I got some inspiration to write after attending Bronco Brawl Spring 2026, a college Melee regional in Southern California. Bronco Brawl (formerly known as CPP FragFest) has been a decently sized and consistent tournament for SoCal Melee for the past 5 years. We don't have very many big tournaments that get the subregions to come out and play each other in SoCal right now, so I've always appreciated the existence of the tournament series. When this iteration came around, I was a bit worried about attendance. I had seen there was a lack of current SoCal PR players and players who had attended in the past were not registered. I was a little frustrated that people weren't supporting one of the few big events that get put on in this region and was lowkey dooming about the state of SoCal Melee once again, believing that overall motivation was waning. The event ended up capping at 64 by the day before (I think there were a few extra entrants added beyond the cap even), so I felt a little easier about things.
Going into the tournament, I was the 4th seed and a decent contender to win but not the favorite. I ended up placing exactly 4th, technically making no upsets, but I won against oppenjaime after losing the last 3 sets I played to him, so I was happy about that. I lost to Venelox and Mr. Motion (salami), in sets where I showed some good stuff I think, but overeagerness and being antsy was a pretty big problem. I feel that when I am playing well sometimes, the urgency to win kinda comes up and I want to like "justify" the good play. And that manifests in me trying to "get things over with" and make hasty decisions. I am at least happy that I have the drive right now, and I have ideas on how I can perform better in regards to managing emotions. I wanted to briefly go over what happened in my bracket for context, but the main topic regarding my experience at the event and takeaways from the event have more to do with reflecting on my place in my local community now.
I had a much greater time at this event than I had anticipated! I think my worries about the state of SoCal Melee were proven wrong. There is a lot more new blood that I witnessed and interacted with at the tournament. The passion is very clearly there, showing up in even greater ways than before. I'd like to credit Janks for pushing the presence of Hotswap / USB Reporting and replays in SoCal, I believe it has been very helpful and motivating for players to have those tools around. And I observed a heartwarming amount of collaboration between TOs across regions to help the event run smoothly. I think this was one of the first events where I really got to recognize the impact that I also have as an individual in the scene. People I hadn't met before had mentioned the SoCal Falco Discord and how helpful it has been, and that honestly felt so cool. It is so fulfilling to finally see myself as the kind of player in the community that is able to influence and foster the growth of other players, as others had done for me before. I got to watch sets of people I've talked to and done analysis for in the Falco discord. I also got to watch sets of up and coming players that I've been taking the time to practice friendlies with and help out. People I've never met before were even rooting for me in my sets and had nice comments about my play. It feels so crazy to take up the role of the player that people look up to and I'm glad that I think I'm using the status to help other people who are also motivated and passionate. And after thinking about all this, I feel like I've somehow riding an even bigger wave of motivation for the game than I had going into the tournament. I really just want to continue doing the things I'm doing to help out and strive to do more.
Long Live SoCal Melee <3
- cliché / Alicia