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Greetings, and welcome to a new monthly series called The State of Smash 4. This will take a look into Smash 4’s competitive metagame, major events and the community’s developments from the past month; each new iteration of this series will be posted early on in the following month. October has been quite the month, with many major events and news coming out at a frequent rate, and the start of a new era in Smash 4. Without further ado, it's time to reflect over what's happened in October!


Right before October, a new patch dropped. This patch brought a lot of changes to custom moves and minimal changes to specific characters; the major changes came to Luigi, who lost a major tool in the way of DThrow KO setups. The full list of changes...

It's time to get exposed as Angel Cortes has been signed by Astral Authority! Angel Cortes, formerly known as iKon, was an Ice Climbers main in Brawl but is better known as a Diddy Kong player in Smash 4. Gaining notoriety after a now famous Twitlonger Post calling out many players he has gone on to take top placements at many tournaments including Super Smash Con and Nebulous Prime 1 at 5th and 9th at SKATAR 4. He is also currently ranked 5th on the New Jersey Smash 4 Power Rankings.

A 32k Melee singles pot that is the largest in Melee history, friendlies, behind the scenes interviews, fan interactions, special gameplay challenges and more. All of this and more is at Smash Summit. Ten of the most skilled Melee players were invited to participate in this event by media company Beyond the Summit with another six being voted in to attend by fans.

November 7th is looking to be quite the weekend for Smash Bros. Many Melee, Project M and Smash 4 players will travel down to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Tipped Off 11! This long running tournament series returns, once again being organized by Flow and FullMetal. Tipped Off’s history is all about the grassroots; it’s all about Smash and the community that plays it, proudly featuring Melee for 9 years. This is the South’s largest tournament (having over 650 attendees), with Melee Singles having 332 entrants, and Wii U having 243. This will be the 16th largest Melee event of all time, a feat that is definitely one to be proud of.


Earlier this month, Tipped Off started a donation drive on Smash.gg to help fund the event. Some of the rewards included T-shirts, controller stickers, waistbands and more; with the...

Omni is back yet again with a vlog! Many people know Omni for some of the vlogs he has released including Diddy Is Innocent, Why Smash 4 Will Die, Why You Should Pick A Top Tier and others. This time Omni has sat down to discuss a topic very relevant to many players: choosing a main. He gives three tips on how to make the choice and explains the reasoning behind each. Give the video a watch and let us know in the comments below of these tips helped!

While they may be called video 'games', the health problems gaming can lead into are no playful matter. Ironically many of these have gained nicknames from Nintendo products such as Nintendinitis or acute Wiiitis. With more and more players facing injuries from playing competitive video games it seems like the time is now to help educate players on how to keep their bodies healthy and in working order.

The Guinness World Records has been the world's largest collection of world records for over 50 years. In this year's Guinness World Records Gamer Edition, not one, but two Smash Bros. players have been featured for their achievements!

Another Smash player has been signed! Team Detonate announced yesterday night that SuperGirlKels would be joining their Smash team. She is a tournament organizer for the Uproar Tournament series in Canada and recently joined the ranks of Villyness for women to take a top five placement at a major tournament having gotten 4th at Canada Cup. She expressed excitement at joining the team.

Panda Global has been growing strong in Smash even though the team is so relatively new. Having only been around since June of 2015 they have already signed on names like Eric "ESAM" Kew, Jestise "MVD" Negron, Justin "Plup" McGrath, and Shane "SS" Bruce. Today they add a Smash player and commentator with an entire technique named after him. Panda Global has signed Robert "Wobbles" Wright!

It's official: Evo will be returning to host the 15th event in the Evolution Championship Series: Evo 2016! Having housed Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 under its roof Smash fans will be excited to see where it heads for the 2016 edition of the event. The official trailer for the event has been released which highlights some of the best moments from last year's event.

Mind Over Meta is a weekly series of articles on /r/SSBPM, the Project M subreddit. Written by several different authors, this series covers many of the mental aspects of playing smash and other subjects related specifically to Project M. This week user L_Pag wrote about stages. The original article can be found here. To read the rest of the series check out the Mind Over Meta Archive. Sit down, read, and enjoy.

Welcome to the Weekend Watchlist 25! The Smashboards events system recently got a fantastic upgrade and we've combed through all of the tournaments submitted to find some of the best events being streamed this weekend to feature here. So without further ado put on a costume, munch some candy, and read our Weekend Watchlist!

Welcome to another Random Tournament Spotlight! As the name of this series implies we will be taking events at random that are entered into our event system be it big or small, on any day of the week, or however unusual and highlight a part of our Smash scene. Last time we met some folks in Philadelphia celebrating a new venue. This time we head to Virginia to meet the folks behind Anvil Smash.

This week's Weekly Top 5 Smash Shorts series ends with a blast showcasing another series of community contributed Smash clips with Magic43's Captain Falcon taking the top spot. You don't want to miss the last two plays.

What is a Smash Short? As the name suggests, it's a quick moment or series of events in Smash that is so good that you have to share it with someone. And we're giving you (yes, you) the opportunity to share those moments for a chance to be selected as one of the Top 5.

Missed the best moments from the past week in the competitive Smash community? EMG has you covered and just posted the 42nd installment of their Play of the Week series! Featured in this episode are highlights from #StR2015 including Lucky's career ending Falcon punch and a slew of unreal comebacks, combos and more! The clips are some of the best plays yet and certainly will help you remember this week in Smash history!

Smashboards moderator and Sonic main @Camalange is back with another tutorial! He previously released several other excellent tutorials that covered things like Instant Spin Dash Jumping, Spinshots, and a unique warp glitch. This time the video focuses on Platform Bounce Canceling, a technique that can be useful as or against Sonic, Mega Man, and even Pac-Man. Give it a watch and see how it can be implemented in game!

Sin Gaming, which currently sponsors an Australian pro League of Legends team, will be extending its reach into the world of Smash for the first time to sign Spud! Spud became famous after being the highest placing Oceania Melee player at BAM7 as well as being the only Oceania player to take down an international guest. Does this mean we'll see more of Spud possibly at events in the United States? "We're currently negotiating with sponsors." Sin Gaming said on Twitter. "Very keen to make it possible."

Last October 24, the Philippine's largest event to date, ESGS Brawlfest occurred. With 32+ and 50+ players in the brackets for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. 4, the attendee list comprised of some of the country's best players.

Earlier this year, we sat down with long time Super Smash Bros. Melee veteran Myk "Playbook Elite | L1NK" Villaflor as part of our coverage on the Asian scene. Due to conflicts with the Summer Of Smash, it's release was postponed.

Now that he has won ESGS Brawlfest and established himself as the country's best, here is Smashboards' interview with him about his reflections on his history with the game and how it connects with the present scene.
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Popi: Hey Myk...

Perhaps the most interesting thing in competitive Smash Bros. are the rivalries and relationships between the players - not only in game, but as people. For Melee in particular, the relationships between three of the elusive "Big 6" - Mango, Hungrybox, and Leffen, have developed to become some of Melee's most storied rivalries in the past years.

There are several stereotypes around Smash 4 and quite a few in jokes within the Smash community surrounding it. Some are more lighthearted and others not. However as Payne Stewart said, "If you can't laugh at yourself, then how can you laugh at anybody else? I think people see the human side of you when you do that."

Enter The Keef Crew. Armed with a solid sense of humor they charge into the battlegrounds of comedy to take on topical moments in the Smash community. By far some of the most popular videos they have created are the Things Smash 4 Players Don't Say videos. This time they try to tackle the mentality of the requests being made for DLC characters. Give it a watch, enjoy a good laugh, and stay tuned to Smashboards for...