As we enter E3 week it seems appropriate to remember the Super Smash Brothers Brawl launch and the different events surrounding the series. Super Smash Brothers Brawl has been with the community for six years and has seen its ups and downs. Here are some of the biggest moments that the series saw in that time.
The Delayed Launch
Brawl was first announced at E3 in 2005 and went into development soon after. At E3 in 2007, Nintendo slated Brawl’s release date for December 3rd, 2007 – two and a half full years after first announcing the game. This release date was eventually pushed back and the game came out January 31st, 2008 in Japan and March 9th, 2008 in the United States.
Nintendo Holds Launch Tournaments
Much has been made of Nintendo’s new interest in Smash tournaments and some are hoping for the folks in Redmond, Washington to get into the competitive gaming scene. What many have forgotten was that Nintendo partnered for not one, but two Brawl launch tournaments in 2008.
KoreanDJ won a Crystal Wii at Best Buy
Nintendo first partnered with Best Buy for a launch event, with four locations featuring 1v1 tournaments and a cap of 256 players. The winner of each location played in New York in a finals – the grand prize was a $5,000 crystal Wii. KoreanDJ won.
How Long did you Wait for Brawl?
Shortly after the Best Buy announcement, Nintendo released information on “GameStop Midnight Launch” tournaments. Held at nearly every GameStop across North America, these events progressed winners over the next several months and in multiple stages. The eventual champion, Lee Martin, took home $5,000.
Lee Martin Took Home the Ultimate Prize!
Controversy - Brawl not Melee - A Community Divided
Most in the community were ready to jump ship to Brawl after Melee - the assumption was a repeat of the most beautiful game ever created. Unfortunately, within the first 3 months many realized that Brawl would never be Melee, and within a year, many Melee players either quit Brawl, began developing Brawl mods like Brawl+, Brawl-, Balanced Brawl, or Project M, or went back to Melee. Brawl suffered from a general "slowness", lack of hitstun, tripping, and removal of key tactics that gave players the feeling of "control" like Wavedashing and L-canceling.
After Brawl released Melee suffered a huge drop in attendance as many justified sticking with the new game because that was where the money, focus, and sponsors would be. The temptation is very real again and this pattern is already repeating itself - Chris "Wife" Fabiszak recently wrote an article stressing abandoning Melee in order to focus on Smash Wii U - the article was eventually removed and Chris explained his position a bit further.
EVO 2008 Uses Brawl - Forces Items ON
Many forget that EVO actually ran Brawl in 2008. However, they ran the game with items turned on because they believed that is how the game should be played. Since the actual community of players that travel to play the game didn't support items, turnout was lackluster (just over 100 players) and the tournament was received poorly. Had EVO held community standard rules it is likely the event would have been very well attended (300 or more players, similar to Genesis, Apex, etc.). The lack of a huge turnout for EVO is often seen as a reason Brawl wasn't popular, yet the huge attendance at other tournaments in the first year directly contradicts this. Brawl at EVO was poor because the tournament ran with non-standard rules - the same fate would meet any game, such as Melee, if the rules aren't a reflection of the people that actually travel and are interested in tournaments. Curious, how things may have been different for Brawl, had the community rules been used. Also curious - will EVO force items on with Smash Wii U?
Super Smash Brothers Brawl had Huge Year 1 Success
In the last year, many have said Smash died after Brawl’s launch – this short term memory couldn’t be further from the truth. Brawl continued the wave Melee was riding after it’s Golden Era and wouldn’t slow down until 2012. Between May 2008 and May 2009, in a single year, Brawl did the following:
• 681 Brawl Tournaments
• 25,269 Entrants
• 37 - Average entrants per tournament
• 57 - Tournaments per month
• 13 - Tournaments per weekend
• 486 - Entrants per week
• $231,000 – Single Prize Pool
• $200,000 – Doubles Prize Pool (est.)
• $70,000 - Venue Fees
These numbers wouldn’t be matched again until late 2013 and 2014 with Melee.
MLG picks up Brawl in 2010
In 2010, Major League Gaming picked up Brawl for the 5-event Pro Circuit. This series of tournaments featured more prize money than Smash had ever seen before, culminating in a Dallas Championship event with a $35,000 pool. Here were the results of this tournament:
1st (9) Gnes -Diddy Kong - $12,500
2nd (3) TyRaNt - Meta Knight - $7,500
3rd (2) ESAM - Pikachu - $5,000
4th (1) Ally - Snake - $3,500
5th (11) Espy - Sonic - $2,500
6th (12) _X_ - Sonic - $1,750
7th (4) LeeMartin - Meta Knight/Lucario - $1,250
8th (7) Atomsk92 - King Dedede/Ice Climbers/Meta Knight$1,000
Alas, despite attendance numbers averaging over 30% more than when Melee was on the circuit in 2006, Brawl was dropped. MLG had been unable to get the go-ahead to stream the game from Nintendo during the season.
Meta Knight Banned by the Unity Ruleset Committee
One of the most controversial aspects of Brawl since launch had been Meta Knight - to ban or not to ban? In 2011, after MLG dropped Brawl from the Pro Circuit, an effort to keep the game relevant was made. The Unity Ruleset Committee, or the URC, was formed by a number of the largest tournament organizers and late in the year they announced that, beginning in early 2012, Meta Knight would be banned. After 4 months where about half of all tournaments banned the character the URC disbanded and the ban did not hold.
Melee Surpasses Brawl
After Apex 2013, Brawl players felt confident. It was the largest Smash brothers tournament and second largest Brawl tournament to that point in time (Apex 2012 is the largest Brawl tournament with 400 entrants). Things were looking good still, hundreds of tournaments a year were still occurring with thousands of players and after Street Fighter and Marvel, Smash/Brawl was still the third largest fighting game in existence. When Melee players began to push for entrance into EVO, the Brawl community supported their drive and felt the game could use the spotlight. As it was, this marked the beginning of Brawls decline and what happened next is still being felt today.
The Delayed Launch
Brawl was first announced at E3 in 2005 and went into development soon after. At E3 in 2007, Nintendo slated Brawl’s release date for December 3rd, 2007 – two and a half full years after first announcing the game. This release date was eventually pushed back and the game came out January 31st, 2008 in Japan and March 9th, 2008 in the United States.
Nintendo Holds Launch Tournaments
Much has been made of Nintendo’s new interest in Smash tournaments and some are hoping for the folks in Redmond, Washington to get into the competitive gaming scene. What many have forgotten was that Nintendo partnered for not one, but two Brawl launch tournaments in 2008.
KoreanDJ won a Crystal Wii at Best Buy
Nintendo first partnered with Best Buy for a launch event, with four locations featuring 1v1 tournaments and a cap of 256 players. The winner of each location played in New York in a finals – the grand prize was a $5,000 crystal Wii. KoreanDJ won.
How Long did you Wait for Brawl?
Shortly after the Best Buy announcement, Nintendo released information on “GameStop Midnight Launch” tournaments. Held at nearly every GameStop across North America, these events progressed winners over the next several months and in multiple stages. The eventual champion, Lee Martin, took home $5,000.
Lee Martin Took Home the Ultimate Prize!
Controversy - Brawl not Melee - A Community Divided
Most in the community were ready to jump ship to Brawl after Melee - the assumption was a repeat of the most beautiful game ever created. Unfortunately, within the first 3 months many realized that Brawl would never be Melee, and within a year, many Melee players either quit Brawl, began developing Brawl mods like Brawl+, Brawl-, Balanced Brawl, or Project M, or went back to Melee. Brawl suffered from a general "slowness", lack of hitstun, tripping, and removal of key tactics that gave players the feeling of "control" like Wavedashing and L-canceling.
After Brawl released Melee suffered a huge drop in attendance as many justified sticking with the new game because that was where the money, focus, and sponsors would be. The temptation is very real again and this pattern is already repeating itself - Chris "Wife" Fabiszak recently wrote an article stressing abandoning Melee in order to focus on Smash Wii U - the article was eventually removed and Chris explained his position a bit further.
EVO 2008 Uses Brawl - Forces Items ON
Many forget that EVO actually ran Brawl in 2008. However, they ran the game with items turned on because they believed that is how the game should be played. Since the actual community of players that travel to play the game didn't support items, turnout was lackluster (just over 100 players) and the tournament was received poorly. Had EVO held community standard rules it is likely the event would have been very well attended (300 or more players, similar to Genesis, Apex, etc.). The lack of a huge turnout for EVO is often seen as a reason Brawl wasn't popular, yet the huge attendance at other tournaments in the first year directly contradicts this. Brawl at EVO was poor because the tournament ran with non-standard rules - the same fate would meet any game, such as Melee, if the rules aren't a reflection of the people that actually travel and are interested in tournaments. Curious, how things may have been different for Brawl, had the community rules been used. Also curious - will EVO force items on with Smash Wii U?
Super Smash Brothers Brawl had Huge Year 1 Success
In the last year, many have said Smash died after Brawl’s launch – this short term memory couldn’t be further from the truth. Brawl continued the wave Melee was riding after it’s Golden Era and wouldn’t slow down until 2012. Between May 2008 and May 2009, in a single year, Brawl did the following:
• 681 Brawl Tournaments
• 25,269 Entrants
• 37 - Average entrants per tournament
• 57 - Tournaments per month
• 13 - Tournaments per weekend
• 486 - Entrants per week
• $231,000 – Single Prize Pool
• $200,000 – Doubles Prize Pool (est.)
• $70,000 - Venue Fees
These numbers wouldn’t be matched again until late 2013 and 2014 with Melee.
MLG picks up Brawl in 2010
In 2010, Major League Gaming picked up Brawl for the 5-event Pro Circuit. This series of tournaments featured more prize money than Smash had ever seen before, culminating in a Dallas Championship event with a $35,000 pool. Here were the results of this tournament:
1st (9) Gnes -Diddy Kong - $12,500
2nd (3) TyRaNt - Meta Knight - $7,500
3rd (2) ESAM - Pikachu - $5,000
4th (1) Ally - Snake - $3,500
5th (11) Espy - Sonic - $2,500
6th (12) _X_ - Sonic - $1,750
7th (4) LeeMartin - Meta Knight/Lucario - $1,250
8th (7) Atomsk92 - King Dedede/Ice Climbers/Meta Knight$1,000
Alas, despite attendance numbers averaging over 30% more than when Melee was on the circuit in 2006, Brawl was dropped. MLG had been unable to get the go-ahead to stream the game from Nintendo during the season.
Meta Knight Banned by the Unity Ruleset Committee
One of the most controversial aspects of Brawl since launch had been Meta Knight - to ban or not to ban? In 2011, after MLG dropped Brawl from the Pro Circuit, an effort to keep the game relevant was made. The Unity Ruleset Committee, or the URC, was formed by a number of the largest tournament organizers and late in the year they announced that, beginning in early 2012, Meta Knight would be banned. After 4 months where about half of all tournaments banned the character the URC disbanded and the ban did not hold.
Melee Surpasses Brawl
After Apex 2013, Brawl players felt confident. It was the largest Smash brothers tournament and second largest Brawl tournament to that point in time (Apex 2012 is the largest Brawl tournament with 400 entrants). Things were looking good still, hundreds of tournaments a year were still occurring with thousands of players and after Street Fighter and Marvel, Smash/Brawl was still the third largest fighting game in existence. When Melee players began to push for entrance into EVO, the Brawl community supported their drive and felt the game could use the spotlight. As it was, this marked the beginning of Brawls decline and what happened next is still being felt today.
- Early 2013: Smash community raises over $90,000 to get Melee into EVO 2013
- Mid 2013: Nintendo bans Melee from being streamed, but reverses the decision following gigantic internet uproar
- Mid 2013: Melee has 696 entrants at EVO 2013 - becomes most attended Melee event ever
- Mid 2013: Melee breached 130,000 viewers at EVO 2013 - becomes most watched fighting game stream ever
- Late 2013: Melee is featured in the 9-part documentary by Samox - rated as the best eSports documentary ever created
- Early 2014: Nintendo allows MLG and EVO to stream events
- Early-Mid 2014: EG, C9, VGBC, Team Liquid, CT, Curse, Mortality, and others pick up Smash players
- Mid 2014: Nintendo announces Smash Invitational, Smash at Best Buy, and For Glory Mode
- Mid 2014: Melee at CEO, MLG, and EVO
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