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As a Shulk main, many can find it a struggle to keep up with higher tiers, let alone win. With the help of the channel apathy, it can be slightly easier. They just released a brand new video showing the use of guaranteed locks involving footstooling as well as some great mixups to put your opponent on edge. Check out this video on basic footstooling with Shulk!

Japanese players show a tenacity and ferocity in Smash 4 that is unrivaled by many other regions. With Sumabato 9 taking place this Saturday, April 9th, another opportunity is available for fans of Smash to see some of their finest come together and play. The stream will begin at around 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern time and will be provided by SHI-Gaming. Ready to see the big players set to compete? Read on and learn more about Japanese Smash 4.

Palm trees, stunning beaches, surfing, pineapples, and hula dancing. These are all things that come to mind when people think of Hawaii. Well, it's time to add one more thing to Hawaii's repertoire: Smash! Tonight, April 8th, beginning at 3 pm PST, Hawaii will have to prove itself against the mainland at Kawaii Kon 2016! The event will span over three days with events ranging from FFA to 2v2, 1v1, and even Hawaii Crew Battles. Some top players are also set attend, including Larry Lurr, NinjaLink, Zigsta, 6WX, Mike Kirby, and VoiD, with the stream being provided by TheOdoFaction. Ready to dive into the storylines for this event? Read on!

As the doors of the limited express closed and the train departed for its two hour journey from Osaka to Nagoya excitement began to overwhelm me. Finally, I would have the opportunity to experience the Japanese Smash 4 metagame first hand. This time we set our sights on Earth's Karisuma tournament series located in the Chubu region of Japan. Lengthy discussions over Twitter regarding tournament philosophy and rule sets with Earth made this journey about more than just reporting its results to the world. It was a lesson all tournament organizers could learn from.

Pound 2016 will be remembered as one of the wildest tournaments in Smash 4’s history. The 513-man bracket saw several incredible upsets and many players having success with unusual characters. We witnessed several heavy hitters such as Nairo, False, and MVD get eliminated on Saturday while lesser known players such as ScAtt, K.I.D. Goggles, and Saj surprise many by surviving into the top-16. Despite all of the chaos, the Pound staff was able to run the enormous tourney relatively smoothly with mostly volunteers who were kind enough to lend their time and help out. When the dust settled, the crowd focused their attention on the remaining field of 8 players and it was anyone’s guess who would be left standing at the end of the day.

It's been more than a year since Smash 4 came out, and many things have happened since then. The early 3DS days, the rise and fall of Diddy Kong, low tier buffs, new stages and most importantly, new characters. Since the release of the game, a lot of advanced techniques have been discovered that have revolutionized the fundamental gameplay. Some carried over from Brawl and some were brand new, but all of them changed the game we play.

This will be the first of a series of articles that analyzes what some characters can do with all the discovered ATs, both general techniques and character-specific.This week, we'll be analyzing a smash veteran: the Star Warrior Kirby!

It's been just over a week since SilentWolf announced that he was leaving GameClucks and would become a free agent, and in that short span of time, the Fox main has acquired a new sponsor. Team Secret has announced that they would be sponsoring SilentWolf as their first Super Smash Bros. Melee player.

SilentWolf was ranked as the 11th best Melee player in the world on Melee It On Me's SSBMRank for 2015, and has shown a strong performance so far in 2016, including a 17th place finish at Genesis 3 and 7th at Battle of the Gods. Team Secret is known for its top level eSports teams in games like CS:GO and DOTA 2; it's exciting to see Team Secret join the growing list of eSports teams to have Smash players on their rosters.

Sometimes the news only looks like an April Fools joke. Recently the Super Smash Flash 2 development team released a video on their developer blog that looked to just be another April 1st prank. No one would actually add Sandbag as a playable character... right? Turns out he will actually be joining the cast so check out his trailer below as we give you the inside scoop on this new character!

Tutorials to learn how to use characters are very important. Learning the ins and outs of moves, techniques, and more just as much so. But something often overlooked but just as important is knowing what stages to pick and the benefits and disadvantages of stages in competitive play. Youtube channel One Hit Smash has created a new video in a series that aims to analyze legal stages to help those learn more about them. Check out this video on Great Cave Offensive!

Earlier this year, Wavedash Games announced they would be doing a "Community Council". Consisting of prominent names in the community, it is a way of gathering the most known figures in the media to help Wavedash stay true to the Smash community.

Today, Smashboards' own Warchamp7 teamed up with Wavedash along with VGBootCamp to bring the third wave of members, the so called "Creators".

As Smash Summit 2 heads into its voting phase players will be voting with their wallets for which six players will be invited to attend the event alongside those ten already invited. Smashboards is giving the opportunity to all those involved to come here and make the case for why they should make it in. Professor Pro is among the two players from Europe available to vote for. At the time of writing he is in 9th place which will eventually lead to his elimination. So why does he deserve to be in Smash Summit 2? Here is the case for Professor Pro.

After a five year hiatus, the legendary *Pound* tournament series has returned. The tournament has gave us many historic moments over the years such as Mango's rise to godhood, Armada's last time losing to non-gods, and PPMD's (Dr. Peepee at time) legendary Pound V run. Pound 2016 is shaping out to continue the hype with 51 of the MIOM Top 100 in attendance and 933 total attendees for Melee. Here's everything you need to know about Melee at Pound 2016.

Super Smash Bros. can be considered as one of Nintendo's biggest series, bringing together characters from all of Nintendo's history and beyond. Smash has not only featured characters from other series but has also influenced others to revive or rebrand themselves. Today, we're taking a look at the series that have received the most influence from Smash to become what they are right now.

As Smash Summit 2 heads into its voting phase players will be voting with their wallets for which six players will be invited to attend the event alongside those ten already invited. Smashboards is giving the opportunity to all those involved to come here and make the case for why they should make it in. Druggedfox has been taking names and doing great work this year but at the time of writing is in 11th place which will leave him eliminated after the next round of voting. Should Druggedfox be at Smash Summit 2? Here's the case for Druggedfox.

In the northern regions of Mexico, legends tell of a man whose Bowser makes his enemies quake in their boots. From Saltillo, Coahuila, Dozi is a competitive player with a twist. Armed with impossible levels of optimization and the sickest hairdo ever rocked in a tournament, he has only two goals in mind: to win hard, and to style harder.

This year, the tournament cycle for Super Smash Brothers is looking impressive. This is why the Rankings Team constantly looks for ways to improve the system. Our focus for this update included making the allocation of points given between the multiple categories correlate much more accurately. In other words, the points a participant receives depending on their performance across the tournament categories is more accurate than ever! For those familiar with our system, you may have already noticed these changes.

Categories and Points Allocated

1. Local - Points given will reach a cap at 400. The minimum number of players required to classify a tournament in this category is 8. It also includes a modifier that scales at 5 points per player which hits its...

With ESAM's inclusion for voting in the Smash Summit 2, tensions have been rising between the Melee and Smash 4 community. While ESAM has made his case to get into Smash Summit 2 here, the issues with the community are still rising. Including recent events where commentators better known for one game or the other have come under fire, it is creating a serious issue. Two respected members of the Smash community, Tafokints and Omni, have both provided their perspectives on this matter. We have presented both of these perspectives side by side for viewing and discussion. Give them a watch!

As Smash Summit 2 heads into its voting phase players will be paying with their wallets for which six players will be invited to attend the event alongside those ten already invited. Smashboards is giving the opportunity to all those involved to come here and make the case for why they should make it in. Alex19 previously attended the first Smash Summit event and is among those available on the vote for Smash Summit 2. At the time of writing he is ranked 13th and will be among those who will be eliminated in the first round. Why should he have a second chance at this all important special stage? Here is the case for Alex19.

To understand the differences in tournament organization and rule sets in Japan, one must first understand Japan's regions. Since the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, the amount of tournaments inside Japan has exponentially increased along with their individual turnouts, much like in other parts of the world. There has been a significant increase in the number of tournaments in Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Tohoku and Hokkaido, but they get only a small fraction of the numbers that the Top 3 do.

Si hablas español, puedes ver una traduccion aquí

Following Venezuela's Triple Crown series, it is almost time for the second edition of last year's biggest tournament: Tournament Mode.

This tournament was announced on March 2nd and will take place on April 2nd; all announcements regarding the tournament will be covered within that time span here on Smashboards!