Show Me Your News

Youko

List of appearances: Episodes 1-24, 26.5, 27+, Video Review

Youko is the online moniker for Peter Spezia – the creator of Show Me Your News! He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, with a degree in Screen Arts and Cultures (film and TV studies). His future plans are currently up in the air, but he would love to either pursue a career in either gaming journalism or television production. Youko has been invited to several competitive Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments as a play-by-play commentator, injecting excitement and knowledge in to the matches with positive audience reception. He has one sibling; a younger brother known on the internet as “SwordHunter”.

Youko is a player of decent skill in Smash Bros. In both Melee and Brawl, he mains Captain Falcon, whose taunt inspired the name of the podcast. Despite Captain Falcon being low-tier in Brawl, Youko still stays true to his main. However, Youko finds the random button to be far too appealing in Brawl. As for other games that he enjoys, the Pokémon franchise is very dear to his heart. He has worked on a YouTube project titled WTF Pokémon with SwordHunter that humorously critiqued the first season of the anime and has played every version of the main Pokémon series of games, and then some. Youko has recently been absorbing information regarding the competitive scene, imparting his knowledge on the SMYN community. If he were a trainer, he would be an electric trainer or an Eevolution trainer.

Youko is a great music enthusiast. He was in his school band through all of high school and played the alto saxophone. His favorite update to the Smash Bros. Dojo!! was reportedly “My Music”. Youko’s enthusiasm with music has led to several musical Easter Eggs in SMYN history. Because of his ability to proficiently play the guitar, Youko is personified online as K.K. Slider from Animal Crossing.

TheBuzzSaw

List of appearances: Episodes 23, 25, 26.4, 31, 37, 47, 54, 59, 65+

TheBuzzSaw is Show Me Your News’ “top fan” because he is the current primary co-host, as well as the podcast’s webmaster. You are reading this right now because of him! Buzz is a computer science major about to graduate from Brigham Young University in Idaho and currently works as the webmaster and technician for his local school district.

He is a former competitive Smash Bros. player who won local tournaments back in the day with Young Link, even placing highly in major events in the western United States. Buzz still dabbles in Brawl to this day, naming Zelda and Kirby as his top characters. When he is not doing web work for the podcast or other more important things, TheBuzzSaw is an aspiring game developer. He is most well known on that front for Zero2D (www.zero2d.com/), a Smash-styled game that borrows influences from MUGEN. Zero2D is being built from the ground up, but needs sprite artists and other interested members if it is to be released by the end of the year.

Buzz is married to Sugarpoultry, a commissioned artist who is noted for her contributions to the Smashboards, which include a highly visited Sig Shop and winning Best Artist for 2007. The two have a daughter named Kadree (affectionately referred to by the SMYN community as the “SugarSaw”), who was born on November 19^th, 2008.

SamuraiPanda

List of appearances: Episodes 7, 13, 15, 17-49, 53, 62, Video Review

SamuraiPanda was Show Me Your News’ primary co-host, joining the show in Episode 13, until he took a reprieve for medical school purposes after Episode 49. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Neural Science/Japanese degree and currently attends Wayne State University for medical school. After maining Ganondorf and Dr. Mario in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Panda decided to pick up Snake in Brawl and compete in major national tournaments. He is most noted for “saving” Clash of the Titans 4 in Philadelphia in February 2008 after venue problems arose near the end of the singles bracket. He reached the top five in the Michigan Power Rankings before having to take a break from the game because of school. Panda is also known for having the best Viewtiful Joe in the United States for the Japanese version of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

SamuraiPanda is fluent in Japanese which proved to be a strong asset during the pre-Brawl hype. When Japanese news was released, he was typically the first to translate the story, and he even told stories of his trip to Japan as an easter egg during the five-part Episode 26 of Show Me Your News. Panda is also known for being especially critical of Nintendo because “he knows they can do better” regarding their latest company strategy and games. Finally, SamuraiPanda breathes fresh air into the show with his humor, from saying his favorite leg is his middle one, to threatening to do unthinkable things to Lain on-air for being so noisy.

M3D

List of appearances: Episodes 25, 57, 61

Jason Rice, known as M3D in the world of gaming, joins SMYN as an expert on competitive gaming. Jason’s passion for competitive gaming got its start in arcades during the mid-90s, laying down quarters against foes in classic fighting and shooting titles in his local mall. In 2003 he began running grassroots events and writing about competitive gaming and eventually landed a job running events for Major League Gaming. He later became a member of their content team, serving as their Senior Staff Writer and on-air broadcaster for live webcasts of MLG’s Pro Circuit events. Eventually Jason moved into game development, but maintained his passion for competitive gaming and still contributes to a variety of podcasts, websites and communities as an expert in the field.

Jason’s favorite games are the Super Smash Bros and Pokemon series from Nintendo, but also holds a special place in his heart for classics like Mega Man 2, Super Street Fighter 2 and old school arcade beat-em ups. He is also an avid fan shooting games, having participated in top online clans for a number of XBox, XBox 360 and Wii titles. When throwing down in a game of Super Smash Bros, Jason mains Luigi/Kirby in SSB64 and Lucario/Pokemon Trainer in Brawl. He played a variety of characters in Melee, but could never really settle into a true main. He played a variety of characters in tournaments and even won a few sets with infamously bad Pichu. If you meet Jason in a game of Pokemon, be prepared for a chilly battle. His favorite Pokemon are Ice and Water types and like Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver’s Pryce, Jason considers himself a “Teacher of Winter’s Harshness.” In his spare time, Jason also enjoys cooking, gardening and spending time with his wife and young daughter.

SwordHunter

List of appearances: Episodes 35, 39, 50, 55, 67

Also known as “Swordy” or “Hunter”, SwordHunter is Youko’s younger brother and a mechanical engineering student at Oakland University. Aside from playing Marth in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl, he is a fan of PC gaming, notably Halo, Half-Life 2, and Mass Effect. Swordy first appeared in the easter egg of Episode 16 of Show Me Your News. In Episode 35, he was the moderator, so to speak, of the chat in which questions were asked to Youko and SamuraiPanda by fans of SMYN. SwordHunter reappeared as a full guest on the Roundtable on Episode 39, but not without starting a new SMYN fad after streaming Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons on the podcast’s Stickam channel – “Jump over the switch!” SwordHunter also hosted WTF, Pokémon,  a video show belittling the Pokémon anime, with Youko.

Gimpyfish

Appearances: Episodes 20, 25, 26, 36, 62

Gimpyfish is an American smasher, originally hailing from Washington, known primarily for being one of the few notable Bowser professionals, as people regularly claim he is “way too good” with the Smash character. Although there have been many claims that Gimpyfish would be amazing with a higher tier character, he has stayed true to his Boozer and instead elevated him to extremely high levels of play. Gimpyfish is considered a favorite guest among SMYN fans, likely because of the sarcastic Episode 20 he contributed towards with Youko and SamuraiPanda. His popularity on the SMYN front led him to being co-host of Episode 26 alongside SamuraiPanda. It is rumored that because of Gimpyfish’s analysis of Brawl at the E for All Expo, certain aspects of the game were changed by Nintendo for the final product.

Mic_128

List of Appearances: Episodes 22, 25, 38

Mic is the podcast’s favorite guest from “down under” in Australia. Hailing from Perth, he is a Pokémon Trainer main in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a Senator at the Smash World Forums, where he is typically represented as the G-Man from Half-Life 2. On Show Me Your News, Mic has inspired several popular inside jokes, such as the Voice of SMYN and Netflix really being a cowboy elephant. In his professional life, Mic aspires to be a school teacher.

Cyberlink420

List of appearances: Episodes 30, 42, 42.5, 50, 52, Video Review

No one is entirely sure of Cyberlink420′s origins, including himself, though he likes to believe it was something involving robotic ninjas with machine guns. What is known, however, is that he’s a Smasher from Michigan whose mains include Yoshi and Kirby in Super Smash Bros., Jigglypuff and Dr. Mario in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Sonic, Toon Link, and Wolf in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. While not a hardcore player by any means, he likes to delude himself into believing that he holds some level of skill, and is always up for a challenge.

Cyberlink is also a frequent video gamer, mainly puzzle games and platformers. He’s currently working on getting a degree in Software engineering. Favorite series include Smash Bros., Mario, Sonic, WarioWare, Banjo-Kazooie, Viewtiful Joe, Legend of Zelda, Sam & Max, Phoenix Wright, Kirby, Mega Man, and a variety of others. Cyberlink is also a die-hard animation enthusiast, both in terms of anime and western animation. Recently, CyberLink has collaborated with YouTube user GameBuddy123, a good friend whom he has worked with on a number of previous projects, to create “Sonic F”, a shameless parody of Sonic X in the same vein as Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series.

SuperTH

List of appearances: Episodes 52, 56, 58

SuperTH, or Super as he has attempted to drop the ‘TH’ suffix, is the name of Miles Allen, a two time guest for the podcast and host of the special ‘Fancast’ episode of Show Me Your News. A graduated high-schooler, his plans of becoming a college student in the field of Video Game Design have almost reached fruition, and he plans to pursue a career in the field. Super has attempted to host as well as play in Smash Brothers tournaments in the past, but all have been fairly short and in the case of attending some, he has lost every chance to even go to one. The Youngest of three, he is well known as the ‘gamer’ of his brothers, but that isn’t the say the elder Allen’s don’t have any skill at all. The reason super became a ‘Hometown Hero’ in his area was because of the challenge his brothers presented at an early age.

Super is a Mario main through and through for Brawl despite his low tier placement, and was a sudden shift due to having mained Shiek in Melee. Marth in both Melee and Brawl serves as his second. However, for most games, Super can be seen playing either Sonic or Captain Falcon to some effect. Super is more than skilled, but lacks advanced techniques and above all defensive maneuvers, often committing suicide in the sake of ‘it would of been cool’. Super tends to be accidentally demeaning towards his opponents, often using the random button after his skill with his normal picks leaves his opponents celebrating over taking a single stock from him. Super is a proponent of ‘Brawl+’, a modification to the Brawl engine which allows for faster and heavier gameplay while not changing up the movesets and hitboxes of the characters. As such, his distaste for Brawl is apparent, despite still playing the ‘vanilla’ version from time to time with fellow guest, TonyTH. This has led to Super also calling the modification as ‘Fun Version’.

Super is well known for his encyclopedic knowledge on video game histories, especially that of Sonic the Hedgehog, where his internet moniker originally stemmed from almost ten years back. One would argue his favorite update would of been the fact Sonic the Hedgehog was in Brawl. However, his favorite update dealt with potential more than what happened, and ‘The Subspace Emmisary’ earned his respect, despite it being a total flop in terms of execution. Oddly enough, Super is one of the only guests on the podcast without a previous ‘big name’ for himself, rather his appearance on the show was due to his dedication to the show through the making of the Fancast, which resulted in his later appearances.

TonyTH

List of appearances: Episodes 52, 56, 58

Tony Mattingly, who goes by the internet alias TonyTH, has been a longtime fan of Show Me Your News as far back as when Sonic was announced to join the Brawl roster.As such, Tony’s interest was peaked and he searched for more information on Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and came across SMYN. He’s followed the show since, and when the show finally got a site, he joined the place and stuck around.

When Youko took a month off from the show, forum member Super decided to organize a ‘Fancast’. Tony pounced Super to snag the opportunity, and was included in the show with Super, Cyberlink420, and Moptop11. Because of this and his dedication to the show, Youko has graciously let Tony and Super come back on more official episodes every so often to be on subsequent episodes.

Tony has played games since he was a young child, beginning with Sonic the Hedgehog 2. He’s been a gamer and an avid Sonic fan since. He also helps run a site called The Middle Ground, a web comic site where he hosts two fairly popular comics(Tony the Hedgehog and Got Into the Middle Ground), a hobby which he has had since 2005. When he’s not making comics, or playing video games, or hanging with his friends, he marathons games on his Ustream channel under the name TonyTHGHH, where he has started to produce commentary alongside his streams, even so far as to bring on guests over Skype.

MasterWGS

List of appearances: Episode 73, 95, 99

Grant Smith, or as he’s commonly known on the internet, Master WGS is a longtime fan and listener of the podcast, but a rare sight to behold on the forums or IRC chat. When he’s not busy working at his local used game store, Ultimate Video Game Connection, WGS (or “Wigs/Wuggles” for easier pronunciation) is usually messing around on his PS3, watching a Dragonball Z Kai rerun, or tinkering with his site, Box of Danger. Though a less-common guest of the show, Wuggles has been a fan of Show Me Your News since its early days and has even met the infamous Youko a couple times at the anime convention, Youmacon (though the first time he didn’t even realize it, he was sure to avoid that same mistake the following year), and hopes to return to the show whenever Youko asks and his work schedule allows. He’s also a bit of a prankster and instigator, and likes to spice things up a bit on the show by attempting to troll the audience or making audacious claims/demands, which he knows will more than likely not come true.

Wuggles’ first appearance on the show was on Episode 73: Brawl of Danger, where he and his cohort DarkBomberKid crashed the SMYN Youmacon Brawl party, and sang some wicked karaoke with the gang while Youko’s fingers danced on the guitar. He would later cameo in the 2010 Game of the Year Awards, wherein he would ignore the community’s votes and substitute in his own choice for the award he presented. After that, Wuggles answered the call to join in on the live coverage of Nintendo’s 3DS Event, and once again in Episode 82, where he insisted Youko adopt “musical cues” for each segment of the show. The cues have since been absent from the show, but Wuggles hopes to see them return the next time he appears on the podcast (hint hint, Youko McFireyFingers).

TheDobaga

List of appearances: Episode 60

Joe DeVader goes by the name thedobaga. Doba or Dobaga for short, he is a so far one time guest. He became a fan of the show around the time that Stage Builder was revealed on the Dojo. He found out about the show when the Smash Wiki article appeared after hitting the random article button. Ever since then he’s been a loyal fan, taking a break only during the video podcast period.

Doba attempted to play Brawl competetively for a period of time, maining Pikachu and Olimar. He was stopped from this goal when the competetive players in his area didn’t want to play against him due to his lack of skill. Throughout the years, Doba has attempted to lead a large number of projects, as well as being a member of the teams for a few projects led by others. He was once a member of the development team for Super Smash Flash 2, but left after he realized the team and project had degraded past the point of completion in the realm of this century.

Doba is currently attempting to write a column for submission to Bulbanews titled “Joe Zalron On,” is beginning a YouTube series called “The Beach: An Overanalyzation Of Kingdom Hearts II,” and is attempting to organize a hopefully up-in-coming comedy series titled “Buying On Impulse.” He has full knowledge that two out of three of these will never see completion, but it’s still worth a shot, eh?

Moptop11

List of appearances: Episode 52

Jacob Marino, is Moptop11′s real name. Or, as many members on the forums say, Poptop, Croptop, Slopcop, or MoptOptimus Prime. He became a fan of the show once he found Episode 22: We Really Have Thought of Everything, or Episode 23: Real Men Use Items…he can’t remember. He discovered the show when lurking around the SmashBoards looking for leaked Brawl character select stages. Ever since then he’s been a loyal fan, even through the rough early forums and video episodes. In the Smash series, Moptop mains all three Star Fox characters, through-out the three Smash games, currently maining Wolf in Brawl.

Moptop11 first appeared on Show Me Your News, in Episode 52: The Fancast, with Super, Cyberlink420, and TonyTH. He decided it would be a good idea to be on, since the only requirements for this episode, were to have a microphone, a few hours of time, and knowledge of news in current video gaming. He never listens to that episode again…mainly because he hated his voice at the time. Moptop once again appeared on SMYN in Episode 64: NintEndo Lov3, with a “It’s Your Turn” on Mario Sports Mix and the sports that could be incorporated into the game.

Currently, Moptop is working on both his music “career”, and reviewing movies on his YouTube account. Under the alias of DJ Moptop, he is hard at work creating, and remixing music. For his movie reviews, he is VERY behind. Even with all of this his continues to be a big Show Me Your News fan and contributor to the forums, organizing popular threads such as “President of SMYN Forums”, barely ever missing a live stickam show, or other live event. He hopes one day to be on SMYN once again, with Youko, and hopefully another guest, to take most of the guest pressure off of him, and onto both of them, just to balance everything out. And he’s still covered in “bees” to this very day.

Piffman2

List of appearances: Episode 19

Jordan Minor is called piffman2 on the internet for reasons that only makes sense to a chosen few. His love of video games and Nintendo in particular is one of the 2-3 he’ll ever give his sister credit for. That love, combined with his love of writing has made video game journalism his only career option in life.

Piffman2 first appeared on Show Me Your News episode 13 with a Brawl viewpoint on alternate costumes before becoming a guest on episode 19 after the other guy couldn’t make it. From that humble beginning he has carved out a slightly less miniscule niche on the internet by writing small freelance assignments for various websites.

Currently he is studying at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern to continue his master plan of getting a good education only to waste it on writing about video games. You can follow him at JordansOB.blogspot.com