Teching is a common technique in fighting games that allow you to quickly recover and get back into neutral. In Super Smash Bros, teching is also a necessary skill to master in order to prolong each of your stocks. It can be the difference between winning and losing a match, but because it is a recovery move, it’s not often viewed as the defining moment of any particular set.
Except once.
On September 24th, 2011, a tech was pulled off that was so clutch and so monumental that it would go on to become one of the most famous moments in Super Smash Bros. Brawl history.
The History Behind The Tech
Part of what makes the tech so great is the story behind the match, and the two players involved. Raziek, a seasoned Brawl Marth player, had been a top player in his region for a long time. Nysyarc was a ranked Ike player in the same region, but had always struggled immensely versus Raziek. For years, Nysyarc had never won a set over the tough, consistent Marth player.
What’s worth noting, however, is that at the previous tournament they were both at, Nysyarc actually took his first set off of Raziek. But as it was a smaller bi-weekly tournament, and it was a best-of-three set, it didn’t have the same magnitude. No, if Nysyarc wanted to prove that he no longer had this mental block, he had to win on the big stage.
Cut to: Frag For Cancer VI
Frag for Cancer is one of the largest video game tournaments in Atlantic Canada, and it just so happened that in loser’s finals of the Brawl tournament, Raziek and Nysyarc would face off again.
The Set
The best-of-five set (which can be viewed on YouTube in two parts) was extremely back and forth, with both players winning two games each to play a fifth and final match to see who would move on to grand finals.
The final game went down to the wire, and Raziek landed a hit offstage that, had it been any other player in any other moment, would’ve secured him the win. But Nysyarc pulled off the tech of legends; so much so that the video of this tech was edited to include a song that perfectly described what it was like to witness the feat.
And so the Smash moment “No, It Can’t Be True.” was born.
Although Nysyarc would go on to lose in grand finals of FFC6, he claimed a great victory, as the man who pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in fighting game history.