One red flag I have for this was he only said he had a source after the reveal. Most news sites will post something as a "rumor" if they can't verify the source.
It is possible he got a lucky guess. He made unlikely picks and was likely just picking somewhat relevant characters that people don't think about (like Wii Fit Trainer). I'm also skeptical of Sakurai adding Mii and Pac-Man. The latter because he said he isn't going to add any character and Pac-Man is more expected than wanted. It remains to be seen. They wont all be unveiled at E3 though.
How is it a red flag he publicly posted what he knew after he received confirmation that the information he was given was correct? Sal posted the characters hours before the trailer was even shown. His post is evidence that he knew about those characters
before the trailer was shown. He took the responsible route and did not post unverified rumors on his website before there was some kind of indication that the information he had was true. The trailers confirmed that, and so he wrote his article.
How in the world is Wii Fit Trainer and Villager a lucky guess? For the past four years we thought Villager was an impossibility because Sakurai outright said he wouldn't work, and whatever Animal Crossing character did get mentioned now and then was relegated to Tom Nook or the occasional K.K. Slide; stop acting like this should have been obvious to us all, because it wasn't. And there was no guessing Wii Fit Trainer. If she wasn't even in the Super Smash Bros Roster maker which has crap like the Flipnote Frog and Kururin, do you really think he just sat there scouring the internet to try and come up with something? But to be quite honest your last statements about Mii and Pac-Man really tell me a lot of what I need to know about your position.
There a a lot of people that aren't as keen on third party characters. Megaman works because he's cool, has a lot of moves and some strong history with the company. A lot of people really wanted him too. But Pac-Man is none of that. He isn't really popular, he doesn't have cool moves and no real history with Nintendo. So it would feel like filler which is not what a third party character is suppose to do.
So that's why it's untrue, because Pac-Man doesn't fit your narrative of which characters are deserving.
Any other news site would have posted it as a rumor before "Insider sources tell me......." Even hedge the statement with "we are unsure of the validity of the source" or "What do you all think. Could this be true?" Instead, he says some unlikely predictions and only claims he had a sources after the reveal. That sounds kind of fishy.
So you'd rather him act like a complete fanboy like Zelda Informer or Gonintendo and post information that is not corroborated in any way? What he posted on NeoGAF hours before the Direct and what he wrote after did not change, he wasn't making it up as he was going along. We have his NeoGAF post that is time stamped and unedited that prove that much. Not only that, but other respectable members on GAF, and even our very own Hoots, have verified that Sal's source is legitimate. There are no questions about his validity. He's reliably leaked information in the past and has consistently been a reputable poster. I don't fault him for acting responsibly.
Look, people win the lottery. The chances of winning the lottery are far less than guessing 3/6 confirmed characters for Smash Bros. Considering he called Villager the "Animal Crossing Guy", I'd say he just got really lucky.
There's the off chance he did find out some info and posted it in a speculative manner, but I'm banking on luck here.
So because he specified Villager as "Animal Crossing Guy" he was just lucky?
You know what I see in this thread? A bunch of people who are hurt because characters they don't want and are contrary to their opinions of how characters should be selected are in the game. Look by no means am I a fan of Little Mac, Pac-Man or Mii; nor am I just blindly following some leak because its there, but at some point things stop being coincidence. This isn't some scrub GAF poster or 4chan we're talking about, this is a proven user. I'm all for being as skeptical as possible, but at this point all I'm seeing is agenda driven egos. Sorry.
