Crew battle
A crew battle is a type of competition match between two designated groups, known as crews. These crews order themselves and battle each other in 1v1 matches. When a player loses, the next player in line takes their place, and this cycle continues until no players in a crew remain and the crew with players remaining is declared the winner.
Overview
Crews typically consist of 3-5 players for the sake of time management, although some battles involve many more if the stakes for that particular battle are high. The modern incarnation of the crew battle dictates that a certain amount of stocks are shared between an entire crew; for example, a team of five players share twenty stocks between them. In this scenario, all players practically use four stocks per game, though later players can elect to sacrifice their own stocks to give other players more. The winner notably does not replenish stocks between games, putting them at an instant disadvantage if the previous game was close. If the game does not allow the ability to start with different amounts of stocks, the winner must self-destruct at the beginning of each game until the desired amount of stocks is reached. The ability for the winner to change characters between games is made legal or illegal on a case-by-case basis depending on the desires of the crews themselves.
While crew battles are played across the world, the exact rules tend to differ between regions. Japanese crews, for example, are usually limited to three members. Another difference is that crew battles are still considered a tournament format, with some tournaments consisting of only a single-elimination crews bracket.
With the serious growth of online play in Smash 4 and Ultimate, "netplay crews" have gained popularity. Online modes make it more accessible for a wide variety of players from around the world not physically close to each other to participate as a crew. In an online environment, matches are played much like a standard crew battle, with minor differences such as lag tests and time limits to start the game commonplace in online tournaments. Special conditions like character specific teams are commonplace.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate introduced the mode Squad Strike, which effectively allows for crew battles without any prior setup or workarounds. This has made the mode popular in side events at tournaments where crews battles would normally occur at.
In competitive play
While crews have existed since the inception of the franchise, the concept of these crews fighting together outside of in-game team battles like doubles took a while to solidify. The first proper crew battle can be traced back to KishSquared, a member of the crew "Ship of Fools", located in South Bend, Indiana. Being a fan of traditional 2D fighting games as well as the Smash series, KishSquared had the idea to apply the concept of team battles, such as the dramatic battle in Street Fighter Alpha 3 and the core concept of the King of Fighters series, to a game of Smash.
The first known crew battle occurred in August 2003 at the "Midwest Challenge," held by the five members of Ship of Fools facing off against a crew consisting of Eddie BigGMan and 4 Ohio players. This first crew battle was held on Super Smash Bros. Melee, and was much simpler than the modern incarnation, as it simply tracked wins and losses and completely reset between games. KishSquared had intended for the winner of each game to start the next round with the amount of stocks they had when the last game ended, but doing so was awkward on Melee and thus was scrapped as a rule. The Ship of Fools' Ignatius proceeded to defeat four members of the opposing crew, helped greatly by the fact that he regained all his stocks between matches. As the final crew member, Eddie proceeded to defeat each member of the Ship of Fools - again helped by regaining all of his stocks between matches - before losing to KishSquared and Ship of Fools winning 5-4.
The flaws of the original crew battle were obvious - whoever won the match of "best vs best" would win the entire crew battle, regardless of the skill levels of the other players. The best player on each crew would sweep through the rest without much challenge. KishSquared returned to his original idea: tracking stocks between sets and having one player jump off the stage as needed before the match began, which was soon implemented.
Crew battles remained few and far between until July of 2004, when the first national crew battle was held at MELEE-FC. Ken and Isai formed a crew and outplayed the other seven crews, laying seed for the following year. MELEE-FC3 is perhaps best known for the regional crew battle that was held. The entrants included the West Coast, the East Coast, the South, and the Midwest. The major players were the East and West Coasts, who used this opportunity to settle a rivalry that had existed for years. Wes and Ken were the organizers of this event, and KishPrime set some new rules for counterpicks and character selections. The FC3 regional crew battle set the precedent for nearly every crew battle that followed, and those rules are still used today. The rules were largely designed by the Ship of Fools with minor influences from other parties.
Today, crew battles are still commonly held at large tournaments, though they are now considered more of a side event instead of serious competition. Regardless, regional teams, many times strive for crew battle victories at national level tournaments for bragging rights.
There are strategies and variations when it comes to crew battles such as predetermining the order that the members of a crew will play and requiring players to declare a character that they will use before the crew battle begins. Another is to counterpick characters and players against the rival crew. An example would be say that Player A and Player B main Sheik and Ice Climbers respectively. Player A loses by two stocks and is switched out. Team A can now decide to character counterpick Player B with an advantageous matchup. Team A sends Player A2, who mains Peach who has an advantageous matchup against Ice Climbers and subsequently wins the match. The process of this counterpicking will continue until the end of the crew battle or no counterpicks can be made.
Notable crew battles
MELEE-FC3 is perhaps best known for the regional crew battle that was held. The entrants included the West Coast, the East Coast, the South, and the Midwest. The major players were the East and West Coasts, who used this opportunity to settle a rivalry that had existed for years. Wes and Ken were the organizers of this event, and KishPrime set some new rules for counterpicks and character selections. The outcome of this crew battle set the guidelines and rulesets for crew battles later and dictated the control of the Smash competitive scene in Ken and Isai's hands.
In more recent times, the "USA vs. The World" crew battles at Apex 2012 and Apex 2013 have become some of the most famous crew battles. Although regional rivalries in competitive Smash have since died down a bit, crew battles still remain popular side events at major tournaments. For example, The Big House has hosted crews with teams for different regions of the U.S., as well as Canada and Europe. The Heir tournament series in Europe has hosted crew battles with teams for individual European countries.
In Smash 4, a noteworthy crew battle is the battle that took at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga which pitted the best American smashers versus the bestforeign smashers. The crews were lead by ZeRo and Ally, which lead US and the World respectively. Top players Larry Lurr, VoiD, ZeRo, Nairo, Salem, and Dabuz fought for the US whereas top players komorikiri, Abadango, MkLeo, kameme, Ally, and Mr.R fought for the world. The battle ended with a crushing victory for the World, who ended with eight stocks remaining.
In the same note, while not necessarily a crew battle in the original sense, at the same tournament, a side event, ZeRo's Runback occurred which pitted himself against every opponent he had lost to in the span of his Smash 4 career. ZeRo defeated every opponent with the exception of Mew2King, Mr. Concon, and Dabuz, who did not make it or want to compete in the event.
2GGC: Civil War had one of the most hyped and important crew battles in Smash 4 history with the rivalry between the two contending Smash players ZeRo and Ally. The rivalry began with ZeRo's monumental losses to Ally at Get On My Level 2016 and Smash 'N' Splash 2 and the many instances of trash talk on Twitter, which created the twitter hashtags of #TeamZeRo and #TeamAlly. Players within the PGR chose their side, and in the pool of players, the crews were picked and the battle ensued. Team ZeRo won the battle with an astonishing performance of komorikiri who fought back against a major deficit in order to bring the victory home.
A particularly bizarre crew battle took place within the Arizona Project M community in 2016. For context, after a local bracket that went late into the night, the players traditionally went to a restaurant opened 24/7, which typically boiled down to Denny's or IHOP. Debates over where to eat became so heated that players in the community would pledge allegiance to their favorite establishment. This rivalry came to a head when team Denny's and team IHOP decided to settle the debate once and for all with a crew battle. Many of the best PM players in Arizona and even the world arrived for the match, and modders in the community made costume character skins and stage textures for the event. This match went down to the final stock with team IHOP narrowly beating team Denny's. Every player, celebratory or begrudgingly, ate at the local IHOP later that night.[1]
