Northern California

Northern California, commonly abbreviated as NorCal, is a Smash region located in the United States. It covers the northern half of the state of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. While most regions are divided by state, California is split into northern and southern portions, as the state's large size has resulted in the development of two largely independent centers of Smash activity.

With a huge concentration of young people and college students, NorCal has been one of the most active Smash regions in the U.S. since the series' competitive beginnings. Matt Deezie's Tournament Go series, considered the first major Smash tournaments, were held here, and thus the region can be considered the birthplace of competitive Smash. NorCal is at present most famous for the GENESIS tournaments, considered the premiere grassroots Smash supermajor today and one of the most iconic and prestigious tournament series in history. Its Melee scene is dominated by the "NorCal trio", consisting of three of the best players in the United States: PewPewU, SFAT, and Shroomed.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Notable players

Nationally ranked players

See also: NorCal Power Rankings and Category:Northern California smashers

These NorCal players are ranked on Melee It On Me's 2016 SSBMRank.

SSBMRank	Name	Characters	Notes
31	Zhu		One of the best Falcos in the United States.
33	Laudandus
57	Azusa
71	Kalamazhu		Originally from Michigan, but currently lives in San Francisco.
72	Darkatma
78	Frootloop		Originally from Wisconsin, but currently lives in the Bay Area.
80	HomeMadeWaffles		More famous as one of the most iconic commentators of the grassroots Melee scene.
91	Phil
92	Darrell
93	NMW

Other top players

• Recipherus: Known as one of the best players on the West Coast in Melee's early competitive history; considered Ken's main competition in California.

Major tournaments hosted

See also: Category:Northern California tournaments

A list of significant regional and national Melee events hosted in NorCal; nationals are highlighted in bold.

Name	Entrants	Date	Notes
Tournament Go 1		April 6th, 2002	The first tournament in the historic Tournament Go series; considered the very first Melee major and one of the first organized Smash tournaments.
Tournament Go 2		June 15th, 2002
Tournament Go 3	~20	August 24th, 2002
Tournament Go 4	~90	January 19th, 2003	Marked the first appearance of Ken at major NorCal tournament, despite Ken being from SoCal.
Tournament Go 5	~90-110	August 2nd-3rd, 2003	One of the first two-day Smash tournaments; Maryland/Virginia player Azen notably flew to the West Coast for the event, marking one of the first cross-country travels for a Smash tournament.
Tournament Go 6	112	August 21st-22nd, 2004	The last tournament in the Tournament Go series; notably featured international competition, with Captain Jack and Takuto travelling to the U.S. from Japan for the event.
MLG San Francisco 2004	50	September 11th-12th, 2004
MLG San Francisco 2005	100+	February 26th-27th, 2005
NorCal Tournament 2	129	October 28th, 2006
GENESIS	290	July 10th-12th, 2009	Considered the first-ever "supermajor," drawing huge international attendance for both Melee and Brawl; at the time, the largest Melee tournament ever. Mango's grand finals victory over Armada has helped shape one of the most famous rivalries and storylines in Smash.
R3	70	December 19th-20th, 2009
Good Shit German	84	July 24th-25th, 2010
Don't Go Down There Jeff	108	December 18th-19th, 2010
GENESIS 2	228	July 15th-17th, 2011	A Smash supermajor; Armada defeated Mango in grand finals, a reversal of the previous GENESIS.
Rule 6: NorCal Regional	92	July 29th, 2012
NorCal Regionals 2013	73	April 26th-28th, 2013
The Next Episode	147	March 22nd-23rd, 2014
NorCal Regionals 2014	52	April 18th-20th, 2014
NorCal Regionals 2015	77	April 3rd-5th, 2015
I'm Not Yelling!	316	April 11th-12th, 2015
HTC Throwdown	386	September 19th-20th, 2015
GENESIS 3	1,828	January 15th-17th, 2016	The largest grassroots Smash tournament and the third-largest Melee tournament of all time; replaced Apex as the premiere Smash series international tournament. Originally scheduled for 2013, but postponed due to conflicting interest with EVO 2013.
NorCal Regionals 2016	38	March 25th-27th, 2016
SSS: Blood For Blood	443	October 15th, 2016