Of course, results like Quidd’s don’t just happen overnight. He’s been playing Smash since before he can remember, and grew up playing Melee with his older brother. The existence of Smash tournaments wasn’t a surprise to him either — he found out about those from a young age, at a time where he would have been “too young to even go.”
Smash 4 is when knowledge turned to passion, as Quidd began following the competitive scene far more closely. He would watch every major tournament that happened for the game’s final 3 years, studying as many top level sets as he could and educating himself on the ins and outs of the competitive scene.
When Ultimate came around, it was finally time to begin attending tournaments. On January 5th, 2019 Quidd traveled out to Return of the Undiscovered Monthly in White Plains, NY, where he placed 25th. He was 14 years old. While Quidd had a decent showing for a first tournament and despite following the competitive scene for years prior, the in-person tournament experience wasn’t quite what he had pictured it to be. “...I only got to play my sets, I didn’t get to play any friendlies or anything. At that point I was like a little kid so I wasn’t about to just like stay late or anything. So I literally played my three sets and then just went home. It wasn’t really that much fun. I didn’t like it that much.”
During his summer vacation that year, Quidd returned to offline tournaments and made a habit out of visiting Encore, the weekly that was closest to him. Over time, Quidd began getting better and better, reflected by his gradually increasing placement at each subsequent Encore event. In the relatively short time from July 2019 through September 2019 he went from averaging 13th to 17th place to consistently placing Top 3. On November 14th, 2019, he placed 1st for the first time at an offline event at Encore #80.
Quidd at Encore #80. Click to expand.
“In New York there’s a huge, I don’t want to call it a divide necessarily, but [a] difference between the city and Westchester, where I play right outside of the city.” Quidd decided to travel into NYC to attend xeno207, where he was seeded 12th and ended up placing 2nd. “I had really never gone to xeno in the city. So I think city people are getting ranked on the PR and stuff and they look at these Westchester tournaments and maybe think that they're easy or whatever. So coming back offline, this was the first time I was like ‘I need to go to the city to test my skills following that huge WiFi grind.’ That whole-ass year of just grinding, playing online even though it was trash. Trying to get better.” At xeno207, Quidd secured his first win over a PGRU-ranked player, LeoN, and proved he was more than just a hometown hero.
Quidd at xeno207. Click to expand.
Quidd at CROSSxUP. Click to expand.
Being young comes with the challenge of trying to balance school life and competition. With summer break ending soon, Quidd still hopes to continue attending locals whenever possible so he can remain active. “In terms of being still a high schooler, I’m not exactly sure what is going to happen when school starts back up in September. It’s my senior year, [but] I’m definitely going to do my best to attend Smash tournaments cause right now I’m in my stride for sure. So I’m going to keep it up, at least with locals.”
At the time of writing, Quidd is pre-registered for Let’s Make Big Moves 2022 and Collision, with the hopes of attending even more major events in the future.