Arcway Gaming at the start was going to be a video game company, that was going to be called Archway. Where myself and my friends would have got together and created video games. As High School progressed we realized that this dream just was not going to work. We lost the will power and determination to create and work together.

Then during my summer vacation in my Junior year in High School, I met someone who made me flip the switch in my life. This man challenged me to come out to his convention and run a Super Smash Bros. 4 and Melee tournament. During this time I was at a video game retail store and had some experience promoting and organizing tournaments. That man was Sam Chase.

After a few months of waiting and my best friend by my side we took on Sam's challenge and I went on my first ever road trip of my life. Our destination was Saratoga Spings and the event was Chase Con Expo Fall Show 2015 . We booked a hotel room the day we needed to leave and we were off. Four and a half hours of non-stop driving are quite the tasks for someone's first road trip but, with great friends, those hours feel like nothing.

I'm not going to lie we did get lost driving to Saratoga Springs, but it definitely added to our story. Once we got to Saratoga Springs and into our hotel room, I got really excited. Why? I was finally able to live what I've been trying to do. Gather people together around gaming.

That night I had the best sleep in my life. When I woke up on Saturday my blood was pumping and my excitement levels were through the roof. We left the hotel room almost immediately and drove into the actual city. Now to my surprise it reminded me of home. Saratoga Springs is half the size of Buffalo, NY but the character and design of East Aurora, NY. Immediately, I feel in love with the city. We reached the city center and entered into the con, where I was happily greeted by a very overworked Sam Chase. He showed us where I would be for the con... the place I had was used to be a small prep kitchen for the hotel attached the city center. Literally, there was a water drain in the middle of the room.

I looked at Ben and then back at the room, basically, I said screw it lets make the best of this. Which is what exactly we did. From day 1 to day 2 I was running through the con like a mad man trying to get people together and play some Smash. Really day 1 was the hardest part since I forced myself to talk into a microphone in front of thousands of people. Man what a rush, I felt as if I was the king of the world. Making something happen out of nothing. One thing did catch me off guard while I was running the tournaments, it was that I fell in love with the people playing the game. How competitive they were and how humble players were in defeat. It really took me back by quite a bit, it showed me that Smash has one of the best gaming communities out there.

Once the convention was over Ben and I went back home and sat at Tully's for awhile. We just went over how the weekend was and how we could have done better. It was at that moment that I kept wanting to do more and more. My breaking point was when I heard that one of my friends from High School was starting his own coffee business. It literally tore into my soul, I sat for days thinking to myself how can I do this.

Then oddly enough I reached out to my coffee entrepreneur of a friend and asked if I can run a Smash 4 tournament at his venue. Many of you know this as The Music Room. He gratefully took me aboard and talked us up to the owner of the venue. Our first opportunity was coming, where we could make a difference at home. Finally, something I've been trying to figure out for a long time is coming to light. Then on 02/05/2016 we held our opening night at The Music Room. For our very first night, we had pizza, pop, recording setups, and people! From the very little advertising we were able to do we had 13 entries for Smash 4 and 12 entries for Melee. Things were going great but, remember the video game store I mentioned I worked at earlier? Well, they decided that on our opening night to run a Smash 4 tournament and compete against us. Regardless of the odds against us, the night was perfect. Players were having fun, I had the opportunity to truly TO, and a community was starting to form.

From that point it was simple, I decided to make this into a bi-weekly system. Where every other week you and your friends were able to come together, play some Smash, and eat pizza. Boy times were very easier at the start. As we continued the bi-weeklies the number of players grew, I really have to thank Wickkles for agreeing to work with us and make Buffalo's Smash scene even bigger. Since the next Smash Night, we had after meeting Wickkles was our biggest yet. We had 20 entries for Melee and 27 entries for Smash 4. Keep in mind we went from an overall 25 entries to 47 entries in only 3 months. At this point, everyone involved in Arcway decided it was time to expand. This lead to Brian from Buffalo Gaming and I working together and move to a larger venue that was the Renaissance Club. From that point, Arcway kept on going to conventions and pushed the Buffalo scene to even greater heights. Until one day, Arcway Gaming had to stop hosting Bi-Weekly Smash tournaments.

Due to the looming increase in charges and demands from the venue, we decided that we needed to take a break from running Bi-Weeklies. It took me two weeks before I was able to say anything to the community and to the majority of Arcway. It's my belief that a community shouldn't be taxed more for what we were barely able to provide. If we increased the price we would have been able to stay but, it went against everything I wanted a community to be. Imagine this, you enter our tournament and the price would be a $10.00 venue fee and a $5.00 tournament entry. If you went 0-2 in the tournament you would not be that happy. Now some players would take the stance of "Git Gud" to that, it's just what we were providing would not be worth the price to the players. Paying $15.00 just to play 2 full matches and lose, that's not right.

The issue is that there is an everlasting battle of figuring out the best price for the community to pay. If you charge more, you will have fewer players enter. If you charge less you allow a community to form and become the best yet, you are placed in a position of losing a lot of money. This is a choice every TO makes, not for themselves but for the community as well.

Additionally, when we moved from The Music Room to the Renaissance Club it felt as if we lost that home feeling, where yes we were attracting more players but the feeling dropped off. People were just competing and leaving, whereas in The Music Room people would stay for the whole night and create that community feeling. That is what video games are all about, being a source where friendships and competition meet. If anything I have to say personally I missed The Music Room more than the Renaissance Club but the problems with vendor relationships and demands would still be the same.

Now does this mean Arcway is done with Smash? Absolutely not. We are going to focus on bringing the biggest video gaming events to Buffalo, NY all while traveling to other conventions to run Virtual Reality and Super Smash Bros. tournaments. Companies have to change shapes in order to survive and grow, which is exactly what we are doing. It is in our belief that we will create a place that is more of a gamer's café that accepts all players from any region. We want to show the power and friendship that this community has. If only we were able to do this in a day, boy the things we have planned. That is why we are working our butts off to save the money needed to create our location. We really want to make Arcway Gaming a household name and generate E-Sports in levels not seen in our area.