The Story of APEX 2015: A Splendid Tragedy 

"I was trending above the super bowl for a little bit" Think about that sentence for a second

God really tried to save Chillin from getting 5-0'd

My favorite moment from this doc (and from Apex 2015) is the fact that Armada was drinking straight from a gallon carton of orange juice through top 8

I got deep feelings after watching this video. Thanks alot

When Chillin said he was born and raised a rapper I lost it lol

Thank you for having me! Great doc as always!

I had one of the very first pools on the first day of Apex before the venue collapsed. I remember it like yesterday. Even before changing venues, the tournament was being run very poorly. I got barely any sleep because my round was scheduled so early, but then they didn't actually start for nearly an hour after the posted time because they waited for other people who didn't show up. Sure enough, I got cheesed by a few floaties and got eliminated way earlier than I was projected to. And that's why I pulled the fire alarm.

i can’t believe this is free content. amazing

Something about hearing PPMD scream “I did it!” At the end made me damn near cry, such a great competitor and an icon to our community

damn the apex photographer captured some bangers

"I had no idea there was actually money on the line" Default fox is a pretty hefty gamble, tbf

Grateful to have been given the chance to help tell the story. Wonderful doc - thank you for making this and preserving Smash history!

The most insane event I've ever been to. The worst part is the old hotel did almost everything in their power to screw people. In my example they originally refused our request to get our room refunded even when our event got totally cancelled. It was insane. I believe the hotel manager was arrested for fraud/negligence/something after all of this went down but don't quote me on that. I was one of the people that helped put CRTs onto trucks to get them out of there, it was a group effort but even helping in such a small way was a great boost to my connection with the scene and the people in it. It was a team effort to get this thing running, shout out to all the TOs, both originally on staff and not, who put incredible amount of preparation into working and saving this event. I strongly believe Melee wouldn't exist in the way it does today without Apex 2015. Much love

Ok, haven’t watched it yet (obviously, since it just got uploaded lol) but that opening disclaimer is probably the best way to approach the events that have transpired in the community. We can’t pretend they didn’t happen, nor should we try to hide them. We have to accept that they happened, and move on from there. Anyway, just wanted to show some appreciation for that. Let’s get watching!

Walt regrettably I only just got to watching this today. This was so fucking amazing man, thanks for sharing the story of this god forsaken tournament in all of its weirdness. Really happy with how you told every story.

Walt, you yourself are becoming a part of melee history

Jesus Christ, the chillin story never ceases to be funny. Toph's stream about it made me almost asphyxiate laughing

At 25:52 DK is Monke on the character selection screen.

Apex 2015 was the first time I'd ever left my own region for a tournament, and while I didn't place as highly as I hoped (17th or 25th in Smash 4 iirc), it was an incredibly memorable experience. This video is a masterpiece, thanks for making this!

WALT MOVIES? APEX 2015?? ITS THE SMASH RENAISSANCE!!!

Whoever pulled that fire alarm had to be a time traveller

aMSa made history here. I'll never forget seeing aMSa's Apex 2015 and KoC4 clips in GRSmash videos that shook my view of Melee forever. Before that, it was just a party game that had some pretty cool 1P modes. Competitive Melee quickly became my favourite eSport to watch in late 2016. Long live this wonderful game.

Walt, I appreciate your work so much man. These documentaries top most of the big budget documentaries I've seen this year and here I am watching it on RU-vid for free! Your talent is unparalleled.

walt, this is absurd. this is better prod value than the smash doc, and a quarter of the length. this content should not be free man, it's so good

Apex 2015 was the first tournament I watched live after starting out in late 2014, and man was it an amazing spectator experience. Definitely one of the biggest factors that got me so invested in the Melee community. Can't wait to relive those highs watching an hour-long Walt documentary!

There are only three words that can describe PPMD’s win at APEX 2015. Stack It Up.

I always felt so bad that mango lost 1000 dollars because he was uptilited

Melee has as many stories of triumph, victory, failure, redemption, rivalry, and love as literal human history, and TurnDownForWalt is a canon historian on par with Herodotus lol

I can't watch right now, but algorithm, please pick this up in the mean time

Kinda disappointed tbh. I was expecting at least 50% of this doc to be focused on the Bruce Lee book

Never stop making documentaries please! The production value is just too good, and we need people to appreciate every single bit of the journey this game and its community went. Thanks walt!

that crowd cheering aMSa is one of the most insane things I've ever seen, pro-wrestling would kill for melee crowds

An absolute masterpiece, you've done justice to one of the most goated events in Melee history that catalysed countless people's interest in melee, myself included. Bravo.

Would you consider making a video about fly amanita? I feel like he is kind of the forgotten ICs main compared to Chu and Wobbles. Esp in an age where wobbling is banned his story would be even more relevant

PPMD yelling "I did it!" will make me tear up. Man I wish I went to a tournament during that era but I'm glad the tournaments are here on RU-vid, along side great docs like this. When we're out of this pandemic, I'll be sure to see you all at a Smash Tournament!

This is my favourite tournament of all time. My friend couldn't watch because his dad dragged him to watch the SuperBowl so I live texted him the whole thing. Great vid walt

Fucking masterpiece dude. The whole hour+ Give a year or so and this will have the recognition it deserves, thanks a lot for documenting it. Probably the first and only video I'll share with a friend from anyone ever!

40:19 lmao i knew that clip looked familiar i'm in chat

Apex 2015 was the first smash tournament I ever watched, and it's what got me into the scene. Really excited to see this, and learn more of the context

Well. You certainly delivered on “long”

Damn dude, it's content like this that makes me emotional. It's stories like these that show there is more to melee, smash, competitive games in general than you know and you executed it so perfectly.

Dude, this made me cry. I was around for Melee following one of my friend’s stories of his admittedly underwhelming run at Apex 2015. I never truly got to experience this beautiful part of Melee’s history, but this video made it seem like I was there the whole time.

How did you possibly manage to find freshness in one of Melee's most told stories? I am so impressed, felt captivated the entire time.

I love how you used the april fools parody interview with Chillin like it's real lmao

I feel like Apex 2015 is the exact moment that Melee realized it was too great to still be grassroots.

Babe wake up! New turndownforwalt video!

Toph recounting Leffen vs Chillin gave me the biggest belly laugh of the day

came from lud's stream and enjoyed this a lot! i knew nothing about smash beforehand but still was super engaged :)

I will never get sick of the apex 2015 salty suite

I can never sing the praises of Walt enough. Absolutely next level content. I couldn’t look away, so so so well done. Fuck man I'd consider this the highest quality smash-doc I've seen in a looong time, and I've seen a lot of smash documentaries lol

This was a fantastic watch. I didn't attend Apex 2015 but I knew several people who did. I recall a lot of people being very miffed that Nintendo did nothing while Twitch (and I thought Redbull also helped by paying for a few trucks?) saved the day. Nintendo just sorta showed up with their Splatoon demos and that was it. Then they eventually moved venues with the rest of the tournament. So many people flew in and taxied/ubered to the first venue so they didn't have *cars*. The number of times people with vehicles willing to lend a hand drove back and forth to move all the equipment, luggage, and people was truly insane. Thank you so much for this top tier quality content!

APEX2015 was the first time I found out about competitive fighting games as a whole. The highlight being my two friends at the time knowing everything and seething at the leffen match against chillin while I had no clue what they were talking about.

THIS IS THE REASON IM GETTING INTO MELEE THANK YOU FOR THIS!

I can confidently say this was worth staying up until 3:20 am and sleeping four hours for school the next day. What an amazing video man. This event was legendary.

*READ FOR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS!* I’m very excited to launch turndownforwalt.com/ -- a brand new merch store! Check it out and pick up some sweet LIMITED TIME threads from The APEX 2015 or My B Collections in celebration of this documentary. Speaking of merch, I’ve hidden 5 DISCOUNT CODES in this video, and they’re not easy to find! Comment if you find them (after you use them, of course). In addition, there are two hidden tdfw logos -- the first person to find both and comment will get a free item from the store! Lastly, I’d like to give a big thank you to Dr. Z, GimR, Juggleguy, MattDotZeb, Nintendude, and The Crimson Blur for interviewing. If you’re interested in seeing the full interviews with any of these folks, they’re all available on www.patreon.com/turndownforwalt This documentary was a long time in the works, so I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it!

I remember watching this all live way back when. The Salty Suite was nutty, but I was up until like 3AM watching PP take grand finals then getting up for uni classes at 6AM again.

PPMD is such a good human.

Its a good day when theres a Walt or Asumsaus upload :)

OH SHOT ITS ABOUT APEX2015 IM SO READY

The plan wasn't so simple.

legendary tournament

Yo I listened through an hour of this so far and it’s such a goddamn good overview of the event, you’re a treasure to this community.

This made me realize that after watching this super sick game for 6 years (pretty much right after apex actually), I still didn't know nothing about anything that went down at this tournament (aside from the one thing *everyone* knows) until I watched this. I am now sad realizing what I missed out on but that's only because this documentary was entertaining and Apex 2015 is one of melee's legendary tales.

Damn walt. This was fucking incredible, I'm impressed this on another level

This was my favorite tourney of all time. It had everything. Great storylines, legendary salty suite, PPMD victory, the list goes on. Awesome vid Walt!

55:08 is Armada drinking Orange Juice out of the bottle?

The production quality is amazing, the way you interweave storylines and segue onto the next player is phenomenal. just wow

This is my first ever smash tournament to watch, man I was hooked after this

This event has always been one of the most memorable for me. I only watched it live from my college apartment at the time but I just remember this was when I first got into melee and I just learned how to L cancel etc lmao. So hyped watching PPMD come back and win, the chillen vs leffen set, bizzaro vs eikleman....just so many iconic moments and pics that came from this event...and it was all at the time when melee was most hype for me. Didn’t realize how much of a disaster this tournament was logistically lol

1:04:10 Anyone else notice PP speaking with a lot more swagger than usual? Winning will do that to you.

The event that introduced me to competetive Melee. And competetive Ganondorf and it's pro players Bizzarro Flame and Eikelman. My favorite event.

The first smash tournament I ever watched live. I only caught the salty suite and some of top 64, but I was hooked ever since. Watched VODs during class all the next day in school. Doing work in one window with melee in another. Got super involved after that, going to Nebulous, getting PM, finding a CRT in my school and playing melee every day, watching the documentary, getting netplay, meeting great people left and right. Shoutouts to Apex 2015.

Walt, I gotta say, the structure of this video is actually superb. I don't know how to describe it in a concise manner, but good lord what a fantastic documentary!

ludbuds poggers

Not sure why youtube decided to stop sending me smash content, but I'm glad I checked. Great video as always.

Great video! Looking foward to your next upload

Put my mans on Netflix

This was the first tournament I ever watched. Super nostalgic to see stuff about it and man this tourney means something to me. Amazing video, as always

Came from the stream - super informative and interesting!

Truly one of your best videos. Thank you so much for this.

LUDWIG STREAM SUPPORT GANG

This is so unbelievably hype to watch even though I knew the outcome

Such a good video bro. Loved watching it. Thanks so much for making it.

Clicked this thinking it was about Apex Legends but was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a smash documentary, great work!

Every video is so impossibly polished

41:28 Qing Empire OST from Kaiserreich, ah I see you're a man of culture as well This video is a full package of human emotion and chillin' story from every perspective, keep up the good work !

Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for telling these stories.

This is absolutely amazing. Thank you for everything you do for the community. Cheers.

Watched on Ludwig's channel, this was great! Apex 2015 was the first tournament I watched live and what an incredible experience as a new player. I think this video will do a lot to get new players interested in the game! Thank you so much for contributing your time, money and effort into growing the scene for my favorite game! Absolutely amazing!

Coming from the Ludwig stream, this documentary was hype!

Amazing! Such amazing content. Loved it! Also your little photo/titlecards you put in every chapter was a good touch!

This is incredible, thank you so much for making this

my MAN with the RU Hungry fat sandwich callout, they just hit different

Leffen became the true god slayer after slaying the melee god known as chillindude829

Incredible video. Thank you for your dedication for your great content.

I enjoyed every second of it! Glad we have you in our community man

This documentary is sick

I'm just gonna say it, this doc puts Metagame to shame. This is how you tell the stories, the history, and the hype of Apex.

These videos are a fantastic labor of love. Thank you for what you do.

wow what a great video. love hearing about old tournies especially in the online era