SmashWiki:Smasher article guidelines

This page is a SmashWiki guideline, a principle that suggests how users should contribute and conduct themselves. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. If in doubt, consider discussing changes on the talk page.

Smasher articles are a valued part of the wiki, providing "Smash biographies" of the players, tournament organizers, and contributors, that make the competitive scene and greater Smash community possible. These articles are meant to chronicle the contributions and endeavors in Smash of notable smashers, and provide a source for other Smash-relevant information on these individuals that is of interest to readers. This page will guideline what is expected and accepted in Smasher articles, and how Smasher articles should be constructed, when creating and modifying existing smasher articles.

SmashWiki: Notability

The very first, and most important thing, to keep in mind when it comes to creating smasher articles is if the article's subject merits an article to begin with. Articles about smashers with dubious notability, and articles that contain next-to-no relevant information, are liable to be tagged for notability-based deletion, where then if information isn't presented proving notability and/or an admin handling the notability check doesn't find enough evidence of notability, the article will be deleted.

Keep in mind, however, that the wiki documents smasher articles on a historical basis. So if a smasher was found to have satisfied our notability guidelines at some point-in-time, they will be considered notable enough to have a smasher article here regardless of how irrelevant they end up becoming in the future, barring an update to the notability guidelines or new information/arguments being brought up that finds the original notability-approval dubious.

Smasher article essentials

The following are what every Smasher article must contain, and will be expected to have at their creation. Low effort articles created without these essentials may be deleted, even if the article's subject is clearly notable.

Template:Infobox Smasher

This is an infobox designed specifically for smasher articles, to organise basic-yet-necessary information, such as the characters the article's subject uses in tournaments for each game and their location. Every relevant field should be filled out with the appropriate information. Specifics on what should go into each field is covered on the template's documentation page. Certain things are allowed to be omitted by the request of the smasher in question, for security reasons. They include real names, their picture, birth dates, and locations (although instead of completely omitting the location, it's probably better to be less specific; countries/states/provinces are usually enough). Things that are not allowed to be taken away include screen name/tag, mains, rankings, skills, winnings, crews, etc.

Intro

Each Smasher article needs an intro describing who the article subject is, what they do in Smash that makes them notable, and a concise explanation of their accomplishments and endeavors that make them notable. Intros should additionally have information about the article subject's current status in the Smash community.

Tournament results

All smashers who have achieved notability for their playing in the competitive scene require documentation of their tournament placings. Tournament results should be inserted into the article in table form, and separated into subsections based on game, such as the following:

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner	Earnings
CEO 2014	June 27th-29th, 2014	2nd	—	—	$548
Kings of Cali 4	July 5th-6th, 2014	1st	3rd	Scar	$959.25
EVO 2014	July 11th-13th, 2014	1st	7th	Lucky	$5,820
Carroll Fest 5	August 16th, 2014	1st	1st	Juggleguy	$160
Smash the Record	August 22nd-25th, 2014	3rd	2nd	Colbol	$0

All verifiable tournament results should be added, with the exception of smaller online tournaments with no prize. If the article's subject has competed in a very large amount of tournaments, only the smasher's results at the most notable tournaments they competed in should be listed, while the rest of the results should be listed in a linked subpage. Also keep in mind that the results must be sourced; tournament results that aren't linked to something proving its veracity, like a smash.gg page, will be removed. Additionally, if the tournament in question has a SmashWiki article, it is preferable to link to it over external sources.

If there are no tournament results listed on the page or a significant amount of notable results are missing, use {{Results}} to indicate that the article needs such. Additionally use the template if the article's results are missing relevant data such as tourney dates and earnings.

Tournaments directed

If the article subject has directed any Smash tournaments, they should be listed too, in table form like tournament results:

Tournament	Date	1v1 attendance	1v1 prize pot	2v2 attendance	2v2 prize pot
The Big House	October 22nd, 2011	115	$1,619	39 teams	$780
The Big House 2	October 6-7th, 2012	128	$1,920	40 teams	$800
The Big House 3	October 12th-13th, 2013	172	$2,400	48 teams	$960
The Big House 4	October 4th-5th, 2014	574	$5,701	114 teams	$2,280
The Big House 5	October 2nd-4th, 2015	1,317	$18,170	224 teams	$6,480

Like with tournaments, links to a source proving the tournament's veracity are required, while SmashWiki links are preferred over external links.

Categories

On any Smasher article, every category the wiki has that the article's subject fits into should be added; for example, if the player uses Mario competitively in Smash 4, the Mario professionals (SSB4) category should be added. For a comprehensive catalog on the categories that may be applicable to a smasher page, go here.

Other information of interest

The following is additional information Smasher articles should ideally contain.

History

A detailed synopsis of the subject's history with Smash, starting from when and how they got into Smash and its competitive scene.

Play style

A detailed synopsis of the subject's playstyle, and why they play the characters they main. If the subject additionally has known particular views about Smash, they can be elaborated on in these sections.

Controversies

If the subject has been involved with any noteworthy controversies within the Smash community, they should be covered in a dedicated section. However, these sections must be thoroughly sourced with links verifying said controversy; the injection of rumors will not be tolerated. Additionally, while any consequences resulting from the controversy should be detailed, and the common reactions from the Smash community and involved parties should be covered, editors must avoid injecting their own opinions into these sections. Furthermore, only controversies that directly impact a smasher's playing career or their involvement in the Smash scene should be noted.

On a final note, a neutral point of view will be strongly enforced within these sections, SmashWiki should never be declaring one side of a conflict as the absolute truth, unless there's overwhelming indisputable evidence towards it, such as a confession or a conviction. All relevant information should be laid out and readers can come to their own conclusions.

Trivia

Is the subject noteworthy for competing in other games? Is there a well-known joke/meme about the subject within their region or the greater Smash community? Any other Smash-related facts about the subject not covered elsewhere in the article that would be of interest to readers? Write about any interesting trivial facts in a trivia section. Keep in mind that SmashWiki's trivia guidelines still apply.

External links and videos

Any noteworthy videos of the subject, such as a popular combo video or highly notable match, should be linked or embedded in the article in a dedicated section. Additionally, an external links section should be made, where any Smash-related accounts on external sites run by the subject should be linked to.

Self-creating/self-editing

See also: SmashWiki:Ownership

While it may be seen as unsavory for one to create and edit Smasher articles about themselves and their associates, it is allowed on SmashWiki; we recognize that the best source for information about a smasher can be directly from the smasher themselves or those associated with them, and that facts are objective regardless of who writes them into an article. However, smasher articles created/edited by the subject and/or their associates will be more heavily scrutinized, and any misrepresentations of the facts and overindulgence will not be tolerated; do not abuse our Smasher articles to get an ego boost or fluff up one's friends. Additionally, smashers do not own the articles about themselves, and will not be allowed to exert more control over their content than any other user. On a related note, smashers will be expected to never engage in any conflict of interest editing; if a smasher desires to change or remove contentious information that would constitute a conflict of interest, such as anything within a controversy section on their smasher page, they should bring up their suggested changes on the talk page and other editors will decide if the suggested changes are valid. Conflict of interest edits made without approval will be reverted, and smashers that repeatedly violate the policy will be blocked from editing.

Other guidelines to remember

These are additional guidelines not covered in the prior sections that should be heeded when editing Smasher articles.

• In cases where a smasher goes by multiple names, their article's title should be the tag the smasher is most commonly referred to by.
• When creating a Smasher article, do not create an article that just has a smasher infobox and a single sentence or two saying who they play. Besides making notability checking the subject more difficult, it leaves us with an article that has no real information and serves interest to no one, being hardly any better than if the article wasn't there to begin with. Even if the smasher is very well-known, don't create the article just for the sake of removing a red link if you're not knowledgeable enough about the subject or not willing enough to write down more than a couple of sentences. Users who do this will be reprimanded.
• The picture used in a smasher infobox should be a recent picture of professional quality, preferably of the subject alone in a tournament setting. Selfies or any other such low-quality pictures of the subject should not be used. The picture additionally must be of the subject; no other sort of image will be acceptable in the infobox.
• A list of players the smasher in question has defeated can be provided, but should be limited to no more than eight wins, preferably against players that are considered to be equal or better in skill than the article's subject. Such a list should also be generally excluded from articles about the best players in the world, as they should be capable of defeating almost every other player.
• If you think an article's subject is not notable enough for a Smasher article, be sure to check the talkpage and page history to see if the subject already had a notability check. If they did and you still think they shouldn't have an article, bring it up on the talkpage to discuss it; if you put a notability tag back on without doing so, it'll be taken back down and you will risk being reprimanded.
• If an article's subject desires, personal information such as their name, picture, and birthdate must be removed from their article. Beyond that, no information should be removed nor modified based on the subject objecting, and a smasher article should never be deleted just because its subject does not want an article of themselves up, barring extenuating circumstances. Additionally if an IP or account not confirmed to be the article subject removes personal information from a smasher article, an admin should verify that the action was actually done or requested by the article subject. If such verification is not given, such edits should be reverted until an admin receives acceptable verification.
  • Upon verification, alongside the removal of unwanted personal information, an editing note should be left on the page stating that the article subject does not want such personal information added, and an admin should hide all past revisions from public view that contain the unwanted personal information.
• In the case of transgender or nonbinary gender smashers, the article should use the smasher's preferred pronouns throughout and should not mention their deadname unless they wish it to be publicly known.