Laren “Happens” Spear

Death, taxes, Super Smash Bros. ruleset overhauls: the constants of life. While there is often talk of making sweeping changes to the rules of a Smash game, relatively few see use in tournament play, much less widespread adoption. Examples of “successful” ruleset changes in Melee recently include wobbling bans and ledgegrab limits. Both have seen regional adoption, which is better than a 6 minute timer or frozen Pokémon Stadium, for example, have ever done.

On Wednesday, June 26th, Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett announced that he would no longer be Super Smash Bros. Melee’s far-and-away best unsponsored player.

Super Smash Bros. Melee was released in North America and Japan for the 2001 holiday season, while it didn’t hit European and Australian shelves until May 2002. What was Nintendo doing in this intervening time, and why is this relevant today? Here are some things you might not know about how some of Nintendo’s choices around Melee’s release still affect the game today.

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about Ice Climbers’ place within Super Smash Bros. Melee. After Daniel “ChuDat” Rodriguez’s meteoric rise to 11th place on the 2017 SSBMRank and a similar climb from Bananas this year to 19th, Ice Climbers have rarely in Melee’s history been more prominent in the metagame. But with this prominence comes community discussion. Here’s what you need to know about the current wobbling ban discussion.

This is the first year at SSC where top 8 was dominated by active Brawl players rather than Brawl retirees. Out of the top 8, the only player who doesn’t currently grind Brawl over other games is Nairo. Players like Joe “Toronto Joe” Cribari, Zeyan “Zan” Nizami, Kyle “Gunnermaniac” Runnels and the aforementioned Seagull Joe all made great showings and took out currently SSBBRanked players on their way to top 8. As the Brawl scene has diverged somewhat from the Smash 4 scene, we’ve seen players rise up to the challenge and work to optimize the game despite its relative inactivity.

It’s that time of year again: Super Smash Con. Since its inception in the post-Super Smash Bros. Brawl era, SSC has been the premier Brawl tournament and is the de facto Brawl major. Only GOML and the one-off CEO Dreamland could compete with SSC in terms of the caliber and number of players in attendance. As well, SSC is the only time of the year where Brawl gets serious stream time on a national stage. Let’s take a look at what this year’s edition has in store.

With every new Smash game, rumors abound, some from reputable sources and some not. Smash fans are quick to have debates over pre-release footage of each new game and what it could mean for its competitive potential. While today places like YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter blow up with all sorts of gameplay footage, this wasn’t the case in 2007-8 leading up to Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s release.