
very explosive first round, and then seeing a 1-1 draw. It was all on the last
game, but Chan just about got away with it!
The final was very tense, but Ben came out top. The main
thing was that despite all the rivalries, everyone was smiling by the end!
Not long after that we got straight on to Mario Kart 7. This
was a mini tribute back to last year’s league; so we had 3 grand prix and
points based scoring. Top three prizes were the same as the Tennis tournament.
Rhys came 1st, Drn came 2nd, and The Mole came 3rd.
The Grand Prix were 150cc Flower cup, Mirror Leaf cup, 150cc Special Cup. We had
to have a two way tiebreaker though, so the final race was Mirror SNES Rainbow
Road.
Prize Giving was extra special as we had the custom made
trophies made by DragonCraft of Amlwch. We presented them after the smaller
prizes, and then as usual, rounded off with the raffle.
It has been another fantastic year for SPNW, and we hope you
have enjoyed the events you’ve been able to make it to! :D
Thanks to all our members for their continued support, and
particular thanks to anyone who’s provided equipment and/or prizes over the
year. Thanks also to anyone who’s taken photos for us, it’s great to be able to
have a record of all the different events we’ve had!
Thanks to the Menai for their hospitality, Bar Uno staff for
helping us in the summer, and the cleaners in Academi for helping us out when
we needed it!
Thanks to the Retro Rewind guys for letting us be part of
something so awesome, thanks to BUMPS for being part of things, and also thanks to any fellow Founders of the SPUK
community for any support or contributions you’ve given us over the year :D
We hope you all have an amazing Christmas and New Year, and
see you in 2016!
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