Final Post – Looking Ahead

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This entry in my series of Competitive Smash Bros Ultimate marks my last. This project began as a school assignment and I am nearing the end of the semester. For the final post, I would like to say my thoughts on what I expect to see in the upcoming months from Ultimate: characters we will see, which top players we will see, and my most anticipated tournaments.

Characters

I don’t know how many times I can say it, but Ultimate is such a treat to gamers because of its massive roster, it really makes for interesting tournaments because we can see a large variety of matchups. As the meta stands now, here are the characters I think we’ll continue to see placing well in tournaments.

The first part will come as no surprise, the top tiers that we have seen so far I don’t think will be leaving anytime soon. Peach, Wolf, Pichu, Olimar, Palutena, Inkling, Snake, Lucina, you get the picture are all great characters and backed up by some great players.

Now I want to discuss which characters I think are going to make a rise in appearances among more tournaments.

Joker
No surprise here as Joker is fresh off the DLC excitement, but with more practice I think players are going to learn how to optimize Arsene very well. Arsene is an absolute unit and unless Joker and Arsene receive a nerf, they make for an incredibly scary threat.

Sheik
Sheik was buffed in the last patch, making her fair much better. She can now string more combos together, giving her a little more juice to her kit. Yeah she does little damage, but she can chain attacks among the best of them, if she hit harder she wouldn’t be balanced. I think players are going to shine some light on some creative Sheik combos and setups that won’t make it appear as hard to take stocks as much as people make it seem.

Shulk
Shulk is one of those characters that I think is greatly untapped. This is probably because his Monado Arts aren’t the easiest to master, but I think his ceiling is high. I think he also benefits from unlearned matchups, people won’t feel very comfortable fighting against a high level Shulk. All it’s gonna take is one player to debut him in top 8 of a major and he’ll gain many more mains.

Greninja
This may not be the boldest prediction, as I do think Greninja is top tier. For some reason people are brushing right over him. Greninja has great mobility, combos, recovery, and mixups, yet he’s not getting the attention of other top tiers. Expect more of Greninja soon.

Incineroar
Incineroar scares the crap out of me. He hits hard and has crazy aerial pressure with up air and nair, and not to mention his insane counter attack. Incineroar’s recovery got buffed in 2.0, and it’s not nearly as bad as you think with the use of both side B and up B. Add in a command grab that kills very early and you find me terrified of any Incineroar. I think all of these pros outweigh his slow run speed. Tweek has been teasing his Incineroar on Twitter lately, he’ll show us what he can do.

Top Players

If you’ve been following my posts these past few months, then these predictions will come as no surprise. Since we’ve seen so many players make top 8 in tournament so far, I’m going to give some honorable mentions, then give my prediction for who I think will be the Panda Global #1 ranked player after the first year of Ultimate.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
Tweek, Zackray, Myran, Shotun, Nairo, Dabuz, Samsora, Cosmos, Void, Light, and Ally. The list could go on and on, we’ve seen some tremendous play from all of these contestants, and look forward to watching all of them.

#1
Again, I don’t think many people will be surprised at this prediction:

MKLeo

When I watch Leo play, I always notice how smart, focused, and optimized he is. Obviously he isn’t perfect as no one is, and you can’t win them all. But often when I watch, I can’t help but think how god-like his play is, and I think to myself: whose gonna beat this guy? Big props to Leo.

Tournaments to Come

Smash’N’Splash 5
This water park themed tournament is always one of my favorites. As it allows players to have fun competing and swim afterwards. Not to mention it’s just a few hours of a drive from me to the Wisconsin Dells. Smash’N’Splash takes place after my graduation, so I’m thinking of attending!

CEO
CEO is one of the larger tournaments, and I always love to see the amount of effort that goes into the presentation of top 8 within the ring. I’m eager to see who will win the belt this year.

Evo
Obviously the biggest fighting game tournament of the year is going to be on the list. The highest amount of entries and the biggest names showing up make it the most prestigious trophy players can aim for.

Those are my three most anticipated tournaments that are coming up this summer. There will be many other tournaments that I will be watching as well, but these are the biggest. What makes things most exciting is that we’re still so early in Ultimate’s lifespan, and these tournaments being in its first year makes winning first place that much sweeter. It will be fun to see how Ultimate evolves in the years to come and comparing it to what we’ve seen so far. I thank everyone who followed any of my posts throughout this spring, it has been fun sharing my thoughts with you all. Happy smashing!

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication



Kong Kollege: A Donkey Kong Guide

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For this post, I am going to give a quick character guide/analysis to one of my favorite characters: Donkey Kong. I do not claim to be the best DK player, he is just one of my secondaries and I always love playing him. With that, let’s dive in.

Strengths

Donkey Kong is a super heavy weight character, ranking the 3rd heaviest among the roster, therefore, he deal a ton of damage and can survive to some of the highest percents.

Killing is never an issue with DK, all of his smash attacks will easily kill, along with his aerials and up tilt. A very strong kill option is going to be his cargo grab to back throw, it kills off the top of the stage at quite early percents, especially on platforms. It will kill Captain Falcon at 130% on Smashville’s platform with no rage.

DK would be considered a grappler, meaning he’s a character that focuses on finding opportunities to grab your opponent. At low percents, DK can perform his famous “Ding Dong” (cargo grab to up throw to up air) to deal an easy 30% combo. Besides his combo ability, DK has great kill potential off his throws: the aforementioned cargo throw, cargo grab to down throw off the stage, cargo grab to back throw in attempts for a stage spike, and back throw. DK benefits heavily from grabbing his opponents.

Donkey Kong’s arms are like tree trunks, they don’t only hit hard, but they reach far as well. What DK lacks in neutral from no projectile, he makes up with his massive reach. F tilt makes a great spacing tool and great quick punish to rack up the damage.

Weaknesses

Being one of the heaviest and largest characters in the game, DK struggles from being able to get stuck in opponent’s combos. When your percent is low, DK is very susceptible to being bullied by combo heavy characters.

I’d say DK’s biggest weakness is his recovery, it covers great horizontal distance, but his vertical recovery is very minimal. Although it provides some great super armor, where it’s missing is above him; this leaves DK highly endangered to spikes. Because of this, you will often have to mix up your recovery by performing up B at different points offstage. It’s important to know you can throw your opponent off with a quick up air or bair before you recover as well, they hit hard and have great hit boxes.

As mentioned above, Donkey Kong has no projectile, so closing neutral can sometimes be tough, especially against other zoners. Also mentioned above, thankfully his range and his surprising speed can help DK in that regard.

Playstyle

When playing as DK, I like to play more aggressive but not to the extent where it’s obvious, because he can be easy to punish with a few wiffed attacks. DK is surprisingly fast and will deal a ton of damage, so aggressive play styles can take stocks very quick.

I’ll go over a few notable moves that I like to perform. Dash attack covers a lot of ground and is a great punish move because of its lingering hit box, if dash attack connects at the end it can lead into a follow up attack as well. F tilt and up tilt are your best friend. F tilt comes out quick and has great reach, you can punish your opponents mistakes often with this attack. Up tilt has a large wide hit box and is a great kill option. Dashing and throwing out an up tilt or reverse up tilt will take many stocks. It’s a great idea to charge up your neutral special and keep it on deck, sometimes having the punch charged up is more intimidating to your opponent than actually using it – save it for when the time is right.

DK has so many spikes, four total if I’m counting correct, which makes him so fun to get aggressive with offstage (careful though, it can be tough to get back against a smart opponent), spacing your down special is a safe and satisfying spike.

Also your go to: bair. DK can throw out bairs that will combo into another if timed right, and also kill at the sweet spot, not to mention it has great range. Hit em with the foot.

To mention for the final time, grab your opponent as much as you can, you’ll rack up damage quickly and take games faster than your opponent can finish the DK Rap.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Donkey Kong is a hard-hitting and deceptively fast fighter who focuses on reads and grabs. I find DK to be the best super heavy in the game, and a viable solo main if you give him the dedication he deserves. These are my quick thoughts on Donkey Kong, the leader of the DK Crew.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication

Fighter Adjustments 3.0

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Alongside of Joker in version 3.0, Ultimate has received another balance patch. In this post, I will not be going over every change that came with the patch, just those that I think are notable within the meta game. I will also like to discuss some of the changes I was hoping to see, but didn’t.

Notable Fighter Adjustments

Chrom/Lucina/Marth/Roy
All of the above Fire Emblem heroes have received a buff to their dash grab. This is a good buff for the fighters because they each have a solid throw combo game, and their up throw also kills at high percents. Giving them this slight buff to their grab helps their neutral game and combo game both.
Corrin
Continuing the Fire Emblem buffs, Corrin received several changes to his moves.

It’s not like Corrin had much of a presence in tournaments before 3.0, but these are all beneficial changes to the dragon lord so we might see a bit more of him in the future.
Diddy Kong
Diddy received a few buffs as well to his five of his attacks.

Diddy has not made any splashes in Ultimate so far, since he has received quite a few nerfs since Smash 4. The biggest nerf I think that still needs addressing is his recovery, when charged, Diddy falls too quickly and the launch doesn’t bring him as far as it seems it should.
Mewtwo
3.0 was very friendly to Mewtwo, receiving the most buffs in the update.

I thought Mewtwo was a solid character before 3.0, but I can already sense the wave of Mewtwo players coming after this patch. The buff that stands out the most to me is his weight increase, being able to live longer while increasing his offense as much as they did makes him a much stronger character.
Pichu
Pichu has received a highly necessary nerf, in my opinion, in which it is now easier to deal damage to Pichu. What made Pichu extremely frustrating to play against is his tiny size. Many moves would often wiff against Pichu due entirely to the mouse’s size. Going forward, the struggle to land a hit on Pichu shouldn’t be as large. Pichu isn’t the only small top tier, I would have hoped to see this same change for Olimar, Squirtle, and perhaps Inkling while dashing.
Sheik
Sheik received a couple of buffs, but the most important one is her fair now has greater range. Sheik was a dominant force throughout Smash 4, and Ultimate hasn’t been her time to shine. But her fair is much better now making room for more combos. Many fans enjoy seeing Sheik’s technical top level play.

My Future Balance Wishes

Before anyone calls out “git gud”, these are just my opinions and observations from playing Ultimate. Perhaps the better balancing route to a fighting game to make it the most fun is give buffs not nerfs, but sometimes things are just straight wack.
Diddy
As mentioned above, I think Diddy could be back among the top tier crowd, or at least high tier, if his recovery actually made sense.
Olimar
Olimar does a ton of damage, he’s another one of the frustrating tiny top tiers. The biggest change I would like to see to Olimar is a nerf to his side B. When being attacked by Pikmin it should either be easier to kill them or you should receive less damage.
Pichu
Despite Pichu’s nerf, I believe he still needs an adjustment to his kill power. My biggest head scratcher is, how can Sakurai do what he did to Sheik and still have Pichu in this game. I’ll leave it at that.
Wolf
Wolf received a nerf to his down smash, but his kill power isn’t what I had a problem with. My biggest gripe with Wolf is his minimal lag after most of his moves. Wolf is incredibly powerful, which I think he should be among the Star Fox lineup, but there seems to be little risk in his moves for how high his reward is.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m very pleased with what 3.0 had to offer. For the most part, characters got buffed rather than nerfed, making players happier rather than upset. There’s nothing worse than your character getting nerfed out of relevance when they were balanced already. I look forward to watching the meta grow and the rise of character diversity among tournaments.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication

Joker

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At long last we have our first character from the Fighter’s Pass. Joker arrives as the first official DLC character in Ultimate. Joker is the main protagonist from Persona 5, a series that has been exclusive to PlayStation. When announced at The Game Awards 2018, fans around the globe lost their minds at this inclusion out of left field.

So what does this mean for Ultimate on a competitive standpoint? Let’s do a quick breakdown of his play style and see how he fairs in Smash. Overall, in my opinion, Joker feels to rank somewhere in high tier, leaning towards the lower half. Joker’s attacks feel inspired from Sheik and Bayonetta – quick and up close attacks with a bit of flare from Bayo (and his gun of course).

Of course, Joker has a very unique mechanic in that he can summon his Persona – Arsene, when its gauge is filled. To active Joker’s Persona, it sort of acts like Cloud’s limit break. But with Joker’s you can counter attacks to build it up faster. When Joker’s gauge is full, Arsene is summoned and his moves are extremely powerful. All of his specials are changed with his Persona active, and his normals are much stronger in terms of both damage and knockback. Currently, I feel Arsene is too easy to activate, but it isn’t too hard to camp Joker out during that time and wait for Arsene to disappear either. Joker does have a bit of trouble killing by himself, which is why I place him in high tier rather than top tier.

Joker and Arsene in Ultimate

Joker’s combo game is also solid, but it’s far too soon to make any concrete decisions on him thus far. We’ll have to continue to play test Joker and see what he can do as the meta evolves. As with all Smash DLC, players are jumping on the Joker bandwagon. Many top players are loving Joker and adding him to their list of mains. Just to name a few: MkLeo, Leffen, and Tweek are committing quite some time to Joker; I’m sure there many more too.

The amount of passion Sakurai and his development team has put into Joker for the first character in the Fighter’s Pass has given me very high hopes for the future additions to the roster. Joker’s rendition in Ultimate is very faithful to Persona 5. From his move set to his victory screen, it’s very easy to appreciate Joker’s entrance to Smash (coming from someone who has never played Persona). From what Reggie (we miss you already) said at The Game Awards, that Joker’s inclusion is the direction Nintendo is taking with the DLC, makes it very interesting to see who will be added next. It is also important to note that Nintendo has decided the lineup for the Fighter’s Pass and not Sakurai. Regardless of who is next, Sakurai will do an outstanding job at bringing them to fighting form.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication

Prime Saga

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Last weekend, 2GG held yet another fun tournament in the Saga line that was Prime Saga. For those who are unaware, the narrative of the 2GG Saga tournaments are to see if someone who mains characters from that series can win the tournament. It puts a fun little spin on who you want to root for in the tournament. Throughout my watching of tournaments in the Smash 4 days, the “Saga Curse” was strong. The Curse came to be because whatever the Saga was named after, they couldn’t win the tournament. For example, ZeRo won Nairo Saga, Salem – a Bayonetta player won Fire Emblem Saga, and so forth.

Back to the most recent tournament held by 2GG, our results are:

2GG Prime Saga Top 16

As we can see, the curse continues, the tourney was won by Shuton, an Olimar player. The closest Metroid representative we had was YB as Dark Samus at 13th place. Marss, recently signed by Panda Global after his first 1st place trophy at Collision last month, failed to make a run this time around.

Something I’d like to take a moment to discuss is how strong of a presence Japan has been making in Ultimate so far in its early life. In Prime Saga alone, we have three Japanese players making top 8. And before that, we’ve had Zackrayand Shuton placing extremely well in several tournaments. I can’t wait to see what these guys do next, their hard work and determination is truly admirable.

Lastly, it’s interesting to note that Prime Saga’s top two seeds: MkLeo and Tweek both placed 7th. It’s not just this tournament that has had a few upsets, it’s been happening since Ultimate released. I believe that competitive Ultimate has been so diverse because of its insanely large roster. Matchup experience is more crucial than ever before with 70+ characters. Which makes it exciting! We see a diverse range of characters that place highly, though we’ve been seeing quite a few Wolfs, Palus, and Olimars, but compared to Smash 4, Ultimate has been quite the improvement.

Quick shout out to Allyand Tweek, their Snake and YL (respectively) are a real treat to watch.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communications

Summit and Collision Results

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Summit

Smash Ultimate Summit drew quite the praise for being one of the best set up tournaments for competitors, and it was for viewers too! Summit offered a unique experience with its wide array of events that makes it a standout experience from the rest. It was great to see representation from Melee and Smash 4 veterans from players all across the world. Many of the competitors such as Tempo Storm ZeRo and newly signed Liquid Dabuz went on to say how organized it was and how they’d love to be back next year. Hats off to the folks that set up Summit.

Summit Recap
All credit to Beyond the Summit

The skits that they played throughout were hilarious too, it was great to see our top players have some fun outside of competing. Personally, I enjoyed cooking with Samsora.

MKLeo took first place over Dabuz 3-0 with Lucina. Leo is making a strong case for becoming in the #1 player in the world in Ultimate’s early life right now. Winning Genesis, Summit, 2nd at Frostbite, and placing consistently at every tournament he’s been to so far. The other notable player for the top spot is TSM Tweek (absent from Summit). Tweek has a few first place trophies under his belt in Ultimate so far as well, I look forward to when these two pros face off in tournament next.

Collision

Collision just wrapped up yesterday and there are two topics I’d like to mention about it. First would be (in my opinion) the most hype set of Ultimate to date: Nairovs Light in losers semis.

Nairo vs Light losers semis Collision 2019
All Credit to CLASH Tournaments

Nairo’s fans have been wanting to see the Ganon in tournament and we got it. Down 2-0 with his tournament life on the line, Nairo switches from Palutena and ZSS to Ganon to see if the Demon King can make some magic happen. The crowd erupts when Nairo opts for Ganon, even the commentators are at a loss for words. Light sticks with Fox and appears to have the advantage the entire time in the matchup. However, if you know Ganon, he can turn the tides of the battle in one ‘BOORYAH’ (smash attack). Nairo manages to reverse 3-0 light and move on to losers finals. Light becomes another soul devoured by Nairo’s deadly Ganon.

Secondly, I would like to give a shout out to Marss. Marss takes 1st place at Collision 2019 over Nairo (the Ganon couldn’t save him here) after an exciting bracket reset. Marss is a ZSS main and made solid placings through Smash 4 with ZSS as well. But this time around Marss grabs his first 1st place trophy yet, and well deserved.

Marss’ reaction after Collision 2019

Why I believe Marss deserves the praise is because he stuck with ZSS even after the nerfs she’s received in Ultimate. Many tier lists would put ZSS at mid-tier, yet Marss kept playing her. Marss’ performance just proves to show that if you put the effort into a character it will pay off, you don’t always need to drop your character for top tier characters *cough* Wolf *cough*. Play whoever feels right to you or a character that you love, you can make it work with the dedication. Congratulations to Marss!

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication

Which Link is Best?

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The greatest part of Ultimate is that every character in the series history has entered the fight. If you’ve played each Smash title like me, you know that means we have three Links to choose from now. We have Link, Young Link, and Toon Link. So which one is the best?

In this post, I’m going to detail each of the three Links to decide who I think, in my opinion, is the best Link.

All of my findings are from version 2.0 and are subject to change with upcoming patches.

I find each Link to have a strong combo game with their projectiles and respective setups. So I won’t be going over every single combo that each Link can do, I will just state that their combo game won’t be a deciding factor here.

Link

Link is the heaviest of the three, allowing him to survive to higher percents, but at the same time this results in Link having the worst recovery. Yes I know you can bomb drop and detonate to recharge your recovery but for reliability sake, I’m just going to compare the hero’s spin. Link is also the only one to not have his hookshot anymore, so he cannot tether to the stage making his recovery a bit more predictable than the other two.

Link’s run speed is quite slow, ranking in at 63rd in the entire game. Luckily, with his vast array of projectiles you won’t have to do much approaching. Though it can be difficult to return to neutral at times with his slower speed.

All three Link’s share the same projectiles: bow and arrow, boomerang, and bombs. Link’s arrows have a unique trait: you are able to pick one up and either shoot two arrows for more damage, or throw it at your opponent. Link’s bombs are his remote bombs from Breath of the Wild, where you throw it then detonate it instead of the typical timed fuse. This creates a lot of opportunities to gimp your opponent. More or less, each of the Link’s boomerangs act the same – creating great stage pressure and acting as a combo starter.

Link’s biggest advantage over Young and Toon are his kill options. Link hits like a truck, you will never have an issue killing with him. Smash attacks, up tilt, f tilt, fair, you name it and it’ll probably kill. As mentioned above, Link does not have a hookshot, so his grab is faster and there’s less of a chance to be punished after missing. His up throw does kill at high percents too.

Young Link

Young Link is the lightest of the three, just a few units lighter than Toon Link. His run speed ranks 37th, faster than Link but slower than Toon Link. Young’s recovery is very good, it reaches higher than Link’s and you can mixup with a hookshot recovery to keep your opponent on their toes. For the sake of not repeating myself later, Toon’s recovery is almost exactly the same to that of Young’s.

What stands out the most of Young Link to me is that he has the strongest pressure. His arrows can be fired extremely fast and his ending lag is very minimal. Young Link is able to dominate the stage with a flurry of arrows and his quick attacks.

I find Young Link’s biggest flaw to be his kill options. It’s very easy to rack up the percent on your opponent, but his lack of kill moves can get frustrating at times when playing him.

It is interesting to note that Young Link has seen some use in the tournament scene with TSM’s own Tweek and Leffen. However, neither of them main the character. Perhaps top players see the greatest potential in Young Link compared to the other two.

Toon Link

Last but certainly not least, Toon Link. As the meta stands now, I find Toon Link to be criminally underrated. Toon is a bit heavier than Young, and the fastest of the three Link’s with a run speed ranking at 24th.

Toon Link is the floatiest of the three Links, giving him a strong aerial presence. Toon Link is famously known for his bomb to forward air combo, resulting in a very reliable kill setup. Young can pull this combo off as well, but it always feels easier to do it with Toon.

Toon Link has a solid kill game, he doesn’t hit quite as hard as Link, but I also never feel I struggle to get kills like with Young Link at times. Toon Link’s back throw is also a very strong kill option.

The Verdict

Each Link plays quite similar: effective zone gameplay with their projectiles and good combo game. I think each Link is high tier and love playing as each of them. So which of the three is best? In my opinion: Link. As mentioned they all play similar, but what Link does the best is killing. Link has extremely powerful attacks and his remote bombs create so many options. You cannot go wrong with whichever Link you choose, it ultimately comes down to personal preference. To me, I find Link to be the best of our three courageous heroes.

Thanks for reading, happy smashing!

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Sciences – Game Studies
Communications

Evo

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Making headlines this week is the announcement of Evo’s game lineup for this summer. Most noticeably, Melee, for the first time in six years will be absent for competing.

Releasing in 2001, Melee has been a mainstay in the Smash community for its technical and fast-paced gameplay. As you may guess, Melee’s absence has caused quite the buzz on social media from Melee veterans.

@TSM_Leffen
@C9Mang0
@LiquidHbox

After the initial reactions, the community has been embracing the fact that the Melee community is still ever-strong and there are plenty of other tournaments this year for the 2001 Smash entry. If the fans continue to support the game, Melee isn’t going anywhere. It’s amazing that Melee is still relevant nearly two decades later, safe to say that it’ll have a special spot in all Smasher’s hearts.

Ultimate will be making its first appearance at Evo and you can bet there will be some Melee veterans competing in the new Smash game. In Ultimate, Leffen has dropped Pokemon Trainer for Roy and Young Link. It’ll be exciting to see how much he can grow with a few more months of training. Mang0 has also been practicing with some of the top players such as Void, Samsora, and ZeRo.

It makes sense that Evo would omit Melee in this years competition, Ultimate is fresh and exciting bringing thousands of competitors and viewers alike. With the continued support from updates and downloadable characters, Ultimate is in its infancy stages and will only continue to grow in popularity. I am thankful for the strong fan base in Melee, but I also look forward to seeing Ultimate continue to flourish.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Sciences – Game Studies
Communications

Frostbite and Summit

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Frostbite

Frostbite gave us some exciting action over the weekend. With Tweek taking 1st and Leo taking 2nd, our two dominant forces remain at the top.

Frostbite 2019 Top 8

Myran, the Floridian Olimar main, has been placing well. With a 9th place finish at Genesis and now 3rd at Frostbite, his dedication is paying off. That Olimar (Myran) VS Richter (Shuton) five game set was incredible, Myran displayed some great adaptation throughout.

Both Void and Nairo placed lower than expected (Void missing top 8), but you can bet they wont stay quiet for long.

Summit

With Frostbite behind us we can look forward to Summit coming up next. For those who are unaware, Summit is an invite-only tournament. With ten player invitations, the remaining five are fan-voted, and the final sixth to qualify. Summit takes place March 8th through March 10th.

The beauty of Ultimate is bringing Melee and Sm4sh players together. Along with that, the Sm4sh King and now successful streamer, ZeRo, will be attending. ZeRo’s biggest concern with Ultimate thus far has been deciding on a main, so it will be interesting to see what he has in store for this prestigious tournament.

Summit’s participants. 16th slot TBD

Along with a singles tournament, we will get to see the new and exciting “squad strike” mode. In squad strike, players must select three (or five) separate characters that count as their stocks instead of just the usual single character. We will also see other gameplay challenges; Summit offers a truly unique experience.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Sciences – Game Studies
Communications

Welcome, Smashers!

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Welcome to Smash Bros Ultimate Blog!

Growing up, Nintendo has always been a passion of mine – from Mario to Zelda to Pokémon. But what stood out the most to me was the culmination of all these brilliant series in the form of Super Smash Bros. – the Nintendo all-star fighting/party game. I have played every entry in the series starting with the Nintendo 64 all the way up to now – Ultimate.

I would consider myself an above average player, I typically play competitive online or against my friends. I know most of the competitive terminology and practice it to the best of my ability. With school and work taking up most of my time, I do not compete myself.

For any of those interested in brushing up on many of the terms used in competitive play, feel free to learn here.

With the rise of esports becoming a social and digital phenomenon, I want to explore how Super Smash Bros Ultimate is becoming a platform for competitive gamers in the world today. Throughout this blog I will be talking about upcoming tournaments, notable placings, player spotlights, updates to the meta, etc.

With Ultimate being so fresh at just a couple of months old, the hype could not be greater. There are many competitors and fans of Nintendo’s latest entry to the Smash franchise. Several notable Melee veterans are entering the fight as well. Leffen, Armada, Mew2King. The most notable names competing are veterans from Smash 4 such as Nairo, Tweek, and MK Leo. However, Smash 4’s king: Gonzalo ‘ZeRo’ Barrios isn’t dedicating most of his time to competing this time around as he has become a full-time streamer.

Armada popping off at Summit 2017

Because of Ultimate’s humongous roster of above 70 characters, watching competitive Smash has never sounded more enticing on which fighters will frequent the top 8. Smashers will have so many matchups to learn and frame data to memorize, I can’t wait to see who rises to the top of Ultimate.

My plan is to update the blog about once per week, so I hope you’re all as excited as I am!

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Sciences – Game Studies
Communications