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This page documents information about a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. |
| Panda Cup | |
|---|---|
| |
| Info | |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Region | North America |
| Format | Double Elimination |
| Website(s) | Panda Cup website |
The Panda Cup is an ongoing Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament circuit organized by Panda and is the first North American Super Smash Bros. circuit officially licensed by Nintendo. The circuit began on June 24th, 2022 and will conclude on December 18th, 2022. The championships will be held on December 16th-18th, 2022, with a Last Chance Qualifier held on December 15th, 2022. There will be a pot prize starting at $100,000.
Format
32 players in each game will qualify for the finale through four different ways:
1. Featured Community Stops: 11 offline tournaments featured as community stops will have totals of 16 players qualifying for Melee and 18 players qualifying for Ultimate. The number of qualifying spots for each tournament will range from 1 to 3 players. 6 tournaments will be qualifiers for both games, Saving Mr. Lombardi 3 will be a qualifier for Melee only, and Almost Pro, Let's Make Moves Miami, and Port Priority 7 will be qualifiers for Ultimate only.
2. Panda Cup Online Qualifiers: 8 players will qualify through online tournaments for Ultimate only. There are 8 regions, with 4 qualifiers and a regional final for each. Points will be distributed to the Top 96 of each qualifier, with the Top 32 of each region's leaderboard invited to the regional finals. Players will be removed from Top 32 eligibility based on DQs, meaning the Top 32 indicated by points may not be final.[1] In the event of a tie in points for the regional finals spots, all of the tied players will be invited into the regional finals, even if it means more than 32 players will make up the bracket. The regional finals will be a double-elimination bracket with all sets Best of 5. The winner of each regional finals qualifies for the finale. Players must be 18 years or older to participate in the online tournaments, and registration is region-locked to the players living within each tournament's region.
3. Expert Community Panel: A community panel for each game will determine the final players to be invited before the Last Chance Qualifier, inviting 12 players for Melee and 2 players for Ultimate. The panels will include trusted members of the community, many of whom helped to create the MPGR and PGRU. Each panelist will create a list, and the lists will be combined and averaged to determine the invited players.
The panel will judge players based on 4 criteria:
- Placement at Panda Cup events
- Win rate against players who are qualified or with a higher seed at Panda Cup events
- Losses against qualified or higher seed players
- Win/loss rate against other players who may be chosen by the panel
4. Last Chance Qualifier: The Panda Cup Last Chance Qualifier will be an offline bracket held the day before the finale, with the top 4 players of each game qualifying.[2]
In the Panda Cup Finale, the 32 qualified players of each game will face off. All finalists will earn complimentary travel and housing.[3]
Online Qualifier scoring
| Placement | Score |
|---|---|
| 1st | 100 |
| 2nd | 70 |
| 3rd | 45 |
| 4th | 30 |
| 5th | 20 |
| 7th | 12 |
| 9th | 8 |
| 13th | 6 |
| 17th | 5 |
| 25th | 4 |
| 33rd | 3 |
| 49th | 2 |
| 65th | 1 |
Official Ruleset
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Game settings
- Stocks: 4
- Timer: 8:00
- Game Version: NTSC 1.02 and all characters/stages unlocked, using the TO’s choice of memory card data
Stages
| Starter | Counterpick |
|---|---|
| Battlefield | Pokémon Stadium |
| Yoshi's Story | |
| Dream Land | |
| Final Destination | |
| Fountain of Dreams |
Additional rules
- Stage Clause: A player may not counterpick any stage they previously won on during the set, unless agreed upon by the opponent.
- Wobbling is banned.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Game settings
- Stocks: 3
- Timer: 7:00
- FS Meter: Off
- Spirits: Off
- Damage Handicap: Off
- Stage Selection: Anyone
- Items: Off and None
- First to: 1 Win
- Stage Morph: Off
- Stage Hazards: Off
- Team Attack: On
- Launch Rate: x1.0
- Underdog Boost: Off
- Pausing: Off
- Score Display: Off
- Show Damage: Yes
Options
- Custom Balance: Off
- Echo Fighters: Separate
- Radar: Big
- Team Highlight: On
- Mii Fighters: All moveset combinations are legal
Stages
Ultimate's stage list is subject to change.
| Starter | Counterpick |
|---|---|
| Battlefield | Kalos Pokémon League |
| Final Destination* | Lylat Cruise |
| Pokémon Stadium 2 | Small Battlefield |
| Smashville | |
| Town and City |
*The only acceptable alternative form of Final Destination (chosen through the Omega Form option on stage select) is Wuhu Island Omega.
Player qualification
Players can only qualify once. If a player is already qualified, the next highest placing non-qualified player receives the spot.[4] If a qualified player declines to participate, the qualifying spot will be transferred to the next highest ranked player in the event in which the declining player competed who is not otherwise qualified, following the tiebreaker rules listed below.
In the event Panda Cup Finale qualifying spots require tiebreakers (for example, because one spot trickles down to 7th place, where there are two players), the following system is in place:
- If one spot has two claimants: both tied players face-off in a best-of-five set. The winner of this set claims the Panda Cup Finale spot.
- If one spot has three or more claimants: a single-elimination bracket of best-of-five sets is played out, seeded based on initial event seeding. The winner of this bracket claims the Panda Cup Finale spot.
- If two spots have three or more claimants: a double-elimination bracket of best-of-five sets is set up. If the number of claimants is not a power of two (2, 4, 8, etc), the players with the lowest initial seedings begin in losers (leaving a power-of-two number of players in Winners). The players who make it to Grand Finals of this bracket claim the Panda Cup Finale spots.
- If three spots have four or more claimants: a double-elimination bracket of best-of-five sets is set up. If the number of claimants is not a power of two (4, 8, etc), the players with the lowest initial seedings begin in losers (leaving a power-of-two number of players in Winners). The two players who make it to Winners Finals and the one player who makes it to Losers Finals of this bracket claim the Panda Cup Finale spots.
List of tournaments
Melee
Offline qualifiers
| Event | Date | Attendance | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEO 2022 | June 24th-26th | 224 |  Plup
|
| Get On My Level 2022 | July 1st-3rd | 493 | Hungrybox
|
| Smash Factor 9 | July 29th-31st | 101 | Wizzrobe
|
| Lost Tech City 2022 | September 30th-October 2nd | 153 | Mango
|
| The Big House 10 | October 7th-9th | 982 |  aMSa
|
| Saving Mr. Lombardi 3 | November 12th | 152 | KoDoRiN
|
| DreamHack Atlanta 2022 | November 18th-20th | TBD | TBD |
Finale
| Event | Date | Attendance | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panda Cup Last Chance Qualifier | December 15th | TBD | TBD |
| Panda Cup Finale | December 16th-18th | 32 | TBD |
Ultimate
Offline qualifiers
| Event | Date | Attendance | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEO 2022 | June 24th-26th | 651 |  Sonix
|
| Get On My Level 2022 | July 1st-3rd | 753 | Onin
|
| Smash Factor 9 | July 29th-31st | 719 |  MkLeo
|
| Almost Pro | September 2nd-4th | 194 | Aaron
|
| Lost Tech City 2022 | September 30th-October 2nd | 418 | Marss
|
| The Big House 10 | October 7th-9th | 636 | Riddles
|
| Let's Make Moves Miami | October 28th-30th | 467 |  acola
|
| Port Priority 7 | November 12th-13th | 600 | Tweek
|
| DreamHack Atlanta 2022 | November 18th-20th | TBD | TBD |
Online qualifiers
Online finals
| Event | Date | Attendance | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
Panda Cup Online Qualifier: Heartland Regional Finals |
October 15th | 37 | Ravenking
|
| Panda Cup Online Qualifier: Mid-Atlantic USA Regional Finals |
October 16th | 33 | MPg
|
| Panda Cup Online Qualifier: Southeast USA Regional Finals |
October 22nd | 33 | Jake
|
| Panda Cup Online Qualifier: South-Central USA Regional Finals |
October 23rd | 31 | Deathspade
|
| Panda Cup Online Qualifier: Southwest USA Regional Finals |
October 29th | 33 | Scend
|
| Panda Cup Online Qualifier: Mexico Regional Finals |
October 30th | 32 | Chag
|
| Panda Cup Online Qualifier: Northeast NA Regional Finals |
November 5th | 33 | Anarchy
|
| Panda Cup Online Qualifier: Northwest NA Regional Finals |
November 6th | 34 | Justice
|
Finale
| Event | Date | Attendance | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panda Cup Last Chance Qualifier | December 15th | TBD | TBD |
| Panda Cup Finale | December 16th-18th | 32 | TBD |
Players qualified
Melee
The following players qualified through offline tournaments in the circuit for Melee:
|
Panda Cup Last Chance Qualifier
|
The following players were invited by panelists for Melee:
Ultimate
The following players qualified through offline tournaments in the circuit for Ultimate:
|
Panda Cup Last Chance Qualifier
|
The following players qualified through online finals in the circuit for Ultimate:
- Heartland:
Ravenking - Mid-Atlantic USA: MPg
- Southeast USA: Jake
- South-Central USA: Deathspade
- Southwest USA: Scend
- Mexico:
Chag - Northeast NA:
Anarchy - Northwest NA: Justice
The following players were invited by panelists for Ultimate:
Regional qualifier players
| Region | Online Finals | Finale player | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heartland | |||||||||
| Mid-Atlantic USA | |||||||||
| Southeast USA | |||||||||
| South-Central USA | |||||||||
| Southwest USA | |||||||||
| Mexico | |||||||||
| Northeast NA | |||||||||
| Northwest NA | |||||||||
Trivia
- A Panda Cup trailer for Lost Tech City 2022 and The Big House 10 featuring past tournament matches in both Melee and Ultimate was posted to the Nintendo Switch's Nintendo Switch Online app on September 19th, 2022.[5][6]
References
External links
- The Panda Cup Online Qualifiers start.gg page
- Official website
- Twitter account
- Panda Cup YouTube account, PandaVODs YouTube account
- pandacup Twitch account, pandacup2 Twitch account, pandacupesp Twitch account
- Teaser trailer
- Announcement trailer
- Panda and Nintendo circuit announcement news article on Panda.gg
- Panda Cup announcement news article on Panda.gg
| Panda Cup | |
|---|---|
| Melee qualifiers | CEO 2022 · Get On My Level 2022 · Smash Factor 9 · Lost Tech City 2022 · The Big House 10 · Saving Mr. Lombardi 3 · DreamHack Atlanta 2022 · |
| Ultimate offline qualifiers | CEO 2022 · Get On My Level 2022 · Smash Factor 9 · Almost Pro · Lost Tech City 2022 · The Big House 10 · Let's Make Moves Miami · Port Priority 7 · DreamHack Atlanta 2022 · |
| Ultimate online qualifiers | Southeast USA (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) · Heartland (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) · Northwest NA (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) · Mid-Atlantic USA (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) · Mexico (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) · Southwest USA (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) · South-Central USA (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) · Northeast NA (1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Finals) |
| Finals | |