Smash 4 E3 Invitational Tournament Recap

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

The Invitational was a Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament organized by Nintendo itself to pay homage to the Smash Bros. series' competitive fanbase. Sixteen well-known and highly skilled players from the community were invited to participate, Geoff Keighley hosted the event, and the all-star commentary team of Wynton 'MIOM|Prog' Smith, D'Ron 'Apex|D1' Maingrette and Bobby 'MIOM|Scar' Scarnewman was recruited to call the matches. It was streamed on Twitch.tv/Nintendo; the broadcast peaked at 175,000 viewers.

Melee in particular has been getting a lot of attention lately, but Nintendo has historically distanced itself from the Super Smash Bros. competitive scene. It was deeply reaffirming to see Nintendo support the community so openly, even electing to use a competitive ruleset and neutral stage for Grand Finals. MIOM|Progducto and Milktea have also offered their insight on the meaning of this tournament to the Smash community.

The Invitational was laid out more like a presentational show than a normal tournament (which makes sense, since its larger purpose was to showcase a shiny new Wii U game). Players stood in the middle of a stage, an enormous crowd looked on, there were laser lights dancing around in the background, and the shoutcasters could be heard by both the crowd and the competitors. There was a brief intermission to showcase the 3DS version's Smash Run mode, and two special Free-for-Alls pitted journalists and celebrities against each other. Masahiro Sakurai himself addressed the crowd before everything began.

There were also "Fan Favorites" polled throughout. After a match's winners were decided by score, the crowd would hold up huge cards to vote for the characters they most enjoyed watching. All the favorites would go on to play separate matches against each other. The final winner of these was EG|PPMD, playing Fox (since Falco hasn't been revealed yet).

Each player had to pick one character to use throughout the tournament (presumably to show the fans as many characters as possible). They drew numbers from a hat, and the draft went as follows:

1. Sam 'Peachyhime' McNaughton – Villager
2. Juan 'CRS|Hungrybox' DeBiedma – Kirby
3. Hendrick 'CTRL|DJ Nintendo' Pilar – Bowser
4. Lilian 'Milktea' Chen – Pikachu
5. Gonzalo 'CT|Zero' Barrios – Zero Suit Samus
6. Hugo 'HugS' Gonzalez – Mega Man
7. Kevin 'EG|PPMD' Nanney – Fox
8. Kris 'MIOM|Toph'Aldenderfer – Pit
9. Cristin 'Crismas' DeSaro – Zelda
10. Ken 'Liquid|Ken' Hoang – Marth
11. Kevin 'MIOM|PewPewU' Toy – Mario
12. McCain 'CRS|MacD' LaVelle – Greninja
13. Masaya 'VGBC|aMSa' Chikamoto – Olimar
14. Daniel 'Liquid|KoreanDJ' Jung – Rosalina
15. Neha 'Lilo' Chhetri – Wii Fit Trainer
16. Dakota 'TheRapture' Lasky – Little Mac

Nintendo's ruleset attempted to combine normal tournament standards with an exhibition of the game's new items and stages. Unsurprisingly, the earlier matches (all 4-player Free-For-Alls until Grand Finals) were mostly decided by whoever got the most Final Smashes.

Some highlights included Zero spamming the hell out of Zero Suit Samus' Final Smash, which shoots lasers at everyone much like Snake's Final Smash in SSBB. The crowd went wild when Hungrybox's Kirby killed three characters at once with a Final Smash, and anything with Mega Man onscreen got huge cheers. PewPewU's Mario got a nice string of Up-Aerials an Up-Tilt on Lilo's Wii Fit Trainer, but skeptics contend that Lilo might have been able to escape with an Air Dodge or better Directional Influence (angling the joystick to alter one's trajectory after getting hit).

As the matches went on, item drops were decreased and the players' strategies became more obvious. The Smash 4 engine seemed more rewarding of defense than aggression, especially in the Free-For-All format, which always leaves the attacker open to retribution from everyone else.

The crowd's hype briefly diminished during the Media Rumble and Celebrity Rumble. Even the camera operator kept jumping back to shots of the crowd or the players standing onstage. The Media Rumble was a battle of gaming journalists, featuring Fran Mirabella, Ben Reeves, David Kepler and Basara Sato; Famtisu's Sato, from Japan, emerged victorious with Greninja. The four celebrities engaging in armed combat were Keagan Allen, Zelda Williams, Steven Lunsford and Erin Sanders. Keagan Allen won using Bowser.

Soon enough, it had come down to Grand Finals: Hungrybox vs. Zero. They both wore fancy blue robes as they walked down the aisles toward the stage, Hungrybox taking far longer to mingle with the crowd on the way over. Excitement in the room was palpable. It was a Best of 1, 4 stock, 8 minute timer, no items, on Battlefield, "as an homage to the competitive Smash Bros. Community." Fun fact: Hungrybox is the only Smash Bros. player who normally does stand up during tournament sets.

The two were evenly matched. Zero would position himself underneath a platform then wall Hungrybox out with well-spaced attacks, while Hungrybox would carefully pick his moments to run in and put up his shield. A surprising Up-Throw KO at 79% on Zero put Hungrybox in the lead. Both soon had one stock remaining, but Zero had a large percentage deficit and there was less than a minute left on the timer. His only chance was to force a Sudden Death. With both players starting at 300%, Zero threw out a risky move—grab—which snagged the surprised Hungrybox, winning Zero the match and the tournament. (It's worth mentioning that under normal tournament conditions, Hungrybox would have simply won by the percentage lead upon timeout.)

Both players hugged as Reggie walked onstage. He presented the trophies, hugged Zero, and thanked the fans, announcing that Shigeru Miyamoto himself had been watching the event and loving it. Reggie's final comments might have been the best part of the show: the NoA head revealed that he "sucks" at Super Smash Bros., but added, while staring at Hungrybox, "...My opportunity is coming with Smash on 3DS. 'Cause now I'm gonna play it on the go—I'm gonna be able to come back up next time, and kick your ass!"

At the time of writing there is no official full video of the tournament, but there is a saved Twitch.tv VOD, and this Highlight Reel:

Main Tournament Results

• 1st: CT|ZeRo (Zero Suit Samus)
• 2nd: CRS|Hungrybox (Kirby)
• 3rd: VGBC|aMSa (Olimar)
• 3rd: Lilo (Wii Fit Trainer)
• 5th: Liquid|KoreanDJ (Rosalina)
• 5th: TheRapture (Little Mac)
• 5th: MIOM|PewPewU (Mario)
• 5th: PeachyHime (Villager)
• 9th: CRS|MacD (Greninja)
• 9th: Crismas (Zelda)
• 9th: EG|PPMD (Fox)
• 9th: CTRL|DJNintendo (Bowser)
• 9th: Liquid|Ken (Marth)
• 9th: MIOM|Toph (Pit)
• 9th: Milktea (Pikachu)
• 9th: HugS (Mega Man)

Fan Favorite Tournament Results

• 1st: EG|PPMD (Fox)
• 2nd: HugS (Mega Man)
• 3rd: Liquid|KoreanDJ (Rosalina)
• 3rd: MIOM|PewPewU (Mario)
• 5th: CRS|MacD (Greninja)
• 5th: Liquid|Ken (Marth)

The combination of veteran players with a brand new Smash game made for a lot of exciting moments. The Invitational drew a huge audience, the fans loved it, and the competitive Smash community greatly appreciated the official recognition. If Nintendo continues to listen to its most devoted fans, it has nowhere to go but up.