New initiative by Richmond esports company helps local gamers level up

Written for Daily Hive by Rui Yang Xu, Akshon Esports

Whether it’s traditional sports or esports, players’ health is an essential aspect of improving their play.

For the Super Smash Bros community in British Columbia, there is a new initiative called Smash Dojo.

Smash Dojo is a program started by MountainSideGames, an esports production company based in the Lower Mainland. Martin “Zerango” Byerley, the founder of MountainSideGames, describes it as a place for players to not only focus on their growth in the game but as a person as well.

MountainSideGames

“This is a space where people can come together with a like-minded growth and work on not only the technical aspect of getting better at a game, but it’s also work on the physical side of things,” said Byerley. It’s often a very neglected side of sports and just competition in esports as a whole.

“I think a lot of people know that taking care of yourself, in general, is a really good thing. But it’s hard to get motivated by yourself. So we’ve created an environment where you can get motivated with other people on the physical side, and then also learn from professionals on the technical side.”

Byerley was inspired to create Smash Dojo after he found that his own performance while gaming improved after a good workout session, “I was like, Man, if I could learn and improve even better after I did my workout with other people, why shouldn’t I try to take this next level?” he said. It was during this time that Byerley was introduced to Sasha Tadayoni, the owner of Modern Warrior Academy of Self Defense, who became the instructor for the physical exercise portion of Smash Dojo. 

Along with Taylor “Lemmon” Webb, one of the top Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players in the country, leading the Smash Bros portion of the program, the pieces were in place for the program to become a reality. 

While the program was initially only known through word of mouth as they worked out various kinks with the program, the program was able to create immediate results.

“It was really easy to be able to say, ‘Hey, Smash Dojo works,’ when we had someone show up one time, and then the next week played the best player in BC and beat him,” Byerley said, “And that guy was top 20, so he definitely should not have won that set. But he just went off and beat the number one player in BC.”

Past the tangible success of participants in the program in tournaments, Byerly added that there is an intangible feeling from practicing and training with others that also plays a huge role in the program’s success: 

“We are human, which means that we should be taking care of ourselves,” Byerly said. “We have fundamental things that we have to do for ourselves to be able to make ourselves feel good. Physical activity and social activity are two really big things that help, and the third one is growth.”

“If you can see growth in yourself, then that will help you feel better about what you’re doing. You don’t want to be stagnant. Imagine doing the same thing every day for like years. You’re just going to feel like crap. But if you start getting better at that thing, and you start mastering that thing, and you have other people who are mastering the thing, then it might be a little bit better.”

While Smash Dojo has already proven to be a success in many aspects, Byerley hopes that he can expand the program into different games and different communities.

“I want to see this everywhere; that is [what] the end goal is. Literally this [program] with multiple games in multiple cities,” said Byerly, “At this point, everybody’s a competitor. We’re all playing in tournaments. We’re all going hard. I want to be able to offer this as something people can incorporate into their daily or weekly schedule to be able to improve themselves.”