Taylor Hicks Called It

When Bill Trinen, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Nintendo of America, made known he would be entering the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament at Evo 2015, the question on everybody's mind was "Will he place higher than Taylor Hicks did?"

Hicks himself answered on Twitter, "Doubt it."

https://twitter.com/TaylorHicks/status/617025620967448576

Shots fired!

For reference, the former American Idol allegedly competed in Super Smash Bros. Melee two years ago at Evo 2013, where he placed... well, it doesn't matter, because Trinen never showed and won't even get a last-place "participant" badge. Turns out, he canceled in light of the passing of Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata.

https://twitter.com/trintran/status/621360923702235136

A fair enough reason, I grant. Anyway, looks like Taylor Hicks was right. Somehow he knew.... (Not to start any conspiracy theories.)

But what vastly more famous person did make it out to Evo 2015? None other than silver screen scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis!

https://twitter.com/EvilMrWizard/status/622508286009479168

https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/622500719954800640

The star of Halloween and True Lies alluded in an interview way back in January that she would be taking her total gamer son to a "fighting game convention" for his high school graduation present. She didn't mention Evo by name, but she did assure that she played Street Fighter "more than you will ever know," even going so far as to name Cammy as her character of choice.

For Street Fighter fans, it was a cute story at the time, but I don't think anybody truly believed she would show (not at a grassroots, nerd-filled event that might even have furries in attendance!), especially considering she mentioned in that very same interview how hard it was for her to go anywhere in public because of how recognizable she is.

But she was clearly three moves ahead of all of us, as she figured it out and followed through, arriving with husband Christopher Guest and the rest of the family, all in costume as various fighting game characters (not obvious ones, either!). She may not have competed, but clearly she deserves the award for "coolest mom on the planet."