News

If somebody told you that famous rapper Lupe Fiasco would play Smash 4 champion ZeRo, would you have believed them?

The difference between Japan's Smash 4 scene and Melee scene is simply staggering. While the die-hard Melee players who regularly attend Japanese tournaments have also made their way to American major tournaments before, their numbers are few and their local tournaments are infrequent. @Master Hand, the only remaining monthly Melee series in Japan, gets roughly 30 players a month and @Sumabato, the Wii U monthly tournament series in the same Kansai region, gets anywhere to five to ten times those numbers. Many names from the King era of Melee either have completely moved on to Smash 4 or have retired from competitive play, but there are still some who strive to improve their tech skill and dream of reaching that Melee major top 8 stage.

Today is the final day for The New England Invitational streaming on Twitch at BigBlueES and featuring top players from the region in a Smash Summit style event. The bracket can be found here and features top players such as Slox, Mafia, Zoso, and Crush.

Catch the full schedule for today below:

Looking for where the top players are Smashing this weekend? Check out some of the biggest events for Wii U in the United States happening today!


Texas Gaming Championship 8 - Houston, TX: Featuring Vinnie, Megafox, Trela and more on FireNationSmash
Midwest Mayhem 3 - Chicago, IL: Featuring ESAM, MVD, False and more...

Catch one of Europe's premiere Wii U events with Avalon U-IV happening now in the Netherlands. The tournament is a precursor for Syndicate 2016 this fall. Being streamed on BYOC the tournament features top talent from the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom including iStudying, S1-14, Badr, Eddy, Longouw, and Ho.



Follow the brackets as they are updated here for teams and here for singles!

At last, Melee veteran and Samus specialist Hugo "HugS" Gonzalez has signed with an eSports team -- Dream Team.

Old-school Japanese Smash legend Captain Jack discusses his storied career, motivations, and more.

Those outside the Japanese Smash Community who attempt to figure out what is going on by tournament results alone will almost certainly only end up more confused. Currently only @Kameme, the player who boldly proclaimed last week that he is going to win EVO, has shown consistency in his tournament results. Every other player, including every Japanese player who made it into Panda Global's Top 50 Rankings, have extremely inconsistent results in Japan. There is always a huge character variety in Japanese Top 8s and rarely are the same players placing near the top from week to week. While it has puzzled me and many of you for quite some time, I may have found out the reason why.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is officially confirmed for DreamHack Montreal, taking place from August 12th-14th in Montreal, Canada.

Joey "Lucky" Aldama has finally found a sponsor! It was announced last night that up and cominng eSports team Selfless Gaming closed a deal with Lucky.

On May 29th (JST), the next big Japanese tournament will be hosted! Currently at 181 entrants, Sumabato 10 will feature some of Japan's greatest in another exciting competition! In order to prepare for this tournament, we've compiled everything you need to know about Sumabato 10 right here! Get ready because this is definitely one you wouldn't want to miss!

Nintendo has partnered with Community Effort Orlando (CEO), one of the biggest tournament series in Smash and the FGC! This year's event, CEO 2016, will be taking place in Orlando, Florida from June 24th-26th. Some notable names in attendance for Melee and Smash 4 include ZeRo, Hungrybox, Nairo, Dabuz, Plup, Mr. R, Abadango, and many more. Registration for CEO 2016 closes on June 12th, so be sure not to miss one of this year's premier tournaments!

A few months ago, the professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player, William "Leffen" Hjelte, generated a controversy after being deported and later denied a visa to the United States.

Welcome back to another installment of the Character Showcase! After a long break, we are back in action, this time analyzing a long-time veteran of the Smash franchise and a fan-favorite, Power Suit Samus.

For this edition, we received help from Johnny Westside, considered to be the best Samus main in the world, as well as Tonetta, a Samus player from the Michigan area. Also, special thanks to TheFalconer, who helped in contacting these players.

After the break, we made some changes to the series. Rather than splitting general and character-specific techniques, we'll analyze all of the character's options and how to use them effectively. So, with that said, let's dive in!

Over the weekend @Umeki continued his monthly tournament series with Umebura 23, which was previewed on Smashboards last Friday. With GOML happening the very same weekend it is likely many did not follow this tournament closely, but a few noteworthy things occurred that I would like to point out. First of all, @Kameme won his very first Umebura and declared in his post-victory speech, "I won Umebura just like I will win EVO this July." It looks like the dominant force that has been sweeping Japan's tournaments will be opting to use his travel award from KVOxTSB2016 to travel to the biggest tournament of the year. His Mega Man play is completely unrivaled inside and outside of Japan, and I cannot wait to see him competing against the world's finest at EVO. Not convinced...

In the wake of Patch 1.1.6, on 5/21 (JST), Japan's best will be competing at Umebura 23! The event is currently capped at 224 entrants and Smashboards user @Djent is here once again to let us know who to watch for!

Late Thursday evening, Nintendo released what could possibly be the final patch for Smash 4. The patch notes had been leaked ahead of time by Twitter user @RandomTBush, revealing that only one major change had occurred within the game: Bayonetta had been nerfed as hard as any other character in the history of Smash 4.

#1 Ranked player in México, world renowned child prodigy, and one of the greatest pioneers for Meta Knight in Smash 4; Leo made headlines back in 2015 after beating well-known players Mr. R and Vinnie in Smash Factor 4 and True Combo respectively, and hasn’t stopped since. At only fifteen years of age, his consistency and impeccable play have made him one of the most prominent figures in the scene, and with an entire country already in his pocket, he seems eager to go out into the world and find even stronger contenders to beat.

Whenever there's a winner, there's a loser -- and knowing how to lose properly is one of the hallmarks on a strong competitor. So, how do you lose? Watch and learn as Omni discusses how to properly "hold that L".