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{{disambig2|the competitive tournament scene|the in-game mode|Tourney (disambiguation)}} | {{disambig2|the competitive tournament scene|the in-game mode|Tourney (disambiguation)}} | ||
[[image:LMBMcrowd.jpeg|Spectators at the [[Let's Make Big Moves]] ''[[Ultimate]]'' tournament hosted by [[Even Matchup Gaming]] in January 2020.|thumb|300px]] | [[image:LMBMcrowd.jpeg|Spectators at the [[Let's Make Big Moves]] ''[[Ultimate]]'' tournament hosted by [[Even Matchup Gaming]] in January 2020.|thumb|300px]] | ||
A '''tournament''', or '''tourney''' for short, is a competition involving a group of players competing in a series of games amongst each other to determine who is the best player between them, with there often being some sort of prize for the highest placing players. The format of a tournament varies, though it typically takes the form of a structured bracket where players engage in individual matches to gradually eliminate each other from the tournament until only one player remains. Every game in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series has had an active tournament scene, though the size of each game's scene can fluctuate greatly over the years. | |||
'' | ==Overview by game== | ||
The western tournament scene for the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series was incepted when {{Sm|Matt Deezie}} established the [[Tournament Go]] series in April 2002 with ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''. The game had an active tournament scene in the years following its release, being featured at both grassroots tournaments and events ran by large e-sports groups, most notably [[Major League Gaming]]. Following the release of ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', the ''Melee'' scene experienced a recession as many players moved on to ''Brawl'' or stopped playing ''Smash'' altogether, though it would gradually rebound as many players, both old and new, returned to ''Melee'' after dissatisfaction with ''Brawl'', kickstarted by the success of {{Trn|Revival of Melee}} a year after ''Brawl''{{'}}s North American release. ''Melee'' would then see an explosive growth in popularity in 2013, fueled by the success of [[EVO 2013]] and the documentary, ''[[The Smash Brothers]]'', where ''Melee'' has since remained extremely popular among competitive players over a decade later, with a large and thriving tournament presence far exceeding that of its pre-''Brawl'' days. | |||
Despite the severe dislike that most ''Melee'' players had for ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' and quickly abandoning the game after less than a year, ''Brawl'' would develop its own scene with a mostly distinct playerbase. For four years following ''Brawl''{{'}}s release, its tournament scene was on par with ''Melee''{{'}}s, if not even larger, with ''Brawl'' peaking at {{Trn|Apex 2012}} in January 2012, the tournament that set the record for largest ''Smash'' tournament ever at 400 entrants, a record it would hold until EVO 2013 in July 2013 shattered it with 709 entrants. ''Brawl'' would immediately experience significant decline following Apex 2012 however, due to division over the game's ruleset (most notoriously regarding the legality of {{SSBB|Meta Knight}}), the imminent release of ''Smash 4'', the rise of ''[[Project M]]'', and general growing dissatisfaction with the game; {{Trn|Apex 2013}} and {{Trn|Apex 2014}} would still attract well north of 300 entrants for ''Brawl'', but very few other big tournaments in this time period could break 100 entrants, and several regions had their ''Brawl'' scenes die out. The release of ''Smash 4'' would serve as a killing blow, with the vast majority of remaining ''Brawl'' players moving on to it, but a small group of loyal players would continue to play ''Brawl'', and by the later 2010s, they would establish a niche scene that continues to this day, with ''Brawl'' tournaments sometimes appearing alongside other ''Smash'' games at larger tournaments. | |||
When it was the newest ''Smash'' game, ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' similarly rivaled or even exceeded the size of ''Melee''{{'}}s tournament scene, experiencing the same explosion in size that ''Melee'' did at the time due to the availability of well-developed streaming technology, improved social networking, and other improved tournament infrastructure, in addition to an already-existing ''Brawl'' fanbase that eagerly moved onto the newer game. It also attracted casual players into the competitive ''Smash'' scene to a much greater extent than any of the previous ''Smash'' games, due to the game being designed with a more competitive focus than its predecessor (through game design decisions like faster gameplay and better balancing, and adding competitive-focused [[online]] modes like [[For Glory]]), and competitive ''Smash'' in general being more mainstream than it was at the time of ''Brawl''{{'}}s release. ''Smash 4''{{'}}s tournament scene peaked in 2016, with the ''Smash 4'' bracket at {{Trn|EVO 2016}} setting the record for largest ''Smash'' tournament ever at 2662 entrants, and ''Smash 4'' would have several more tournaments after this that broke the 1000 entrants mark or came close. ''Smash 4'' would start experiencing decline in late 2017 however, with most recurring tournament series seeing substantial drops in their entrant totals from the previous year, due to stagnation and the game's balance being thoroughly upended by {{SSB4|Bayonetta}} and {{SSB4|Cloud}}. This decline would be accelerated once ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'' was revealed at [[E3 2018]] and announced to be releasing in December of that year, though ''Smash 4'' tournaments would still retain respectable entrant numbers to its end, with the ''Smash 4'' bracket at both {{Trn|EVO 2018}} and {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2018}} getting over 1300 entrants. Once ''Ultimate'' released, the tournament scene for ''Smash 4'' has become nearly non-existent as its playerbase near entirely transitioned to ''Ultimate'', with the only ''Smash 4'' tournaments remaining mostly taking place at events that explicitly hosts tournaments for all ''Smash'' games, such as [[Super Smash Con]]. | |||
In a similar vein to ''Smash 4'', the release of ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'' would see another explosion in the size of the competitive scene, due to the game being developed significantly more competitively-minded than ''Smash 4'', and ''Ultimate'' itself having a far larger pool of potential players, since it outsold all prior ''Smash'' games by a massive margin. Immediately in its first year, ''Ultimate'' established the largest competitive scene of any ''Smash'' game to date with over a half-dozen 1000+ entrant tournaments, including shattering the all-time record for largest ''Smash'' tournament, with {{Trn|EVO 2019}} having 3534 entrants for its ''Ultimate'' bracket. ''Ultimate'' would suffer a serious setback however with the 2020 [[COVID-19 pandemic]], that completely shutdown any large inperson ''Smash'' tournaments for over a year. As regulations regarding social events relaxed and inperson tournaments could start occurring again, ''Ultimate'' would start gradually rebounding, and by 2023, its tournament activity would come close to its 2019 peak, with forty tournaments that year reaching [[List of major tournaments (SSBU)#2023|major status]] and eight of them breaking 1000 entrants, while peaking post-Covid with 2607 entrants at {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2023}}. | |||
''[[Project M]]'', a ''Brawl'' mod featuring design and gameplay like that of ''Melee''{{'}}s, has also seen a number of tournaments dedicated to it. Beginning in 2013, the game saw a rapid rise in popularity and was increasingly featured at ''Smash'' tournaments, including supermajors such as [[Apex 2014]]. Initially restricted to a side | Competitive ''[[Smash 64]]'' never had a time as the premier ''Smash'' game, due to the foundations for competitive ''Smash'' not being established until over a year into ''Melee''{{'}}s release. Nonetheless, with its unique gameplay that's very distinct from all other ''Smash'' games, ''Smash 64'' has maintained a small devoted following since the release of ''Melee'', establishing a niche tournament scene in the later 2000s that persists to this day. In addition to the traditional in-person tournaments, competitive play also frequently takes place online through services like [[Kaillera]]. | ||
''[[Project M]]'', a ''Brawl'' mod featuring design and gameplay like that of ''Melee''{{'}}s, has also seen a number of tournaments dedicated to it. Beginning in 2013, the game saw a rapid rise in popularity and was increasingly featured at ''Smash'' tournaments, including supermajors such as [[Apex 2014]]. Initially restricted to a [[side event]] at many tournaments, ''Project M'' later developed its own unique tournament scene, with some tournaments being devoted almost solely to the game. However, since ''Project M'' is not endorsed by [[Nintendo]], many major e-sports organizations and large grassroots tournaments excluded PM from their lineups, and many streaming groups also refuse to stream ''PM'' tournaments altogether, due to fears of legal issues over the mod. Although these blows have caused the game to lose significant ground to ''Melee'', ''Ultimate'', and formerly ''Smash 4'', it still maintains a distinct scene to this day, often hosting its own tournaments that can attract over a hundred entrants. | |||
==Locations and sizes== | ==Locations and sizes== | ||
{{redirect|Major tournament|a list of major tournaments|List of major tournaments}} | {{redirect|Major tournament|a list of major tournaments|List of major tournaments}} | ||
Tournaments are held regularly in many regions all over the world, with the largest community centered in the United States, which has not only the largest and generally most talented playerbase, but also the largest tournaments, | Tournaments are held regularly in many regions all over the world, with the largest overall community centered in the United States, which has not only the largest and generally most talented playerbase, but also the largest tournaments, most notably {{Trn|GENESIS|series}} and {{Trn|EVO}}, which attract competition from all over the world. Japan also features a thriving competitive scene, and in recent years has become one of the largest competitive scenes for the most recent ''Smash'' titles. Canada, Mexico, and northern and western Europe (in particular the Scandinavian countries) also feature large, high level competitive ''Smash'' scenes, while Australia, Latin America, south Asia, and South America have smaller but still notable scenes, and even smaller scattered scenes exist throughout the rest of the world. | ||
Various terms exist for describing the size, frequency, and intent of a tournament. These include but are not limited to the following: | Various terms exist for describing the size, frequency, and intent of a tournament. These include but are not limited to the following: | ||
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*'''Weekly/Biweekly/Triweekly/Monthly''': Repeating tournaments, usually in the same venue. Usually feature a regular group of players each iteration. Depending on size as well as player strength, certain monthly events can also be classified as Regional Tournaments if not larger (such as Mayhem in California and the monthly ''Smash 4'' events at Xanadu) | *'''Weekly/Biweekly/Triweekly/Monthly''': Repeating tournaments, usually in the same venue. Usually feature a regular group of players each iteration. Depending on size as well as player strength, certain monthly events can also be classified as Regional Tournaments if not larger (such as Mayhem in California and the monthly ''Smash 4'' events at Xanadu) | ||
*'''Circuit event''': Part of a regional circuit of tournaments, such as the {{Trn|2GG Championship Series}}, {{Trn|Smash World Tour}}, or {{Trn|Panda Cup}}. Winners are usually given points based on their placings, and the top point earners on the leaderboards are invited to a finale tournament, or an overall points winner at the end of the season is given some sort of prize. | *'''Circuit event''': Part of a regional circuit of tournaments, such as the {{Trn|2GG Championship Series}}, {{Trn|Smash World Tour}}, or {{Trn|Panda Cup}}. Winners are usually given points based on their placings, and the top point earners on the leaderboards are invited to a finale tournament, or an overall points winner at the end of the season is given some sort of prize. | ||
*'''Invitational''': A short list of players are invited to the tournament to compete, instead of registration being open to anyone. Players can be invited in a variety of ways: being directly invited by the tournament organizers, qualifying for the tournament by achieving a top placement in a predetermined tournament or a Last Chance Qualifier tournament, or voted in through crowdfunding. Invitationals will often have a large prize pool in place of being generated by entry fees. {{ | *'''Invitational''': A short list of players are invited to the tournament to compete, instead of registration being open to anyone. Players can be invited in a variety of ways: being directly invited by the tournament organizers, qualifying for the tournament by achieving a top placement in a predetermined tournament or a Last Chance Qualifier tournament, or voted in through crowdfunding. Invitationals will often have a large prize pool in place of being generated by entry fees. {{Trn|Smash Summit|series}} tournaments are the most prominent example of this. | ||
*'''Pre-local''': A local or tournament that takes place prior to a larger tournament, usually a major, and as such often feature players from outside the region. Due to the nature of these events, they are often not tiered on global rankings even if the tournament attendance is large enough to reach a major or supermajor level. | |||
*'''Regional tournament''': A large tournament that draws significant attendance from its hosting region, as well as attracts attendance from neighboring regions. On most global rankings, regional tournaments are tiered as C-tier. Especially stacked regionals that attract significant attendance from outside the hosting region, and have multiple top players in attendance, are referred to as "superregionals", and are often tiered as B-tiers on most global rankings. | *'''Regional tournament''': A large tournament that draws significant attendance from its hosting region, as well as attracts attendance from neighboring regions. On most global rankings, regional tournaments are tiered as C-tier. Especially stacked regionals that attract significant attendance from outside the hosting region, and have multiple top players in attendance, are referred to as "superregionals", and are often tiered as B-tiers on most global rankings. | ||
*'''Major tournament''' or '''national tournament''': A larger tournament that draws an extraordinary amount of attendance from the broader region as a whole. In North America, these tournaments attract players from across the United States and Canada, while European majors feature smashers from across the continent. Majors can draw attendance from different continents; for example, European and Japanese players often fly in to large American tournaments. Most global rankings tier majors as A-tiers. | *'''Major tournament''' or '''national tournament''': A larger tournament that draws an extraordinary amount of attendance from the broader region as a whole. In North America, these tournaments attract players from across the United States and Canada, while European majors feature smashers from across the continent. Majors can draw attendance from different continents; for example, European and Japanese players often fly in to large American tournaments. Most global rankings tier majors as A-tiers. | ||
*'''Supermajor''': The most prestigious tournaments in the Smash scene, featuring a huge amount of the best players from around the world. Supermajors are considered to be the most important gatherings for players in the scene, and attract the most viewership and publicity, not only from within the Smash community, but also from the larger fighting game and esports communities. Examples of current ''Smash''-centered supermajor series include | *'''Supermajor''': The most prestigious tournaments in the Smash scene, featuring a huge amount of the best players from around the world. Supermajors are considered to be the most important gatherings for players in the scene, and attract the most viewership and publicity, not only from within the Smash community, but also from the larger fighting game and esports communities. Examples of current ''Smash''-centered supermajor series include {{Trn|GENESIS|series}}, {{Trn|Super Smash Con|series}}, and {{Trn|The Big House|series}}; many tournaments held by larger fighting game organizations, such as {{Trn|CEO}}, have also become supermajors in the ''Smash'' community. {{Trn|EVO}}, [[MLG]], {{Trn|Apex}}, and {{Trn|Pound|series}} have previously been recognized as supermajor series. Tournaments can also be labeled as supermajors based on the extreme level of player talent; for example, in ''Melee'', {{Trn|Get On My Level 2016}}, as well as {{Trn|Smash Summit|series}} and other invitationals, are often considered "supermajors" due to the fact that so many top 20 players attended, despite having fewer entrants than the other tournament series listed. Most global rankings tier supermajors as S-tiers, with some rankings tiering particularly large supermajors as P-tiers. | ||
==Prices and fees== | ==Prices and fees== | ||
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===Round Robin=== | ===Round Robin=== | ||
Round Robin is a tournament format where every player in the tournament plays every single other player. There are no brackets and no eliminations; everyone keeps playing until every matchup has been played. | Round Robin is a tournament format where every player in the tournament plays every single other player. There are no brackets and no eliminations; everyone keeps playing until every matchup has been played. Round Robin is most commonly used in major invitationals and is only occasionally used in open brackets, usually in events with a small entrants count. | ||
====Advantages==== | ====Advantages==== | ||
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===Arcadian format=== | ===Arcadian format=== | ||
An Arcadian is a tournament format where all the ranked players from a specific region are banned from participating, therefore only allowing the unranked players to participate, giving the unranked players a chance at winning money and the glory of winning a tournament that they would typically have no realistic chance at. Arcadians still feature the same rulesets as other tournaments, however. Most Arcadians also disallow players from outside the tourney's region from participating, | An Arcadian is a tournament format where all the ranked players from a specific region are banned from participating, therefore only allowing the unranked players to participate, giving the unranked players a chance at winning money and the glory of winning a tournament that they would typically have no realistic chance at. Arcadians still feature the same rulesets as other tournaments, however. Most Arcadians also disallow players from outside the tourney's region from participating, but TOs may screen out-of-region players to determine if they're eligible instead of banning OoR players wholesale. Arcadians may additionally have a clause to allow TOs to bar entry to any technically unranked player that would be deemed too good to enter, such as a player who was only unranked for failing to reach a PR's attendance requirement rather than from a lack of ability. Arcadians are most common at local and regional tournaments, and most regions periodically run Arcadians, typically once per a ranking season. Notably, {{Trn|2GG: Breakthrough 2019}} holds the record for the largest Arcadian tournament within the ''Smash'' series. | ||
==In-game Tournament Mode== | ==In-game Tournament Mode== | ||
Although each game since ''Melee'' has included a Tournament Mode for local play and ''Smash Ultimate'' features an online tournament mode, the in-game mode is rarely, if ever, used in actual competitive play | {{main|Tournament Mode (SSBM)|Tourney (SSBB)|Tourney (SSB4-Wii U)|Tourney (SSBU)}} | ||
Although each game since ''Melee'' has included a Tournament Mode for local play and ''Smash Ultimate'' features an online tournament mode, the in-game mode is rarely, if ever, used in actual competitive play, due to a variety of limitations of the mode relative to the rather complex structures that serious tournaments require: | |||
*Tournament matches are played in a best of 3 or 5 format, while Tournament Mode only allows single-game sets. | *Tournament matches are played in a best of 3 or 5 format, while Tournament Mode only allows single-game sets. | ||
*Tournament matches allow players to use any character for any game in any match, while Tournament Mode forces players to remain a single character for the entire tournament. | *Tournament matches allow players to use any character for any game in any match, while Tournament Mode forces players to remain a single character for the entire tournament. | ||
*Tournaments almost never use a single-elimination bracket, which is the only bracket type available in Tournament Mode. | *Tournaments almost never use a single-elimination bracket, which is the only bracket type available in Tournament Mode. | ||
*Tournaments require their brackets to be properly [[seeding|seeded]] for reasonably accurate results, while Tournament Mode gives no control over seeding and forces a randomized bracket (outside of ''Ultimate''. | *Tournaments require their brackets to be properly [[seeding|seeded]] for reasonably accurate results, while Tournament Mode gives no control over seeding and forces a randomized bracket (outside of ''Ultimate''). | ||
*Tournaments | *Tournaments don't often enforce a limit to the maximum number of players and can contain hundreds of participants, while Tournament Mode cannot handle more than a very limited 64 (in ''Melee'') or 32 (in ''Brawl'' and ''Ultimate''). | ||
*Tournaments require multiple setups to be run efficiently, while Tournament Mode can only exist on a single setup. | *Tournaments require multiple setups to be run efficiently, while Tournament Mode can only exist on a single setup. Using Tournament Mode to simply keep track of brackets is additionally a very slow process given only one match can be edited at a time, any errors made cannot be corrected without redoing the whole tournament mode and each console used could instead be used as a setup players play on to progress the tournament. | ||
For this reason, external tournament management systems are the norm in competitive play. The in-game tournament modes are more frequently used for casual play, as these limitations are less impactful on lower-stakes games played quickly between casual players of varying skill levels, and because the in-game tournament modes offer a variety of quality-of-life features, such as in-game bracket management, in-game button-mapping, and dynamic controller assignment, that would otherwise be tedious or difficult to manage for the casual player. | For this reason, external tournament management systems are the norm in competitive play. The in-game tournament modes are more frequently used for casual play, as these limitations are less impactful on lower-stakes games played quickly between casual players of varying skill levels, and because the in-game tournament modes offer a variety of quality-of-life features, such as in-game bracket management, in-game button-mapping, and dynamic controller assignment, that would otherwise be tedious or difficult to manage for the casual player. | ||
==Cheating== | |||
Due to the competitive nature of tournaments and the stakes involved with winning and losing, parties attempting to cheat is an inevitability. Cheating is defined as one or more individuals conspiring to break the agreed upon rules or finding loopholes in said rules to gain an unfair advantage or some other illicit benefit. | |||
Cheating can take many forms, each varying in severity, subtlety, and goal. An obvious form of cheating is outright breaking the rules. This can include attempting to play in an environment outside of the typical structure without the consent of all other involved parties, intentionally performing actions that are explicitly banned, or hacking the game to play differently. | |||
More subtle forms of cheating that reach a realm of ambiguity include intentionally playing worse than expected or convincing an opponent to play worse, often referred to as "[[sandbagging]]," as well as intentionally losing games to avoid certain players and having an overall easier time in a tournament, sometimes referred to as "match fixing" or "bracketology." While these do not necessarily break the rules, they are generally frowned upon and will lead to disciplinary action if proven to have occurred. | |||
Cheating is usually punished if discovered, though not every situation is black and white. Not all cases of cheating are created equal, and punishments are often more or less severe because of it. Less consequential instances like [[pausing]] during a match may result in forfeiting a stock at most, while something more severe like fixing matches may result in disqualification from the tournament and a ban from all future events. There are also cases of genuine mistakes or "act of God" situations where no one party is at fault, which is usually dealt with on a case by case basis by the tournament organizer. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||