SmashBoards
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SmashBoards, also formerly known as Smash World Forums or SWF, is a video-game forum, generally used to discuss strategies, as well as find and host tournaments, for the Super Smash Bros. series. In addition to helping players organize tournaments for the games, SmashBoards is notably where the most widely-accepted tier lists are published.
First opened in 2000, the website has over 240,000 members, making it the most popular Super Smash Bros. forum on the internet. Despite its age, SmashBoards remains active, and alongside Facebook, it remains one of the most active hubs of activity for Smash.
History
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Prior to the formation of SmashBoards, Gideon, a twelve year old smasher, created Smash World, a website devoted to Smash 64. One year later, he founded SmashBoards.com as a companion site. Initially referred to as the "Smash World Forums", Gideon founded the site as to help players of Smash 64 talk to one another, as well as allow smashers to discuss the then-upcoming Melee.
In addition to its standard boards, a Back Room was also created for certain users who had proved themselves; this Back Room would later go on to form the Back Rooms of later games, which would decide the tournament rulesets of games, as well as the tier lists for the games.
After the release of Melee, the first tournaments began to get organized on the SWForums, owing to its large playerbase and ability for any player to potentially view topics about tournaments. Initially starting off as small, local affairs, Matt Deezie is generally credited with starting the national scene by using the forum to communicate with players outside of his native California, inviting users from as far away as Illinois to attend his tournaments. The site also allowed users to communicate with overseas players, creating an international scene for the game as players in North America, Europe, and Japan began to invite each other to their respective countries for Melee tournaments.
With the continued expansion of Melee's tournament scene, the game was eventually picked up by Major League Gaming in 2004, who helped promote the site, firmly cementing SmashBoards as the world's largest forum and community devoted to Smash. The MLG kept Melee in its circuits for many years, only dropping the game in 2007 due to declining interest in the Nintendo GameCube and the development of Brawl underway. In September 2008, with Brawl having been released worldwide and beginning to be analyzed as a tournament game, the MLG purchased the forums from Gideon in September 2008 for an undisclosed sum, giving the site stabler servers. A large number of posts from before 2008, however, were also lost in the transfer, and as a result, information about tournament results and similar topics have been lost.
In 2011, the forum was officially renamed SmashBoards, after its domain name, though the term "SWF" is still a common shorthand for the board. On November 27, 2012, Major League Gaming officially ended its involvement with Smash by selling the website to AlphaZealot's company Xyelot LLC.[1]
With the upcoming release of Smash 4 in 2014, SmashBoards expanded to act as a news network for Smash in general, covering the release of Smash 4, tournaments for the various games, and promoting videos of players on YouTube.
A sister site to SmashBoards, Squidboards, was launched in 2015, serving as a SmashBoards-style forum for the Splatoon community.
Group Memberships
On SmashBoards, there are various group memberships that can be joined once certain criteria has been met. Each membership has their own special traits and username colors. In total there are currently 12 groups but there may be new groups added in the future. To join a group, one must meet the criteria for that group and then join it by clicking on Group Memberships in their User Control Panel (User CP). The various groups are as follows:
Unsubscribed
Different ranks are given to unsubscribed SmashBoards members depending on how many posts were made by the member. They serve no purpose other than to show who has contributed their thoughts to the site more.
- Smash Rookie (0-24 posts)
- Smash Cadet (25-74 posts)
- Smash Apprentice (75-199 posts)
- Smash Journeyman (200-499 posts)
- Smash Ace (500-999 posts)
- Smash Lord (1000-1999 posts)
- Smash Champion (2000-2999 posts)
- Smash Master (3000-4999 posts)
- Smash Hero (5000-9999 posts)
- Smash Legend (10000-19999 posts)
- Smash Obsessed (20000+ posts)
Tournament Directors
Tournament Directors have posting rights on the Calendar. There they can advertise any tournaments they may be holding. Their username color is dark blue. To become a Tournament Director, a user must sign up in group memberships with a link to a tourney he or she has hosted or is hosting.
BRoomers
BRoomer is short for Back Roomer. BRoomers have access to a secret forum called the Back Room. Their username color is green and they have a Grimer icon below their name.
Brawl Backroomers
Like the BRoomers, they have their own secret forum but it is dedicated solely to the Super Smash Bros franchise and, in particular, Super Smash Bros Brawl. Every once in a while, M3D creates an admissions thread in the Melee Discussion Room. To get in, a user should be a tournament host, an excellent smasher, and have made notable contributions to the community of Smash. If M3D approves of the user's resume, then he or she will be granted access. Their username color is purple.
Melee Backroomers
These members are part of the Melee Backroom.
64 Backroomers
These members are part of the Smash 64 Backroom.
Workshop BRoom
The Workshop Back Roomers dedicate their time to modifying Brawl. Their work ranges from texture hacks, character making, and editing the game engine itself. They have their own subforum in General Brawl Discussion where users can find discussion on what is being done and downloading code sets for them to use. The leaders are Yeroc and Almas.
Writers
These members do not receive any rights other than bragging rights. It recognizes said member as a writer. To obtain the title of Smash Writer, a user submits an entry to one of the Write With Your Power Contests and if the user reaches 3rd place or higher, he or she will receive it. Their username color is gold and they have a quill icon below their name. A user may also obtain this title by contributing some sort of writing service to the Smash community, such as writing for Show Me Your News.
Premium Members
If a user purchases a Premium membership ranging from 1 month to 1 year, he or she will instantly gain certain powers and privileges not granted to regular members. They have the ability to upload larger avatars, create their own custom titles, gain access to the Disco Room (a sub-forum exclusive to users who have purchased a Premium membership), etc. They do not have a user title specific to their group, but they do have a blue ribbon featuring the word "Premium" below their username. By using a Premium membership, a user can "prank" regular members. Once a member is pranked, their username color changes to magenta, and they get the custom user title of "Pranked!" for a month.
Moderators
This group is unavailable to join in Group Memberships. Instead, they are hand selected to join. They have powers in the rooms they are assigned to. Among these powers are the abilities to edit, close, and move threads. They also gain almost immediate access to the Staffer Shack. Their username color is red.
Super Moderators
They are the same as moderators in their powers but they are not assigned to a particular room. Instead, they have powers in all rooms. Their username color is same as moderators, except slightly darker.
Senators
Refers to a super moderator with access to the Smash Senate. In the Senate, administrators and senators discuss major issues about the forums.
Administrators
The highest level members on the boards. They have access to all rooms and they also have an Admin Control panel along with a Moderator Control panel. They decide all of the boards' major projects or changes, moderate all rooms, and edit and change designs or codings. Their username color is dark grey and in italics.
Itty Bitty Welcoming Committee
The newest usergroup. Members, like moderators, are hand-selected to join. They are in charge of the information center. They have all the powers of moderators, sans the ability to give infractions. Their username color is pale yellow.
Smash Researchers
Smash Researchers have cyan names. These members have access to the Smash Lab, a sub-forum in Competitive Brawl Discussion. Other members cannot see the Smash Lab. The Researchers are responsible for finding and naming new advanced techniques, general study into the game's mechanics, and a variety of other research. The moderator in charge of the Smash Lab and all admissions is currently DeLux.
Smash Developers
Smash Developers have purple names. They have access to the Workshop Developers Corner and are generally the most experienced users when it comes to hacking and modding Brawl.
Pokémon Researchers
Located in the Pokémon Center. They have posting rights in the Pokémon Research subforum, a room focused on movesets of Pokémon in the competitive scene. Other members are allowed to view the room to gain information on good movesets for different purpose Pokémon. Each Pokémon is given 3+ movesets for different purposes.
Unity Ruleset Committee Members
These users are members of the Unity Ruleset Committee. They have a bracket icon under their names.
April Fools' Day gags
In 2015, SmashBoards became ShaqBoards, which made everyone's profile picture into images of Shaquille O'Neal while character mains became emoticons of Shaq. Tier Lists for the game Shaq Fu were posted as well as a guaranteed Luigi misfire tech being discovered. [2]
In 2016, SmashBoards would become EmblemBoards as an inside joke to the huge amount of Fire Emblem characters present in the Super Smash Bros. series. It made everyone's picture into images of characters from the Fire Emblem franchise as well as turning character mains into emoticons of characters from said franchise. Users notably tiered waifus and husbandos during this day. [3]
In 2017, SmashBoards became KnucklesBoards as an inside joke to Knuckles the Echidna, who was intended for inclusion in Project M before development of the mod ceased in 2015. Each user had their picture changed into artwork of Knuckles from various Sonic the Hedgehog games, while character mains became an emoticon of Knuckles. Tier lists were notably based on Knuckles' appearances in Sonic the Fighters and Sonic Battle.[4]
Trivia
- Players first discovered and discussed wavedashing on Smashboards. Its use as a technique was widely attributed to a SmashBoards user named Toadbanjoconker, who posted a video of him performing it back in April 3, 2002.
- During December 2005, Grimer icons started to appear on people's avatars and signatures.
- To turn his website into a business, the owner of the forums, Gideon, started to sell "Premium Memberships", in which members would pay to get special avatars and custom titles. The highest price (Diamond Membership) even got members into the Back Room at one time.
Gallery
Former logo
The previous mobile version of Smashboards
The 2011-2012 version of Smashboards
The 2005-2011 version of Smashboards
The 2002-2005 version of Smashboards
The 2001-2002 version of Smashboards
