Editing Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest has also received a significant amount of direct support and events from [[Nintendo]], as the Nintendo of America headquarters is located in {{s|wikipedia|Redmond, Washington}}. Examples include attending the annual conventions [https://www.emeraldcitycomiccon.com/ Emerald City Comic Con] and {{s|wikipedia|Penny Arcade Expo}}'s PAX West with dedicated booths. While not officially affiliated, PAX also has its [[PAX Arena]] tournament, which usually features at least one ''Smash'' game. Seattle, Washington was also chosen as the location for Nintendo Live 2023, which featured two ''Smash'' tournaments. Nintendo also has a traveling booth that they fill with games and events and bring to local festivals like [https://www.seafair.org/ Seafair] and the [https://www.seattlestfoodfest.com/ Seattle Street Food Festival]. More minor examples include Nintendo sponsoring technology based institutes like [https://www.digipen.edu/ Digipen Institute of Technology], but direct support of local competitive tournaments has remained sparse.

As expected, the ''Ultimate'' scene was initially comprised of many ''Smash 4'' veterans, as well as dozens of new players. The Pacific Northwest was one of the first battlegrounds for an ''Ultimate'' major, as {{Trn|Don't Park on the Grass 2018}} was held only a week after the game's release. {{Sm|Konga}} would be the highest-placing Pacific Northwest player at 3rd, with {{Sm|Big D}}, {{Sm|Captain L}}, and {{Sm|Magister}} joining him in Top 8.

The Pacific Northwest continued a largely quiet existence separated from the rest of the national scene, with occasional trips to majors made by the scene's most prominent players at the time, namely {{Sm|moxi}}, {{Sm|Big D}}, and {{Sm|Captain L}}, all of which would eventually earn a PGRU spot. {{Trn|Battle of BC 3}} and {{Trn|Port Priority 5}} were the largest events held in the northwest since DPG, reaching over 400 entrants each. 2019 also saw an anticpated rise from those who joined the scene after the release of ''Ultimate'', including {{Sm|Ouch}} and {{Sm|Mystery Sol}}.

With the Smash World Tour marking {{Trn|Port Priority 6}} as a Gold-tier event and Emerald City 9 looking to pull more national talent from out of region including the likes of {{Sm|Elegant}} and {{Sm|Scend}}, the Pacific Northwest was projected to have a greater spotlight on it compared to previous years. However, the COVID-19 Pandemic quickly halted any offline activity on the global scale, forcing Emerald City 9 to cancel only a few days before the event, and relegating all Smash competition to online events.

The Pacific Northwest was unique among other regions participating in the WiFi-era, the biggest difference being that players largely participated in tournaments region-locked to the PNW region rather than nationwide events like {{Trn|Mega Smash Mondays}}, {{Trn|The Box|series}} or {{Trn|Smash @ Xanadu}}, causing the scene to become more isolated than ever. Additionally, numerous power-ranked players rarely or entirely refused to participate in wifi tournaments, opening the door for quickly improving players like {{Sm|rm8}}, {{Sm|Justice|p=Washington}} and {{Sm|JDV}} to gain lots of tournament experience over quarantine.

The first half of 2021 largely continued on the same path as 2020 had ended. The initial seeding for the {{Trn|SWT: NA Northwest Ultimate Online Qualifier}} came under scrutiny for the local playerbase as the seeding team weren't aware of the PNW's habit of only participating in region-locked wifi events, leading to questionable seeding. With the help of local wifi TOs including {{Sm|Cube}}, this problem was quickly resolved, and the tournament is noteworthy for being among the least upset-prone major ''Ultimate'' events ever.

Due to US/Canada land border complications, Canadian participation in American tournaments has plummeted dramatically - and vice versa, with the only player regularly crossing the border being {{Sm|Capsize}}. This also led to numerous BC players being unable to attend {{Trn|Port Priority 6}}, the Pacific Northwest's first truly undisputed major for ''Ultimate'' with over 600 entrants.

2022 saw more activity, both in tournaments and in player performance. After travel restrictions loosened for Canada, {{Sm|Big D}} would emerge from {{Trn|Get On My Level 2022}} as a top level threat, following it up with a top 8 finish at {{Trn|Ludwig Smash Invitational}} and 3rd at {{Trn|Mainstage 2022}}. Ouch!? broke out at 3rd place during {{Trn|Battle of BC 4}}, defeating several top players and remaining a consistent threat at majors. From Oregon, {{Sm|jaredisking1}} would place 5th at {{Trn|Rise n Grind}} and become Oregon's best player. {{Sm|Justice|p=Washington}} placed Top 8 at {{Trn|Port Priority 7}}, becoming Washington and the Pacific Northwest's first player to do so at the tournament series since Port Priority 4.

Western Washington experienced multiple shifts near the end of 2022, including several high level players moving or having extended leaves. {{Sm|H4}} and {{Sm|Ludo}} would travel to Japan and Europe respectively for several months, while {{Sm|moxi}} and {{Sm|Justice}} would move for school. In the power vacuum, {{Sm|JDV}} would emerge as Seattle's best player.

2023 started off strong, with 6 players placing in the top 64 of {{Trn|GENESIS 9}} and 6 more finishing at 65th.<ref>In top 64: Ouch!?, Big D, Justice, moxi, JDV, jaredisking1. At 65th: JoJoDaHoBo, FireThePyro, SPARKLE, Pacstreet, Major, H4.</ref>

{{Trn|Battle of BC 5}} emerged as one of 2023's strongest and most important ''Ultimate'' tournaments, named a P-tier by [[LumiRank]]. {{Trn|MAJOR UPSET}} and {{Trn|Port Priority 8}} reached major and supermajor status, respectively, giving all three primary regions a major in the same year.

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==Instances of overlapping major events with other regions/organizations==

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!PNW Event

|{{Trn|Emerald City 6}}||{{Trn|2GGC: West Side Saga}}||September 9th, 2017||Smash 4||2GG offered spots on the compendium to Oregon/Washington players after complaints that a tournament called "West Side Saga" did not consider all west coast states.

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|{{Trn|Emerald City 8}}||{{Trn|MomoCon 2019}}||May 25th, 2019||Ultimate||

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|{{Trn|Port Priority 7}}||{{Trn|Ultimate Fighting Arena 2022}}||November 11th-13th, 2022||Ultimate||Ultimate Fighting Arena (UFA) announced an ''Ultimate'' event with a 10,000€ prize pool without placing itself on the Smash Calendar in advance, which Port Priority did in October of 2021. While not detrimental to attendance and likely not detrimental to viewership, it did reserve the weekends of multiple top players Port Priority was seeking, diminishing its prestige.

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==See also==

*[[British Columbia Power Rankings]]

*[[Oregon Power Rankings]]

*[[Washington Power Rankings]]