Super Pichu cheating scandal
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The Chaos cheating scandal was an incident that occurred in the Ohio Smash Bros. scene.
On June 24th-26th, 2016, a Smasher by the name of Chaos placed 2nd at the Alter Reality Games 2016 tournament using Pichu, a character notoriously known as a joke character. Following this, it was proven that Chaos had cheated by installing gameplay modifications on his setups to buff Pichu's attacks, resulting in lopsided matchups.
This incident is notable for being the first and only recorded case of cheating in Smash Bros. tournaments through gameplay modification.
Background
Pichu was ranked 24th out of 26th on the game's twelfth tier list on December 10th, 2015 at the time due to a multitude of weaknesses, including being the lightest character in the game (which causes it to get KOed very easily while being very susceptible to combos due to sustaining comparatively long hitstun), very short-ranged attacks, moves which caused recoil damage, and a nearly nonexistent defensive game. Although the tenth tier list (dated from December 31st, 2010), would be the most recent NTSC tier list in which Pichu would be considered the worst character in the game (along with Kirby), this would be further be emphasized in its Smash Red (Adventure) and Blue (All-Star) trophies, revealing Pichu's status as a "joke character".
Despite Pichu's near-bottom tier list rankings, however, numerous players such as Keropi- and Swordsaint have demonstrated Pichu's potential strengths (including a fast, comboing neutral aerial, a frame 9 up smash and an effective grab game) at various tournaments, including the latter's noteworthy 97th place finish at EVO 2014; however, due to the strengths shown by established top-tier characters such as Fox and Falco and their dominance in Melee's competitive scene, it should be noted that this niche is only its most prominent at smaller tournaments.
On March 10th, 2015, Chaos (xChaos on SmashBoards) stated in a SmashBoards forum titled "Pichu isn't the worst!",[1] that despite Marth being his most used character, he was more gravitating towards Pichu's potential from a personal skill-based perspective, intending to improve his skill level with the character. In turn, this would provoke drama stemming from numerous users on the forum.
The tournament
During the Alter Reality Games 2016 Melee singles, Chaos and another player, Remix were arguing on whose setup would be used for their tournament match.[2] However, both players agreed to play on Chaos' setup, albeit with Remix beating Chaos 2-1 in Round 1. However, despite Chaos losing to Remix, he would go on to defeat 5 opponents in a row in the Losers' Bracket, notably defeating Surf's up. hail satan, who was one of the best Melee players from Northeast Ohio; however, Chaos would afterwards argue with Minnty, his next opponent and a fellow top professional, on whose setup their match would be played. Eventually, both players agreed to play on Chaos' setup, albeit with Chaos defeating Minnty 2-0.
After defeating Minnty, Chaos went on to Loser's Finals and faced off with Joeycrzl, who was ranked 9th on the Northeastern Ohio Power Rankings in the summer of 2016. Chaos went on to defeat Joeycrzl in a 3-1 upset,[2] and would go on to face 4%, ranked first on summer 2016's Northeastern Ohio Power Rankings, and notably ranked 99th on the SSBMRank 2016. Despite Chaos' previous match victories, 4% beat Chaos in a very narrow 3-2 win, with 4% winning the tournament, Chaos getting 2nd place and Joeycrzl getting 3rd place, each of them winning cash prizes for their respective top 3 placings.
The aftermath
Following Chaos' 2nd-place victory with a character with a nearly nonexistent playerbase, players began considering the likelihood that Chaos had been cheating. In a forum post from an unnamed tournament attendee, they claimed that Chaos had KO'ed Joeycrzl's Ice Climbers with Pichu's uncharged forward smash at 18% during a transformation on Pokémon Stadium;[2] while Pichu's forward smash is notable for having the highest base knockback of any forward smash in vanilla Melee, it does not normally KO at said percentage range.
Some time later, a local event was organized for players in the Ohio Melee scene to gather together, with Chaos showing up as one of the attendees.[2] While the attendees were playing their games, a plan was created to expose whether Chaos was actually cheating or not. The plan involved distracting Chaos by having some of the attendees take him along to a Sheetz convenience store nearby, while having another group stay behind to copy the SD card in Chaos' Wii to a separate SD card. After Chaos returned and everyone went home, the people who copied Chaos' SD card showed video footage of Chaos' Pichu down tilt, which turned out to have increased range compared to vanilla Melee.
Final words
On July 2nd, 2016, a post in the r/smashbros subreddit confirmed that Chaos had indeed cheated the whole time; among the various known changes compiled in the post are the following:
- Down tilt is longer and has increased knockback.
- Forward smash is stronger and can no longer be SDI'ed.
- Aerial attacks have no lag.
- Pichu's weight is higher.
It was also revealed that likewise through cheating, these changes could be used by plugging a GameCube controller into the fourth controller port, pressing a certain button combination on the character selection screen and using Pichu's blue alternate costume.
Chaos's cheating would soon be exposed; as a result, he would be banned from attending tournaments in Ohio, while his earnings from the tournament would also be confiscated.
The impact of Chaos' cheating would leave a notorious impact on the Smash scene due to the potential easiness of using cheats, hacks and other abnormal methods without universally modifying games or creating the risk of getting caught. As a result, this incident is widely regarded as the very first instance of cheating in competitive Smash Bros. history.
