Super Smash Bros. in esports

The competitive scene was significantly affected in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, shutting down virtually all in-person tournaments. However, a major milestone occurred in the summer of 2020 with the development of rollback netcode for Project Slippi, an emulated fan-made modification of Melee, which allowed for low-latency online matchmaking for the first time in the game's history.^[23] While significantly contributing to the game's accessibility during the pandemic, Project Slippi also brought new legal troubles to the competitive scene, culminating in the cancellation of The Big House 10 in 2020 after the event received a cease and desist notice from Nintendo concerning the event's planned usage of Project Slippi.^[24] The cancellation was met with a highly negative reaction from the competitive community, and led to the trending of the "#FreeMelee" hashtag on Twitter.^[25] In November 2021, Panda (formerly Panda Global) and Nintendo jointly announced an officially licensed Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American championship circuit for 2022, the first ever officially licensed Melee circuit.^[26] The Big House 10 would become a part of the Panda Cup and was held that year, becoming notable for Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto's first-place victory over Mango and Hungrybox, marking his first supermajor tournament victory alongside the first major victory for Yoshi in the game's history.^[27][28]

The community's relationship with Panda and the Panda Cup would become strained with the news that Nintendo had allegedly forced the Smash World Tour to be cancelled just weeks before it was supposed to commence in early December, with Panda CEO Alan "Dr. Alan" Bunney accused of sabotaging the event.^[29] Follow-up statements from Nintendo and Panda received heavy backlash from the community for lack of transparency, leading numerous Melee players like aMSa and Hungrybox to drop out of the Panda Cup Finale in an act of protest. Players who were sponsored by Panda like Cody Schwab and Plup also announced their departure from the organization.^[30] In light of these events, Panda released a second statement announcing that they had removed Dr. Alan as CEO and postponed the Panda Cup Finale due to security reasons.^[31]

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and other games

Competitive Smash Bros. culture has also been criticized by series creator and director Masahiro Sakurai, who has argued that competitive play strays from his original vision for the series of bridging the gap between casual and skilled players.^[39] Sakurai's aversion to catering to competitive players greatly influenced the development and gameplay of Brawl, the successor to Melee, which was widely criticized by many competitive players for its deliberately slower and more casual gameplay.^[40][41] The competitive discontent with Brawl later spurred the development of Project M/Project+, an emulated fan mod to make the game's gameplay more resemble that of Melee's.^[42] Project M/Project+ has also found itself at the center of legal action by Nintendo due to its dubious copyright legality, with many tournaments having received cease and desist notices from Nintendo upon including the mod in their game lineups.^{[citation needed]}

Former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé defended Nintendo's history of distancing itself from the competitive community, saying that "We want to do this much more at a grassroots level than others’ visions around leagues and big up-front payments and things of that nature.”^[43]

Competitive format

Games played using competitive

Melee and Project M start with four stocks and an eight-minute time limit; the original Super Smash Bros. likewise starts with four stocks and eight-minute time limit (with the time limit being modded in due to the base game not providing a time limit option); Brawl starts with three stocks and an eight-minute time limit; 3DS/Wii U with two and a six-minute time limit; and Ultimate with three stocks and a seven-minute time limit.

If the time runs out, the winner is determined by whoever has more stocks left; if both players have the same number of stocks, then winner is determined by whoever has the lower damage percentage. If both players have the same number of stocks and amount of damage, then, depending on the tournament, the whole match must be played again, or a shorter match with a single stock each is played. In competitive play, Sudden Death is usually ignored should the match end in a tie.

Pausing can disrupt the gameplay; thus, if a player pauses while in the middle of a match to gain an advantage, then that player must forfeit a stock or the game. In stricter tournaments, the player must forfeit a stock regardless of advantage (or lack thereof), though the pause function is usually disabled in these tournaments. To facilitate this, each game in the series starting with Melee includes a ruleset option to toggle pausing on or off.

Most matches are played in best-of-three game sets. Best-of-five sets are played anywhere from top 32 to grand finals.^[44][45]

There are stages that are deemed legal by the tournament organizers; these stages are starter stages. Players strike the starter stages before a match to determine the first stage they will play on; also, players must choose their characters without the other person's knowledge for the first match. In subsequent matches there are also counterpick stages allowed. For instance, in Melee singles, the starter stages are Battlefield, Final Destination, Dream Land N64, Yoshi's Story, and Fountain of Dreams. Players use a 1-2-1 format to strike which stages they do not want to play on until one is left. Once the first match is complete, the losing player can choose any of the starter stages or he or she can also choose a counterpick stage – in this case, Pokémon Stadium. After the first match is complete, the losing player chooses a stage, then the winning player chooses his or her character, then the losing player chooses his or her character before heading to subsequent matches. In best-of-3 sets, the winner can ban one stage so the losing player cannot choose that stage.^[46] Generally, players cannot select a stage on which they have previously won; this rule is known as "Dave's Stupid Rule" or the "Stage Clause".^[47] While most Melee-tournaments are running Dave's stupid rule, most Ultimate tournaments are using a variant of the clause, known as "modified Dave's Stupid Rule", or mDSR. In mDSR tournaments, players are only barred from selecting the last stage they've won on in that set. Most tournaments allow the players to forgo these rules if both players agree to it. This is known as the gentlemen's clause. Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma is a notable user of the gentlemen's clause in competitive Melee, as he will often offer to gentleman to Battlefield, rather than to play on Fountain of Dreams, one of the games less popular stages.

Competitive play may be either singles or doubles. In singles, two players face off against each other. In doubles, two teams of two players fight each other. Sharing stocks with teammates is allowed. Friendly fire is enabled, so teammates can damage or save each other. This is to ensure fairness, as certain combinations of characters in teams can prove to be overpowered. It also ensures that two-on-one situations aren't overwhelmingly tilted in the winning team's favor. It also adds a couple of extra strategies. For example, after a Jigglypuff player uses the move "Rest", which immobilizes it for several seconds or until attacked, a teammate could attack Jigglypuff with a weak move, preventing an opponent from causing more damage. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U adds an 8-player mode, which allows triples and quadruples teams, although there have been comparatively few such tournaments. In Ultimate, many tournaments have held side-events using a game mode called 'Squad Strike', which is a game mode that enables players to fight against each other with a squad of either 3 or 5 fighters.

In addition, a player gets port priority when he or she wins in a best-of-one of, usually, rock-paper-scissors.^[48] Smasher Mew2King found out that the player who is player 1 or is closest to player 1 has priority in attacks that hit each other at the same time.^[49] Also, a neutral start may be enacted if a player suggests it.^[48]

In some Brawl rulesets, Meta Knight is either banned from certain stages or is completely banned from tournaments due to the overpowered nature of his attacks.^[50] While in certain doubles rulesets, certain team compositions are banned, such as double Cloud in Wii U^[51] and double Meta Knight in Brawl, due to synergy and overpowered attack and strategies that are more effective with additional fighters.

Wombo Combo meme

"Wombo Combo" is an

• Brawl
• Melee
• Project M
• Super Smash Bros.
• Ultimate (major tournaments)
• Wii U (major tournaments)

References