Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest (often acronymized to PNW) is a Smash region in the United States. The PNW generally refers to the states of Oregon, Washington (which is typically further split into Eastern Washington and Western Washington due to the difficulty of travelling across the state) and the province of British Columbia (BC). Additional regions like Alberta, Idaho and Montana may occasionally be grouped in, but in most cases the region is exclusively the coastal states and provinces.

The Pacific Northwest harbors one of the most active Super Smash Bros. Ultimate scenes in the United States, as well as one of the most active P+ scenes. The scene is most populous in Western Washington, where attendance count for locals such as Orbitar are remarkably high and - in the case an attendance cap is needed - reach capacity quickly. However, the region has struggled to obtain mainstream relevancy on the same level as other regions due to a number of factors, from geographic isolation to other regions scheduling larger events over the PNW's own. Despite this, very strong players for all Smash games have come out of the region, including SilentWolf, Bladewise, Ka-Master, moxi, Big D, and Pikmon.

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 Redmond, Washington. Examples include attending the annual conventions Emerald City Comic Con and 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. Nintendo also has a traveling booth that they fill with games and events and bring to local festivals like Seafair and the Seattle Street Food Festival. More minor examples include Nintendo sponsoring technology based institutes like Digipen Institute of Technology, but direct support of local competitive tournaments has remained sparse.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Notable Players

Globally Ranked Players

All-Time Ranking	Name	Characters	Notes
10	Plup		Moved to Oregon from Florida in 2021.
36	Silent Wolf
62	Bladewise
65	Ka-Master		Considered one of the greatest Luigi players of all time.

Other Notable Players

• FatGoku
• Dacky

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

History & Events

2018-2019

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 Don't Park on the Grass 2018 was held only a week after the game's release. Konga would be the highest-placing Pacific Northwest player at 3rd, with Big D, Captain L, and 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 moxi, Big D, and Captain L, all of which would eventually earn a PGRU spot. Battle of BC 3 and 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 Ouch and Mystery Sol.

2020

With the Smash World Tour marking 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 Elegant and 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 Mega Smash Mondays, The Box or 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 rm8, Justice and JDV to gain lots of tournament experience over quarantine.

2021

The first half of 2021 largely continued on the same path as 2020 had ended. The initial seeding for the 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 Cube, this problem was quickly resolved, and the tournament is noteworthy for being among the least upset-prone major Ultimate events ever.

Local tournaments began to resurface around the summer. Within only a few tournaments, players dedicated to online play began to perform exceptionally well, with JDV winning the first Western Washington tournament back, Ouch winning Pinnacle 2021 & dominating the British Columbian scene, and Domnique securing the #1 spot in Oregon.

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 Capsize. This also led to numerous BC players being unable to attend Port Priority 6, the Pacific Northwest's first truly undisputed major for Ultimate with over 600 entrants.

Notable Players

Globally Ranked Players

PG ranking	Name	Characters	Notes
33	moxi		Considered one of the best Pokémon Trainer players in the world prior to picking up Wolf.
49	Big D		The best Ice Climbers player in the world.

Other Notable Players

• Captain L, Ranked 50th on the PGRU v1 and currently ranked 7th in British Columbia.
• Ouch, the best Wolf in Canada and considered one of the best in the world.
• JeJaJeJa, considered the best Kirby in the United States. The highest placing PNW player at Back in Blood (2nd).
• Mystery Sol, the best Incineroar player in the United States. 9th at Port Priority 6.
• Pokepen, regularly stayed within the top 3 of Western Washington power rankings with an army of characters.
• JoJoDaHoBo, considered the best Toon Link in the United States.
• Cattail, Eastern Washington's #1 ranked player.
• Deci, considered one of the best Robin players in the United States.
• Ludo, the best Mario in the PNW.
• Domnique, the best R.O.B. in the PNW. #1 on Oregon's power rankings as of 2021.
• Lemmon, the best Joker in the PNW and 3rd in British Columbia.
• Konga, considered one of the best Donkey Kong players in the world prior to his retirement.

Super Smash Bros. 4

Notable Players

Globally Ranked Players

All-Time Ranking	Name	Characters	Notes
76	Konga		Considered one of the best Donkey Kong players in the world. Ranked #1 on Western Washington All-Time PR.
78	Captain L		Considered the second best Pikachu player in the world after ESAM.

Other Notable Players

• Cacogen, ranked on the PGR v1 and was the best player in Washington throughout the first few years of the game. Ranked #2 on the WWA All-Time PR.
• Big D, The best player in British Columbia.
• moxi, the best Meta Knight in the PNW. Finished at #1 in WWA's final PR.
• Locus, One of the best Ryu players in the world.

Instances of overlapping major events with other regions/organizations

Pacific Northwest events have been prone to being scheduled over by other larger organizations or events, oven splitting or crushing viewership for the northwest.

PNW Event	Overlapped by	Date(s)	Game(s) affected	Notes
Don't Park on the Grass	2GGT: ZeRo Saga	December 16th-18th, 2016	Smash 4	ZeRo Saga was announced well after DPG. Due to the higher stakes, many high level players cancelled on DPG, reducing the relevance of the Smash 4 bracket.
Port Priority	MomoCon 2017	May 27th, 2017	Smash 4
Port Priority 2	IBP Masters Showdown	November 11th, 2017	Smash 4	IBP Masters was announced 2 weeks before Port Priority 2's event date, causing a few prominent out of region players to cancel. The $10,000 pot bonus and short notice sparked heated discourse on social media.
Emerald City 6	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.
Don't Park on the Grass 2018	Sky Ultimate Invitational	December 15th, 2018	Ultimate	Sky Williams donated $2,500 to the prize pool of DPG18 as compensation for scheduling conflicts.
Emerald City 8	MomoCon 2019	May 25th, 2019	Ultimate
Don't Park on the Grass 2020	Smash World Tour 2020 Finals	December 17th-20th, 2020	Melee, Ultimate	Although both events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, SWT was announced well after the announcement for DPG20, making it the third time in DPG's history that a larger event was scheduled over it well after its announcement.
Port Priority 7	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.