It was 2019. I had concluded my third year of being involved in various capacities with Smash'N'Splash, a large annual waterpark tournament for Super Smash Bros., Splatoon, and various other titles held each year at the Kalahari Wisconsin Dells.
SNS was among the most frustrating events to be part of, especially in preparing creative assets, because the material created by the organizing staff was subpar. SNS had become the second-largest fighting game event in the Midwest, surpassed by only Combo Breaker, but it had failed to grow a brand that was larger than a passable regional.
Paul Boici and I, who had collaborated on several pieces of creative for SNS, were both fed up. We created a proposal for a new brand for the event—one that would actually befit its stature and size. However, the head organizer's wife was the graphic designer. And, as it turned out, Paul was not paid for his time.
Shortcomings like this, catalyzed by the dismissal of the second-in-command, led most of the event's associated tournament organizers—including EndGameTV—to declare a mutiny in November 2019 and start their own event at the Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio. Anchored by a new wordmark the two of us designed, we created the brand for Riptide, which was revealed to the public in January 2020 but delayed a year until 2021.
As it so happened, Riptide was the first supermajor after COVID-19. This created an extraordinary upsurge of interest. The event sold out in minutes, and more space was rented out to double the number of attendees. Not only did we have extraordinary interest, but we also had to implement COVID-19 safety guidelines on a larger scale than had been attempted all summer. The social media portion of the program also included materials to keep attendees and viewers updated in the weeks leading up to the event.
The brand had several on-site applications, from lanyards and badges distributed to all attendees to event signage. Consistent color applications for each of the main titles covered both social media and on-site elements. (Photos provided by @Pantch_)
I was also responsible for the design of the stream overlays for Melee, Ultimate, and Rivals, which were implemented by Will English IV, and Splatoon, the last event produced by EndGameTV.
There were more than two dozen unique scenes supporting six total streams of the four titles. This was the first event of this size in Smash that incorporated pronouns on a consistent basis (expanded by the end of the weekend to cover the in-game overlays in the team titles).
Riptide was an overall success, with peak stream viewership on Sunday of nearly 60,000. It provided far superior design service to partners than SNS ever did with a visual identity capable of rising to the occasion.
