Youko
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). He currently is pursuing a Master’s degree from Oakland University in Communication (Media Studies) and does video production work for Chrysler. 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.
Solharath
Solharath (formerly known on SMYN as Super), along with TonyTH, was the last addition to the Show Me Your News crew pre-Network era. Due to his dedication to the show and taking over hosting duties for the special ‘Fancast’ episode, Solharath then made frequent appearances on the show until finally being adopted as a full co-host on Show Me Your News on Episode 93 (having also been featured on Episode 92, as well). Solharath has his Associate’s Degree, and it looking to pursue a career utilizing his talent for writing and editing.
Solharath’s gaming history is rooted in Nintendo and Sega, but unfortunately under the handicap of ‘one-game-a-year-itis,’ a horrid disease of the wallet until he turned old enough to get a job and start treatment. However, this actually worked to Solharath’s favor, as his ability to acclimate to a game and preform well in it is higher than his co-hosts, due to a long history of renting games he couldn’t afford and being forced to complete them under a shorter period of time. However, of the games he does own, he has made effort to perfect them to the best of his abilities, which often leads to the frustration of his peers, as his skill level often surpasses them by a wide (and in some cases, ridiculous) margins.
In the field of Super Smash Brothers, in which SMYN was originally based, Solharath is a Mario main through and through, even though he had runs as maining Shiek in Melee alongside the plumber. For the placation of his peers, Solharath can be seen playing either Sonic or Captain Falcon to some effect. Solharath is a early proponent of ‘Brawl+’, a (now dead) modification to the Brawl engine which allows for faster and heavier gameplay while not changing up the movesets and hitboxes of the characters, and of Project M, the much higher profile modification that replaces moves, characters, and stages of Brawl with the heavier and much faster paced Melee with the addition of the Brawl roster. As such, his distaste for Brawl is very apparent, despite still playing the ‘vanilla’ version from time to time with fellow guest, TonyTH, and in the tournament scene.
Solharath is well known for his encyclopedic knowledge on video game histories, especially that of Sonic the Hedgehog, where his initial internet moniker originally stemmed from almost ten years back. One would argue his favorite update would have 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, Solharath 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.
Episodes of appearance: 52, 56, 58, 64, 72, 77, 80, 90, 92 and on.
Eevee
Rachel Yates, most commonly known as “Eevee” in the online world, has been a member of the Show Me Your News community since early 2011 and she’s been bringing her British charm to SMYN ever since. In the real life world, she works a mundane 9-5 desk job as a job recruiting head-hunter. It’s not all glamor!
Rachel loves to spend her free time on video games, mainly from her nostalgic era of early Sega systems up to the Nintendo 64. She’s far too addicted to The Legend of Zelda series than she’d like to admit and would spend pretty much all of her waking life on video games…if it paid the bills. Her main form of entertainment in her spare time is streaming video game entertainment for the masses on Twitch under the alias SMYN_Eevee (from the comfort of her bed, no less. Total luxury doesn’t get past her). So if you ever want a lady to reminisce over games of old, Rachel’s your girl.
Give this lovely Brit a follow on twitter @TwitchEeevee – you know you want to.
Episodes of appearance: 154, 165 and on.
Previous Hosts:
TonyTH
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. After getting involved in the community and expressing views on how to improve the show with his cohort Solharath, the two were eventually added to the podcast permanently.
Tony has been playing games as long as he could hold a controller, and while having extensive knowledge on Nintendo and Sonic like the other co-hosts, he prides himself on being the Sony supporter of the group. Is very into story telling and presentation, sometimes to a pretentious degree(He’ll be the first to tell you!) but still loves jumping on Goombas and simple platformers and the like. He also always tries to get some laughs in while expressing his opinions. Also known for just waking up and being a bit sleepy before every show because of his third shift habits.
He also works with his two best friends at Golden Vault Games, where their first game – Mutant Mole Mayhem – has been released.
Episodes of appearance: 52, 56, 58, 64, 72, 77, 80, 91 through 164.
TheBuzzSaw
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, 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 19th, 2008.
SamuraiPanda
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.
