Team:The Smash Affiliates
An east coast crew based in New Jersey, with a branch in Pennsylvania. Led by Warrior of Zarona and known for their tournament series, SMASHTALITY. Also known as TSA. Currently, there are 13 active members in the crew.
Members
New Jersey Main Branch
- AngelCX
- Copycat
- Doyoung2win
- Emblem Lord
- Heart Break Kid
- Mud
- Muz - Second in Command
- Public Enemy No. 1
- RaptorHawk
- Sensei
- Sneak8288
- Warrior of Zarona - Crew Leader
11 Members
Pennsylvania Branch
- Cactuar - Branch Leader
- PakmanonCrack - Branch Second in Command
2 Members
History
The Beginning
The Smash Affiliates began when Warrior of Zarona was driving home from a Princeton tournament with Copycat and two former TSA members, Odin and Ghost, on January 2006. WoZ, as he was known for short, randomly asked his passengers if they wanted to form a crew together, to which they all agreed. Though it was meant to be casual and unofficial, the nameless crew decided to train with each other to grow stronger.
In February of that same year, WoZ entered a tournament held by The Human Stampede, a former NJ crew. Discussing a name for WoZ's crew, Boocif, one of THS' members, jokingly suggested to call themselves "The Affiliates," where the crew would be directly affiliated to THS. WoZ enjoyed the idea and decided that this would be the name of the crew. Since it conflicted with Team Arlington's initials, "TA," WoZ decided to rename it "The Smash Affiliates." It was also at this same tournament where WoZ randomly asked Mud and Muz to join the crew. Ever since then, the crew had been training with each other on occasion, and every so often, WoZ would spontaneously ask someone to join TSA. Heart Break Kid would then be the next to join the ranks. WoZ also tried to convince Emblem Lord, at that time a THS crew member, to join TSA, but was refused multiple times. TSA also attended an unofficial crew battle in Deadly Alliance's tournament, the Gauntlet. It was after this crew battle that WoZ realized he wanted to organize the crew into an official group of players that would be recognized in the Smash community.
Development and Growth
In May 2006, WoZ created The Smash Affiliates Thread in the Atlantic North section of Regional Zones. It's purpose was to provide the members a way to communicate with each other upon crew matters, as well as allow other players to read about the crew and who they are. At this time, THS disbanded, and so Emblem Lord had finally agreed to become part of TSA as long as he was appointed the second in command. Along with Emblem Lord came his friend, Public Enemy No. 1, who also became part of the crew. Gundam Kitty was eventually introduced as TSA's mascot. A recruitment policy was created, where players were free to apply to become part of TSA, instead of the former method where WoZ would randomly invite players into the crew. Raptorhawk, Sensei, Doyoung2win, Cactuar, and Sneak8288 were some of the members that were recruited through this process. Unfortunately, Odin and Ghost were removed from the roster because of their loss of interest for the game.
TSA was soon known as one of the more highly active crews in NJ - crew meetings were held once every week, and players from both NJ and NY were soon aware of their presence. TSA was also known for their amazingly addicting animated, or the Triple A, signatures, as well as the TSA Tag, which is a badge worn by all members of The Smash Affiliates. During that summer of 2006, TSA continued to grow as their reputation expanded - they entered into a crew battle with Honey Roasted Peanuts, a former NY crew, and an unofficial battle against The Holy Pwnerers. To date, they have been undefeated in crew battles.
As the summer ended, TSA had a number of changes made to suit the majority of the members as the school season started:
- The role of Second in Command was transferred from Emblem Lord to Muz. The reason was that Emblem Lord felt he wouldn't be active enough to be able to fulfill his duty properly, and both he and WoZ felt that Muz would do a far better job.
- With Cactuar going back to school in Pennsylvania, WoZ assigned a new Pennsylvania Branch, to which he would leave Cactuar in charge. PakmanonCrack was one of the first to be recruited for this branch.
- Crew meetings were switched from Sunday to Saturday nights.
- A new recruitment policy was put into place - players no longer were able to apply freely into the crew, but were instead specially invited to join the crew. AngelCX was the first to join the crew through this method.
SMASHTALITY
On August 2006, TSA hosted its first SMASHTALITY held at the CyberConXion in NJ. The tournament was planned during the course of the summer - it started with rules similar to King of the Couch's with minor changes and adjustments. The tournament was heavily promoted by WoZ in both SWF and the DC++ Hub. As a result, more than 53 people arrived for the tournament, making TSA's first event not only a huge success, but also aiding in boosting the crew's reputation even further. Noting that the majority of the players enjoyed their experience at the tournament, TSA quickly pulled together to organize their second event.
On October 2006, TSA will host SMASHTALITY 2, once again held at CyberConXion. Looking forward to another success, as well as taking into account the mistakes made from the last tournament, TSA plans on making the event twice as big, this time offering out of state players a chance to come and experience the event along with the NY/NJ players. One of the biggest changes will be the ruleset, now similar to Major League Gaming's ruleset. TSA is also having an art contest to help promote SMASHTALITY 2. To enter, a contestant must create an emblem or logo for SMASHTALITY that will be used in future events. The winner will receive free entry for events held at the tournament.
