Team Phoenix plans three-day UK Smash Bros event after success of Ris3 tournament

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Smash Bros tournament organiser Team Phoenix hopes to add a three-day national event for the game, on top of the 128-player Melee tournament it also has planned at the Eclipse Arena.
The organisation held the Ris3 event at the Eclipse Arena in Coventry one week ago, following the success of its original Rise of the Smashes tournament in April 2015 and Rise 2 in November 2015.
Team Phoenix were formed one year ago to help grow both the UK Smash Bros scene and the number of events in the midlands.
Co-owners Kyran Townley and Shais Butt, along with their team of staff Mohamed Mashal and Zeshan Hussain, began running bi-weekly events in a pub in Coventry town centre. Once they had amassed enough equipment and interest, they began planning their first tournament: Rise of the Smashes.
Although it was only their first event, they were able to attract some big names including VwS|Professor Pro – one of the UK’s best Smash players. Then came Rise 2, which attracted the American top 8 player TempoStorm|Westballz, as well as talented French pro Baxon.
 

“The UK smash scene currently has quite a wide skill gap between the top players and the rest. The competitive scene has grown significantly in the past few years.”

 
Team Phoenix co-owner Kyran Townley told eSports News UK: “Team Phoenix aims to provide solid and enjoyable tournaments for all its players and hopes to expand much further in the future, hopefully hosting a three-day national event next year.
“We would also love to be able to find a sponsor for our events and hopefully even sponsor players in the future. More recently we have just announced our next tournament – Rise and Shine – which will be a 128 Melee-only tournament hosted at the new and improved Eclipse Arena.”
Kyran also shared his views on the UK Smash Bros scene: “Super Smash Bros is commonly perceived as a party game, however its competitive scene has been around for a long time and has grown significantly in the past few years.
“The UK smash scene currently has quite a wide skill gap between the top players and the rest. After two of the top three players became fairly inactive, Professor Pro has been at the top for quite a while. Although as time passes on, some players are starting to be able to match his skill level.
“As for the midlands as a region, the top players right now are ED|HaoTwo and Willz who are rapidly rising up the rankings of the UK. We hope they can continue to push the midlands skill level up and propel us to become the top region in the UK.”

Ris3 event review: Who won each tournament?

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Event report by Team Phoenix co-owner Kyran Townley:
Ris3 was a Super Smash Bros Melee and Project M tournament run by Team Phoenix, which took place place on January 23rd at the Eclipse Arena in Coventry. It featured a host of top Smash Bros talent from all around the UK.
The event featured two games: Melee for the Gamecube, and a mod for Brawl called Project M for the Wii. There was a singles tournament (1v1) for Melee and Project M, and doubles (2v2) for Melee.
The tournament began with a set of pools, with the top two from each pool progressing to a double elimination bracket. 
Both singles tournaments were won by London’s Professor Pro, who only lost three single games throughout the whole tournament. In Melee, the other top spots were taken by R23 and Deathgazer, while in PM midlands player Willz and Bristols Can~D took second and third respectively.
 

“Both singles tournaments were won by London’s Professor Pro, who only lost three single games throughout the whole tournament.”

 
Professor Pro was dominant throughout both games and breezed through the finals in both. In doubles, however, Professor Pro and Synapse were knocked into the losers bracket by R23 and Jam. They then met again in the grand finals, and although Professor Pro and Synapse were able to win the first set, R23 and Jam were able to just take the win in the second set, with it going to the last possible game of the best of five set.
The final player count was 75 players. This included players from the midlands, Southampton, London, Bristol and more, with some of the top Melee players in the country attending, including VwS | Professor Pro, SDS | R23, Alpha Dash and Deathgazer, as well as top Project M players like Willz and Can~D.
You can check out the full Melee singles brackets here, as well as the Project M singles and Project M doubles brackets here.
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Photo credit: Jordan Bailey via Flickr

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