Professional Super Smash Bros. competitions involve skilled gamers playing games from the Super Smash Bros. series, which are made by Nintendo. Organized tournaments started in 2002 with Super Smash Bros. Melee, a game released for the GameCube in 2001. However, in Japan, where the series began, tournaments were held as early as 1999 with the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. Later tournaments included other games in the series, with the two most popular scenes focusing on Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. Smaller groups of players compete in the original game and Project M, a version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii made by fans, and to a lesser degree, Brawl itself. Major tournaments include events like GENESIS, Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Super Smash Con, and The Big House annual series. Major League Gaming (MLG) also once included Super Smash Bros. games in its professional competitions.

The Super Smash Bros. competitive community is well-known in the fighting game world for being organized by players themselves rather than a single group. There is no official organization or tournament circuit for professional Super Smash Bros. because Nintendo has historically avoided directly supporting the scene.

History of competitiveSuper Smash Bros. Melee

The first public tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Melee in the West took place in early 2002. These events were part of the Tournament Go series in California, organized by Matt "MattDeezie" Dahlgren. At this time, there were no agreed-upon rules for the game, so tournaments often had different rules. Players frequently argued about whether certain items or stages were allowed. Over time, a standard set of rules was created. This new set banned all items and limited the number of stages to a few specific ones. On March 1, 2003, the International Video Game Federation held the first corporate-sponsored Melee tournament, called the IVGF Northwest Regionals, which was won by Jeremy "Recipherus" Fremlin.

From 2003 to 2007, this time is often called the "Golden Age" of Melee. During this period, the game was part of the Major League Gaming (MLG) Pro Circuit from 2004 to 2006. Ken Hoang was widely regarded as the best player during this time and was nicknamed "The King of Smash." Other top players included Christopher "Azen" McMullen, Daniel "ChuDat" Rodriguez, Joel Isai "Isai" Alvarado, Christopher "PC Chris" Szygiel, Daniel "KoreanDJ" Jung, and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman. Melee was also included in the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) 2007, a major fighting game tournament in Las Vegas. However, MLG removed Melee from its circuit in 2007, though it still supported some tournaments in the underground 2007 Smash Series for a year.

The competitive Melee scene struggled in the late 2000s after the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2008. Brawl replaced Melee in many tournaments, but many players disliked Brawl’s slower gameplay and unfair mechanics, like random tripping. In 2010, MLG briefly included Brawl in its Pro Circuit, but Nintendo stopped MLG from streaming Brawl matches. From 2012 to 2013, the competitive Smash Bros. scene was called "The Dark Age" because Melee and Brawl both lost popularity. However, major tournaments like GENESIS in 2009 and the start of the Apex and The Big House series still happened during this time.

Melee returned to popularity after being included in EVO 2013, which happened because the game won a charity vote to decide which game would be in EVO’s lineup. Because of the large audience at EVO 2013, Melee stayed in EVO’s lineup for the next five years. The game also gained more attention with the 2013 release of The Smash Brothers documentary series by Travis "Samox" Beauchamp. In 2014, SmashBoards estimated that about 3,242 Smash Bros. events happened worldwide. During this time, new and revived tournament series, like GENESIS, Super Smash Con, Community Effort Orlando (CEO), DreamHack, MLG, Shine, and Smash Summit, became important. Apex 2015 was the first event officially sponsored by Nintendo of America, and EVO 2016 was the largest Melee tournament ever, with 2,376 players. In 2014, Nintendo held a non-standard ruleset tournament at E3 2014 to promote Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. In 2016, Smash Sisters, an initiative to support women in tournaments, held its first all-women bracket at GENESIS 3.

From 2013 to 2018, this time is sometimes called "The Platinum Age" or "The Era of the Five Gods," referring to the five top players: Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, and Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma. William "Leffen" Hjelte became the first player to defeat all five, earning the nickname "The God Slayer," and the top six players were then called the "Big 6." In 2017, Justin "Plup" McGrath became the second player to defeat all five "Gods" and the first player outside the Big 6 to beat Armada in seven years.

In the late 2010s, the "Five Gods" became less dominant as many stepped away from competition. PPMD left in 2016 for health reasons, Armada retired in 2018, and Mew2King reduced his competition time to focus on coaching. Leffen faced visa issues. This period, called "The Chaos Age," saw newer players like Zain Naghmi, Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson, and Cody Schwab rise in rankings. Plup’s first-place win at GENESIS 5 in 2018 was the first major tournament victory by someone outside the Big 6 in several years.

The competitive scene was greatly affected by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which stopped most in-person tournaments. However, a major development happened in 2020 with the creation of rollback netcode for Project Slippi, a fan-made version of Melee that allowed online play with low latency for the first time. While this helped players compete during the pandemic, it also caused legal problems, leading to the cancellation of The Big House 10 in 2020 after Nintendo sent a cease-and-desist letter. This cancellation upset the community and led to the "#FreeMelee" hashtag trending on Twitter. In 2021, Panda and Nintendo announced the first officially licensed Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American championship circuit for 2022. The Big House 10 became part of the Panda Cup and was held in 2022, where Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto won his first major tournament, defeating Mango and Hungrybox and marking the first major victory for Yoshi in the game’s history.

The relationship between the community and Panda became tense when Nintendo allegedly forced the cancellation of Smash World Tour in late 2021. Panda’s CEO, Alan "Dr. Alan" Bunney, was accused of sabotaging the event. Statements from Nintendo and Panda were criticized for being unclear, leading players like aMSa and Hungrybox to leave the Panda Cup Finale in protest. Sponsored players, including Cody Schwab and Plup, also left Panda. In response, Panda removed Dr. Alan as CEO and postponed the Panda Cup Finale due to security concerns.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimateand other games

Competitive play has been a part of every game in the Smash Bros. series. The two most popular modern games are Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Both games have similar basic rules and are often played together in big tournaments. However, differences in how fast the games are played, advanced techniques, and character matchups have created separate but connected competitive communities for each game. Leonardo "MkLeo" Perez is widely recognized as the top player in Ultimate, along with other skilled players such as Edgar "Sparg0" Valdez, Gavin "Tweek" Dempsey, Sota "Zackray" Okada, and William "Glutonny" Belaïd.

Smaller competitive communities exist for the original Super Smash Bros. game for Nintendo 64 and for Project M /Project+, a fan-made version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl that changes the game to resemble the faster style of Melee. Previously active competitive scenes existed for Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008–2014) and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014–2018). However, in Norway, Brawl events still happen with sizes similar to those of Melee and Ultimate events. Most players from Brawl and Wii U have moved to Ultimate, and many top players from those older games now compete in Ultimate as well.

Relationship with Nintendo

The competitive Smash Bros. scene has had a tense relationship with Nintendo, the game's owner and publisher. IGN journalist Matt Kim explained that companies like Riot or Blizzard directly manage the competitive play around their games, but Nintendo has kept a distance and even worked against the community that enjoys its fighting games. Nintendo has threatened to take legal action against several major Smash Bros. tournaments, such as EVO 2013 and The Big House 10, often because of issues like livestreaming rights or the use of game modifications, such as Project M or Project Slippi. These actions have led to negative reactions from players and sometimes caused tournaments to stop livestreaming or be canceled. While Nintendo has sometimes supported community-organized events and held its own tournaments with special rules, it has never officially licensed a Smash Bros. tournament or added money to prize pools. This lack of support has made the competitive Smash Bros. community appear grassroots and community-driven. However, in November 2021, Nintendo and Panda Global announced the first officially licensed Smash Bros. tournament circuit for North America in 2022. A separate grassroots tournament series, Smash World Tour, took place in 2022, with finals planned for December 2022. However, legal action from Nintendo and possible sabotage by Panda Global led to the cancellation of the finals three weeks before they were scheduled. This caused tournament organizers to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The competitive Smash Bros. culture has also been criticized by Masahiro Sakurai, the game's creator and director. He argued that competitive play moves away from his original goal of connecting casual and skilled players. Sakurai's dislike for focusing on competitive players influenced the design of Brawl, the game that followed Melee. Many competitive players criticized Brawl for its slower, more casual gameplay. This criticism led to the creation of Project M/Project+, a fan-made modification that changed the game to resemble Melee's style. Nintendo has taken legal action against Project M/Project+ because of unclear copyright issues, and many tournaments received warnings from Nintendo for including the mod in their events.

Former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé explained that Nintendo prefers to support the community in a grassroots way rather than focus on big leagues or large payments.

Competitive format

Competitive games are usually played with lives, called "stocks," a set time limit, and items turned off. These games follow either a double-elimination format or a double-elimination bracket where players are grouped into pools.

The original Super Smash Bros. begins with four stocks and an eight-minute time limit. Players added the time limit because the game did not include this option. Similarly, Melee and Project M start with four stocks and an eight-minute time limit. Brawl starts with three stocks and an eight-minute time limit. The 3DS and Wii U versions start with two stocks and a six-minute time limit. Ultimate begins with three stocks and a seven-minute time limit.

If the time runs out, the player with more stocks wins. If both players have the same number of stocks, the winner is determined by who has the lower damage percentage. If both players have the same number of stocks and damage, the match is replayed or a shorter match with one stock each is played. In competitive play, sudden death is usually not used if the match ends in a tie.

Pausing during a match is against the rules. If a player pauses to gain an advantage, they must lose a stock or forfeit the game. In stricter tournaments, players must lose a stock even if pausing did not help them. Most games from Melee onward include a ruleset option to allow or disable pausing.

Most matches are played in best-of-three sets. Best-of-five sets are used in higher-level tournaments, such as top 32 to grand finals.

Tournament organizers choose legal stages, called starter stages. Before a match, players strike out stages they do not want to play on until one remains. In the first match, players choose characters without the other person knowing. After the first match, the losing player can choose a stage, and the winning player selects their character. In best-of-three sets, the winner can ban one stage. Players generally cannot select a stage they previously won on, a rule called "Dave's Stupid Rule." Some tournaments use a modified version of this rule, called "modified Dave's Stupid Rule" (mDSR). Players may skip these rules if both agree, known as the "gentlemen's clause."

Competitive play can be singles or doubles. In singles, two players face each other. In doubles, two teams of two players compete. Teams can share stocks, and friendly fire is allowed, meaning teammates can damage or help each other. This ensures fairness and prevents unfair advantages. For example, if a Jigglypuff player uses the "Rest" move, a teammate can attack her with a weak move to protect her from opponents. The Wii U version includes an 8-player mode for triples and quadruples teams, though these are rare in tournaments. Ultimate tournaments sometimes use a mode called "Squad Strike," where players fight with squads of three or five fighters.

Players earn port priority by winning a best-of-one match, usually through rock-paper-scissors. Smasher Mew2King discovered that the player closest to Player 1 has priority in attacks or grabs that occur at the same time. A neutral start may also be used if a player requests it.

In some Brawl rulesets, Meta Knight is banned from certain stages or tournaments due to his powerful attacks. In doubles rulesets, certain team combinations, like double Cloud in Wii U or double Meta Knight in Brawl, are banned because of overpowered strategies or synergy.

Wombo Combo meme

"Wombo Combo" is an Internet meme from a December 2008 Melee doubles match at the SCSA West Coast Circuit tournament. The match included Jeff "SilentSpectre" Leung and Mitchell Tang on one team and Julian Zhu and Joey "Lucky" Aldama on the other. During the match, Lucky lost all his lives. SilentSpectre and Tang quickly performed several moves together, making it hard for Zhu to respond. The commentators—Brandon "HomeMadeWaffles" Collier, Phil DeBerry, and Joseph "Mang0" Marquez—said, "Happy Feet, Wombo Combo. That ain't Falco." They then cheered loudly as SilentSpectre and Tang locked Zhu in a winning combo. The meme is the focus of a short documentary and appears in the Wii U eShop game Meme Run. It has also been used in many "MLG Montage" parody videos.

Sexual abuse allegations

In July 2020, several well-known members of the Super Smash Bros. competitive community, including top players and commentators, were accused of different types of sexual misconduct. These accusations included sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and child grooming. Many of these individuals were banned from tournaments, and several organizations ended their sponsorships with the accused players. One example was Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios, who was considered the best Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player of all time. Nintendo released a statement addressing the allegations, stating that they oppose all acts of violence, harassment, and exploitation against anyone and that they support the victims.

Tournament results

• A game mode where players fight in a 3D arena
• A version of the game where players fight in fast-paced battles
• A modified version of the game created by fans
• A main series of fighting games featuring characters from different video games
• The latest game in the series, known for its large number of characters and game modes
• A gaming console where major tournaments for the game have taken place