I closed my eyes. It was finally here. Apex 2015. My time to shine. My time to become a god. I took a whiff of the fresh New Jersey air before continuing. Ah that New Jersey air, fresh with pollutants and chemicals from the nearby factories. Now I know why Mew2king is so good , he has an excuse to play Super Smash Bros Melee for Nintendo GameCube all day long. Why did Apex decide to host their tournament in this garbage? I still was sleepy from the jet lag but Apex is going to start in a day. Unlike Mango, I don't have fan boys that jet lag john for me. I casually glanced at my watch, quarter to 6. I was supposed to be at my hotel at 5, damn it.

I dash danced towards my destination, a crappy Marriott hotel. That's all they could afford with a sponsorship from Nintendo? Wait … did I just use dash dance in real life context… must be that wonderful Jersey air. I dash dance…. I ran towards the hotel clerk and managed to get my room number and keys. My room number is 201 so floor 2, number 1. Even Marriot knows how Apex 2015 will end. I put in the key and the door squeals open. I immediately notice the other person on the side of the bed.

A smile and a scarf greeted me back. Zero , out of all the Smashers why Zero? I immediately whipped out my phone and called an Apex TO. After several minutes of arguing , he told me that I couldn't change the room. Guess I was stuck with the player in front of me for the surely hellish 4 nights that were to come. Wait , Zero , 201. If you put a zero in the middle of 201 it becomes 2001. Was this someone's idea of a joke? It sounds like something put in a hastily made FanFiction.

Zero was playing Melee on a 32inch CRT when I walked up to him.

" Guess we are living together for the next 5 days. Oh and no you can't touch the hair."

Zero just nodded and continued missing all his waveshines and l-cancels. What an utter noob.

After 2 days of practicing with lvl 1 Marths , practicing with ZeRo would only lower my skill level , It was finally time. I gazed at my controller silently. The nubs on both analog sticks were starting to chip but were still usable. That alone was proof of my hard work and dedication. I would win and when I did I would show them all my might.

The Apex venue was super small as usual. Each TV was occupied by someone competing in pools, not that I needed to. I would curb stomp anyone in my pools bracket anyways. I headed towards my first match. It was some player called Amsa. The guy that pulled off that "amazing" comeback against EK , I think.

I turned around to face my opponent before fist bumping him. He said "battlefield" in heavily accented English. I nodded in response. I blinked and the TV speakers started blaring music. He chose Yoshi and I chose Fox. This would probably be a simple match. Yoshi is fairly easy to kill and doesn't have too much at his disposal. He isn't even top tier! I remember when I used to main Yoshi, I was limited by my options but now… now I'm a god! He started off by being really aggressive , no problem , I would just be more aggressive back. Up throw , Up air and his stock was gone. He used his invicibility frames to camp on the edge of the stage and throw eggs at me.

Who is this guy , Mew2King? Wait , Mew2king … He was that Yoshi that beasted Mew2king a while back. He pulled off this crazy combo and I lost my stock. My hands were sweating and this wasn't even grand finals. He managed to 3 stock me out of nowhere with janky Yoshi combos. He read me like a book. I closed my eyes and calmed down for a bit. I need to go all out this next match. I went to FoD and hoped for the best. I won that match but just barely.

Damn it! I don't know anything about the Yoshi Matchup! My hands were sweating even more and my gamecube controller felt heavy in my hands. Those first 2 matches were a warm up , now time for the true Leffen to shine. Shine .. damnit. I managed to barely win the next match.

I've beaten Armada , Hungrybox , PPMD and Mango yet this Yoshi main is the one that's giving me trouble. His spacing with eggs was near perfect, he always regained stage control fairly quick and he knew how to shield drop. I never bothered learning it , I didn't really think I need it. He only had one major problem, he did the Armada patented "panic airdodge" whenever I approached aggressively. He consistently did that in the last match so I took advantage of it but won. Still, it's scary to see a player that strong that isn't in winners finals.

I won the rest of my matches for that day. Still , I couldn't stop thinking about that Yoshi player. How could I have changed that match? Maybe I should have switched to Falco. It doesn't matter , I doubt he'll come back from losers to face me again. ZeRo was chilling in the bed , playing Super Smash Bros Melee for …. playing Melee. I plugged in my controller and turned to him. "Shield drop" , I said , "teach me how to shield drop."