Marist College isn’t known for producing professional athletes, yet it does have a few players who have made it to the big leagues. Dutch NBA star Rik Smits and two-time Pro Bowl kicker Jason Myers both played for the Red Foxes as they launched their professional careers.
While these on-field stars have gained the most notoriety for Marist, a new esports standout has emerged in Poughkeepsie, and he specializes in “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.” Shane “Seel” Seeley, a sophomore at Marist, plays a character known as the Ice Climbers, a duo consisting of siblings Popo and Nana from the Nintendo title “Ice Climbers.”
The Ice Climbers usually fight together; one takes the front, and the other stays behind. The back Ice Climber acts as a sort of computer player that follows the inputs put in by the user for the front climber. For example, if the player inputs a forward aerial attack, the front climber will act immediately, while the back climber will follow shortly after.
However, skilled Ice Climbers players use a tactic called the “desync,” where a combination of inputs allows one Ice Climber to perform one move while the other climber performs a completely different move, often to trap opponents in what is referred to as a “combo.” The technique, which Seeley performs with ease, is a testament to his ability and dedication when it comes to “Smash Bros.”
Flashback to the first few weeks of his freshman year; Seeley is in his room playing as Ice Climbers on “Smash Bros,” as he usually does, when all of a sudden, a few of his friends come knocking on his door.
“My friends go, ‘Yo, there are people playing Smash, and they’re pretty good,’” recalled Seeley.
Seeley followed his friends down to the dorm lounge, where he saw esports teammates Thomas Coyle, who goes by the gamertag “Chubbywanasoup,” and Jason Freuman, also known as “Wildogz,” engaging in friendly games. Friendly games don’t impact competitive standing, as they are usually just for players to practice techniques and improve their skills.
Freuman, who possesses a powerful “Palutena” (the Goddess from the Nintendo 3DS title “Kid Icarus: Uprising”), won regularly against Coyle. Noticing his ability, Seeley became excited and wanted in on the next game.
“I get in, and I start hitting [Freuman] with crazy desync combos,” said Seeley.
“He was on his best stage, and I lost,” said Freuman. “I was pissed. Some Ice Climbers just sauced me.”
Coyle, who took great amusement in watching his friend get battered by some random guy, decided to film the event and send the video to the Marist “Smash Bros” team group chat.
“Honestly, I just wanted to make fun of Jason and clown him,” said Coyle.
When the team first got ahold of the video, they were stunned and amazed. Freuman was arguably the best player on the team, yet some guy from his dorm completely dominated the game.
Vincent Fermo (known as “stinkycheese782” by his fellow gamers), who is the captain of the “Smash Bros” team and secretary of the esports board, found the video to be equal parts shocking and hilarious.
“I was shell-shocked,” said Fermo. “It blew me away that we had such a prodigy on campus, and it taught me to never judge a book by its cover.”
Video gamers are commonly stereotyped as having a certain “look” to them. Some negative stereotypes surrounding gamers include the assumption that they spend too much time in their bedroom, fail to prioritize their hygiene and exhibit socially awkward traits.
Yet, none of these describe Seeley. From the surface, Seeley is a clean-cut college student who parties and spends ample time socializing. Beneath the surface is a highly-skilled gamer with an advanced ability to play “Smash Bros.”
Fermo, after getting over how funny the video of Seeley was, ordered Coyle and Freuman to tell Seeley about the “Smash Bros” team and come to the upcoming weekly bracket, a tournament hosted every week in the basement of the College’s Hancock Center. Sometimes, the weekly bracket is open only to Marist students, and sometimes it is open to anyone.
Seeley, who did not even realize there was an esports team at Marist, obliged. Sure enough, he impressed at his first-ever Marist bracket; his ability with the Ice Climbers was enough for Fermo to accept him onto the esports team immediately.
The “Smash Bros” scene at Marist has grown exponentially in recent years. The scene began as an underground club that only a few knew about, but recently, it has become more of a community. Ryan Walter (known as “Abso”), is a Marist alumnus who saw firsthand how the “Smash Bros” team experienced growth on campus.
“It feels a lot more approachable,” said Walter. “The environment is a lot more set in stone. People come in and dap each other up. It’s a community rather than a club.”
Now a member of the ever-growing team, Seeley prepared for his first game of the fall seasonal bracket. The match was broadcast on the event’s stream and was against a “Ness” player (the protagonist of “Earthbound”). Seeley’s opponent had previously competed in the doubles bracket, where teams of two face off in a double-elimination tournament setting. His opponent came into the game best known at the event for his antics; after losing in the doubles bracket, he banged on the table.
In contrast, while Seeley was known in the local region, he continued to remain an unknown on the national stage. This, however, was all about to change after one tournament: “The Big House.”
“The Big House” is considered a super major tournament based on its size and the talent pool that usually registers for it, from some of the best players in the world, to casual gamers who attend with a group of friends. Seeley arrived at the massive venue in Detroit, Michigan, and immediately began to do what he loves most: play “Smash Bros” with just about anyone.
In friendlies, Seeley took games off “Mr. E” and “SHADIC”, who each ended up finishing fifth in the final bracket. Beating a top player in a friendly game, while not impacting seeding, raises a player’s confidence.
Seeley, who attributes much of his success to his mentality, does not see players differently from each other. Seeley treats every player the same, whether they just picked up the game or play it for a living, giving him more respect for his opponents.
When the real competition kicked off, despite his aforementioned success in friendlies, Seeley was off to a somewhat rough start. Although he won each of his first two games, Seeley was unhappy with how close they were. To make matters worse, he now had to face off against Julian “Zinoto” Carrington, one of the top players at the event and a top-five “Diddy Kong” player in the world.
In the world of “Smash Bros” characters, no two characters are made equal. Each character brings with them a moveset, which are the moves used to attack other characters. The greater “Smash Bros” community created an official, community-voted tier list, ranking each character based on their moveset, mechanics and matchups with other characters. Diddy Kong, who Carrington uses, is considered to be a top-tier character.
The Ice Climbers, which are Seeley’s characters, have major downsides despite being combo-heavy characters. While many top Ice Climbers players intentionally desynchronize them to start up a combo, problems can arise if they’re taking on a character that can space them apart for extended periods of time. Because of this, the Ice Climbers are ranked at the very end of the middle tier, which posed a particular challenge for Seeley in this matchup. It also did not help that Carrington has ample experience competing against Ice Climbers.
In competitive “Smash Bros,” sets are usually played in best of threes, with later, more important, matches being best of five. Each player has three stocks per game, and stocks are taken by racking up damage and knocking your opponent off the stage.
Game one happens, and despite a rough start, Seeley hits a combo that shifts the momentum and allows him to take the game. In game two, Seeley realizes why Carrington is a top 100 player in the world.
“He completely adapted,” said Seeley. “I got called out for stupid options and got washed in game two.”
Coming into game three, momentum, experience and character skill were all on Carrington’s side. His game-one loss could have easily been chalked up to him warming up, and now he seemed to have fully adapted and appeared poised to move on to the next round.
What happened next would shock the whole venue and introduce Seeley to the national scene.
Seeley, who was seeded 117th overall, somehow managed to send the 12th seed to the loser’s side of the bracket. After clinching the victory, Seeley intended on telling his friend about the set, but before he could react, dozens of onlookers mobbed him, amazed that a relatively unknown Ice Climbers player just sent a top-100 player to the loser’s bracket. People now knew who he was, and they wanted to learn more about him.
“The best ‘Ryu’ player, Ikan, asked to run friendlies,” said Seeley. “He knew who I was, and it’s good to know I can compete at the top level.”
Seeley ultimately finished one game away from placing in the top 32, which would have extended his run into the next day. When all was said and done, Seeley walked away from the event as the winner of the biggest upset and with the highest finish any Marist “Smash Bros” player has ever achieved at a major event.
From the accounts given by current and former “Smash Bros” team members, they anticipate that Seeley will continue to enhance the “Smash Bros” scene at Marist College, as well as the quality of the members of the actual team.
“It shows me that it’s possible to win with whatever character,” said John “JRazz16” Rasizzi, a teammate of Seeley. “It makes me super motivated to practice the game.”
“He made practice better,” Coyle added. “If we keep getting people like him, we are set.”
Seeley’s teammates admire his unwavering dedication to the game, and his passion for not just improving himself, but those around him.
Edited by Luke Sassa and Sam Murphy
Photo Credit: Aidan Hackmeyer / Marist Esports
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Wow!!! Super great article Seeley is so impressive. His skills inspire me every day to get better at super smash bros! I cant wait to join the marist e sports team when i get older! You are all so inspirational and passionate about the game. I love this community and the people in it. Seeley changing the gaming community for all AMAZING !!