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A year of storylines led up to the largest tournament in the game's history. Super Smash Bros. Wii U, the second grand finals event at EVO 2016, has concluded and with it, another year of the game in the world of eSports.

This being his third attendance at the annual Las Vegas-based tournament series (previous ones being 2009 and 2015), Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce () won his first EVO ever. Running through a bracket stacked with threats like Yuta "Abadango" Kawamura, who defeated him at Pound, he's also won his second major of the summer, Get On My Level 2016 being the first.

Smash 4 Results @ EVO 2016:
1st - Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce ()
2nd - Takuto "Kamemushi" Ono ()
3rd - Gonzalo "TSM | ZeRo" Barrios ()
4th - James "CLG | VoiD" Makekau-Tyson ()
5th - Hayashi "Ranai" Ryuto ()...

After over 2000 entrants and a day-and-a-half of tense competition, Super Smash Bros for Wii U at EVO 2016 has reached it's finale: top 8.

Upsets, comebacks and the like happened over the duration of the event but the dust has settled. These 8 will compete for the title of champion at the biggest event of the year, a large prize pool and so much more:

Winners Bracket:
Yuta "Abadango" Kawamura () vs Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce ()
Takuto "Kamemushi" Ono () vs James "CLG | VoiD" Makekau-Tyson ()

Losers Bracket:
Larry "eLv | Larry Lurr" Holland () vs Gonzalo "TSM | ZeRo" Barrios ()
Hayashi "Ranai" Ryuto () vs Samuel "dT | Dabuz" Buzby ()

You can check out the top 8 round of Smash 4 over at the official Twitch channel, now.

For more...

Project M returns for this year's iteration of EVO as a side event and a part of the PM Championship Circut.

Featuring top players such as Thomas "ThundeRzReign" Thammavongsa, Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Arjun "Junebug" Rao and other heavy-hitters the event started yesterday, July 15, and concludes today. After the last wave of pools are finished, the final stage of the tournament begins with a top 24 bracket.

As with any PM Championship Circuit event, points will be allocated to the top placers. One can catch the stream on AZPM's Hitbox channel. The bracket can be found on Smash.gg.

Jason "Mew2king" Zimmerman, a clear contender for a top spot at Evo 2016's Super Smash Bros. Wii U tournament, has decided to drop out of the aforementioned event.

After a similar situation at CEO 2016, it is surprising to see Team Echo Fox's multi-game titan quit. As of this time, he has not said anything regarding his decision.

For more coverage on EVO 2016, stay tuned on Smashboards.

VideoGameBootCamp (VGBC), the Smash community's leading stream team, announced that Daniel "Chu Dat" Rodriguez, Cristian "Hyuga" Medina and Marcus "Pink Fresh" Wilson will be joining their pro team.

With EVO 2016 coming up, players getting sponsored is inevitable. After Austin "Redd" Self's decision to leave VGBC, it had seemed that Masaya "Amsa" Chikamoto was the sole member left. With the addition of the three above, the team is heading into the event with a solid roster.

If you aren't familiar with them, let's do a quick rundown of who they are:
Chu Dat (, ) is one of MD/VA's old guard and a member of the legendary H2YL crew. Since the inception of Smash as a competitive game, he's been out there competing. Even up to now, he has the capacity to make top 8 at a major like with last year's EVO. Expect him to make waves in both Melee and Smash 4.
Another titan from MD/VA...

Today marks the one year anniversary of Satoru Iwata's passing. Iwata has had a huge impact on the Super Smash Bros. series -- being there from the very beginning. Let's honor his memory by remembering his contributions to our favorite franchise.

Note: This article was originally purposed as Thank Iwata for Smash on Source Gaming. I've updated and modified it for SmashBoards. Click the article for the full story!

Once upon a time, a game with no balance patches, and yet an unstable tier list. That time was 17 years ago, and that game is Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64.

In 2008, when Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, a new figure in the roster appeared. No, it wasn’t a newcomer, but quite the opposite: it was the figure of absent characters. Despite bringing a whole bunch of newcomers, nobody could hide the fact that there were certain characters that were nowhere to be seen.

When Smash 4 released, however, another new figure appeared: the figure of a returning veteran, characters that did not appear in onegame but came back to duke it out once again. Only three such characters exist, namely, Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, and Roy, the last two being DLC.

When a local community starts, it normally hosts some weeklies, boldly tries to host a regional, or just does it humbly with a group of friends playing in a house. Not many communities get blessings like Freehold, New Jersey.

Recently, a player under the name of Poopems started a streaming service called Master Hand Gaming.

Hey everyone, Warchamp7 here again with a roundup of the latest and greatest additions and updates to Smashboards!

The most notable thing today is an update to the Rankings system. Importing events from Smash.gg is now possible!

Alongside this addition is the first pass at bridging the gap between our platforms: you can now connect your Smashboards account to your SmashGG account! Visit your SmashGG Account Settings and scroll down to Connected Accounts to get started!

Finally, events that you import into the Rankings system from Challonge or SmashGG will now also grab Match data!

France's biggest Smash 4 event, with many top players from all around Europe! Do you believe we only have Mr. R and iStudying? Think again! Did you know there's a Ness player who's been beating iStudying every time for the past few months? Did you know Europe has yet another amazing Greninja, who also uses Pac-Man? Did you know we have a Sonic that doesn't play lame, and a great Mega Man? If you've got nothing to watch while waiting for WTFox 2, this is for you!

Being in the Smash Community long enough gets to you exposure to many different kinds of Smashers over time. But there's a good chance that you or someone you know will end up in one of these five categories of Smashers.

Take a look at this video and tell us what you think! Do you know these kind of Smashers? Are you one of these kind of Smashers? What other kinds of Smashers are there? Leave a comment and let us know!

Most people who follow competitive scenes are aware of the term "upset" and use it frequently when discussing matches or sets. For those who aren’t, an upset is typically defined as one player or team losing to another, deviating from the expected result. An upset can occur for countless reasons, from character match-ups unknown to one of the players, a lack of confidence affecting skill, something unusual occurring in-game, among others. Contrary to the connotations of the word “upset”, it’s not necessarily bad to see these types of results in tournaments, especially at majors. The latest major tournament held in the US, Community Effort Orlando 2016, was home to numerous upsets across various games this year, but for the sake of brevity and relevance, this article will be looking at Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and taking a quick peak at what the various upsets and results of CEO mean for the current Smash 4 metagame.

The top players from the Kansai region of Japan were busy with more than constantly checking Twitter to learn about the latest developments from @CEOGaming this past weekend. Unfortunately, none of the big names from western Japan were able to make the journey to APEX or CEO. Instead, we had an incredibly rare double tournament weekend. I traveled with the @Sumabato regulars to @Karisuma's 8th installment on the 25th and back to Kansai for the once-a-year charity tournament called @IROHA Suma in Shiga Prefecture on the 26th. Karisuma has always been an amazing tournament to attend, but IROHA's event is one I will remember for the rest of my life.

Another @Sumabato comes to a close with a familiar champion. @Komorikiri finally snapped his losing streak and regained his spot at the top of western Japan without dropping a set to anyone all day. He went almost exclusively Sonic this time as well, only bringing out Cloud for various game two situations. Unlike another player headed for EVO, Komorikiri did not claim he would win EVO but instead said, "I hope to meet all of your expectations next month at EVO." Thanks to Nairo's donation drive, Komorikiri as well as three other players will be heading to EVO this year to compete, so staying up to date on the Japanese Smash scene is as important as ever.

It's time for another exciting Japanese tournament! On June 18th, Japan time, players will duke it out at Sumabato 11! Currently at 192 entrants, this event is sure to impress!

Low Tier City, the largest tournament series in Texas, is about to have its fourth iteration this weekend on June 18 - 19 at the Let’s Play Gaming Expo.

Originally started three years back, the name ‘Low Tier City’ came from Dallas’ (its original host city) reputation for being congested with low tier mains. Once a semi-national Project M event, the series has evolved to become a full-blown national for multiple Smash titles and a PM Circuit qualifier to boot.

The event will mark the second time that a Low Tier City will be held in conjunction with the Let’s Play Gaming Expo. The tournament won’t be the only thing happening at the Plano Center venue, with arcades, cosplay, vendors and panels also in the mix.

In this day in age, tournaments have surpassed the simplistic, bad audio and video quality streams and videos. Not only have we improved audio and video greatly, but we have added overlays and graphics to give the matches and tournaments flare and interest. These people are called Graphic Designers, and they have created some amazing works of art. Today, we have one of them with us to discuss what they do and what their profession is like. Take a look into the mind of a designer with this Smash Spotlight focusing on JP3.

I had the privilege of meeting up with Colorado TO Double A Battery on his most recent tour of Japan. As we are both Smash TOs and Japanese speakers who participate in the Japanese Smash Community, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get another opinion other than my own out there. While he echoes a lot of what I have been saying in my article series thus far, he does offer some interesting points and observations I want to share with everyone in the Smash Community. Give him a follow @TheAABattery and check out the interview!

Flashback to 2015, where Illinois saw the town of Gurnee hold a Smash tournament in Key Lime Cove, an aquatic waterpark. What started off as an event with a clever name and fitting venue from GamersHQ became the meeting grounds for Illinois's largest Smash Bros. event ever, holding over 600 attendees, competitors and spectators. It was truly a sight to behold, with Smash 4, Melee and Project M being the featured games.

Now, it's 2016, and GHQ has returned with Smash 'N' Splash 2. Welcome back to paradise, Smashers. Enjoy your stay.