Smash Bros: The Competitive Perspective

Thanks to passionate fan communities and streaming sites like Twitch, esports and competitive gaming have blossomed in recent years. The Super Smash Bros. community has proven particularly vibrant, with players from all over the world coming together out of their love for the franchise. We recently sat down with experienced competitive community member Max Ketchum to discuss that community and how it views the newest entries in the series.

TSSZ: How would you describe Smash’s competitive community to someone who has never followed it, or who may not have even known that it exists?

Ketchum: The Smash community, with the right amount of personal investment, is like a global extended family. To sum it up in a few sentences would be to ignore many of its amazing qualities. It’s truly a thing of beauty – players of every background you could imagine are brought together in one place, bound only by their love of Smash.

At tournaments and even on major online hubs for the community, friendships are built, rivalries are fueled, and everyone is constantly pushing themselves to their limits. Whether they’re players, commentators, tournament organizers, content creators, live stream producers, or even game theorists, everyone seems to find their niche in the community. That’s part of what makes it so amazing – you don’t have to be the best player to be loved and appreciated.

Also, because everyone comes from such diverse upbringings, everyone involved is wildly accepting of others. One of the things I’ve most admired the Smash community for is the unspoken rule that everyone is allowed to be their true selves, no holds barred. There are blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, gays, transgenders, Christians, Muslims, atheists, and anything else you can come up with at tournaments. What you identify as anywhere else has no bearing on the fact that you’re a Smasher. It’s magical. I sometimes compare it to Hogwarts.

TSSZ: Lots of people in the community seem to be really passionate about the game. In your opinion, what is it about Smash in particular that keeps players so invested in it?

Ketchum: Without even looking at the game, the community really makes things interesting. There’s an awesome narrative that runs throughout. Some people are like really entertaining characters – there are favorite winners and losers, and all sorts of personalities to go along with it. It’s like professional boxing, or a less overtly corny version of the WWE. The individual, not a team, receives the focus.

Then when you look at what Smash brings to the table as an actual video game, it makes even more sense. The game is brilliantly simple, yet infinitely deep. Players are given countless chances to express themselves through their gameplay, and everyone wants to eventually show that they’re the best. The journey of improvement itself is enticing enough to keep most people invested in anything.

I think a lot of us also secretly know that Smash has potential to become one of the biggest esports, if not the biggest. One distinct advantage that it has over every other huge competitive game, such as League of Legends or StarCraft, is the notoriety of its characters. Another is its accessible interface, which clearly shows who’s winning or losing with little room for confusion or misunderstanding. Competitive Smash has something in it for everyone, and if it had the power of developer support from Nintendo to spread the word about tournament locations or the existence of the community, it could blow up overnight. Watching the community’s progress over the years has been exciting in itself, and I’m sure many would agree that tracking the success of our collective efforts has been part of what keeps us so enthusiastic and dedicated.

TSSZ: To what degree have you seen the competitive community embrace Smash on Wii U? Are people engaging with the game? Are they ignoring it? Or has reception landed somewhere in between?

Ketchum: The game has been received very well by many competitive players, there was never any doubt about that. Pretty much everyone who played Brawl in tournaments has either moved on to Smash 4 or come out of retirement for its release, and some Melee veterans have experimented with it or picked it up as a secondary game. Many newcomers who learned about competitive Smash in recent years decided that this would be the first title they start attending tournaments for. As such, there’s definitely a solid player base for the game.

I personally love the game. So many characters are currently capable of winning in tournaments, which really shakes things up. Watching insane performances from good players is really captivating, though not many have achieved such a level yet because the game really is unique.

TSSZ: Some people feared that the 3DS Smash game would simply serve as a stopgap game to pass time before the Wii U release. Now that that’s happened, do people still actively play the 3DS game competitively, or has focus since shifted away from it?

Ketchum: No serious tournament still runs 3DS, unless they have lots of extra time and feel like having side events. The Wii U version is the same game with a slightly different stage list and better graphics/controls, so the only reason to play 3DS now is for mobile practice. Local play wasn’t even perfect on the 3DS because there was no wired connection available, so some tournament matches would lag.

TSSZ: Melee remains one of, if not the, most popular Smash game from a competitive perspective. Why is this, and how do the newest Smash games compare to it, especially in terms of their core mechanics?

Ketchum: Melee has always had a very passionate and dedicated community in the West. Even when the release of Brawl threatened to make their game a thing of the past, the movers and shakers stepped up to the plate and made sure tournaments kept happening. The spotlight offered by a slot on the Evo 2013 tournament lineup and Samox’s documentary “The Smash Brothers” breathed new light into the scene, and Melee has been growing steadily since.

It was able to survive and even surpass Brawl for a few reasons. First and foremost, it’s a much faster game in terms of actual physics and match pace, which makes it a lot more exciting to watch. Brawl matches dragged on, partially due to an engine that didn’t promote heavy combos and partially due to a misfit ruleset of three stocks instead of one or two.

In addition to the spectator value of Melee, its fans really did not want to see it go. Because the game was so different from Brawl, especially at higher levels of play, many who had invested time and seen success in Melee didn’t want their efforts to become irrelevant, so they were very vocal about their dislike for the new title. Melee players not liking Brawl became deeply sewn into Smash culture, with some even taking it to extremes. Since Samox’s documentary focused solely on the Melee-playing portion of the community, many of the new recruits it generated were inducted with a similar mentality. As such, unfortunately, you’ll see a lot of new players bashing on Brawl and probably not even knowing why.

In terms of game mechanics, Smash 4 is a lot more like Brawl than Melee on the surface, but lots of stuff is a healthy mix of the two. To the inexperienced player, it might seem like Smash 4 has Brawl’s floatiness and lack of combos, but someone who’s actually good can move quickly, smoothly, and reap massive rewards from their skill. People’s initial impressions turned a lot of Melee-heads away from the new game, but now that it’s fleshing out and tournament play is starting to look cleaner and more exciting, I think it’ll start drawing in some former skeptics. It’s a lot less like Brawl than most people originally thought.

TSSZ: As with all fighting games, some characters are better than others. Which fighters do you consider top-tier in both the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game, and which ones are the absolute worst?

Ketchum: It’s way too early to tell for sure as the game has only been out for a month and a half on Wii U and just short of four months on the 3DS. However, we can already tell that characters like Diddy Kong, Sheik, Sonic, Pikachu, and Zero Suit Samus are very strong. They’re all very fast, but have powerful KO options. With the exception of Diddy Kong, they all have great recoveries. With the exception of Sonic, they all have projectiles. With the exception of Zero Suit Samus, they all have fantastic grab games. These are traits that generally make for powerful characters.

It’s very hard to tell who the worst characters in Smash 4 are, especially this early. The game feels very well-balanced, and nobody seems to be utter garbage yet. Falco and Toon Link are often speculated to be on the weaker end of things, but I’ve seen some scary stuff from them both anyway. Every time I start thinking a character is bad, I come across footage of them doing something crazy that convinces me they’re solid.

TSSZ: Given our website’s focus, I have to ask: how does Sonic stack up against the rest of the new games’ rosters? What are his advantages and disadvantages relative to the rest of the roster?

Ketchum: As I mentioned in the previous question, Sonic is amazing in this game. I think he’s easily one of the top five characters in the current metagame, though that’s subject to change in either direction over time.

His greatest asset is, of course, his trademark speed. Any whiffed (missed) attack from an opponent can be punished from a full-screen distance, either by simply running over and grabbing/dash attacking them, or Spin Dashing in for an aerial followup. This makes it extremely dangerous for Sonic’s opponents to pressure him, because they have to be very precise. If they get too close for comfort, you can just block or run to safety and reset the long-range game that Sonic so excels at.

Other great attributes include his easy combo game (up throw into aerials, Spin Dash into aerials), a throw that kills at fairly low percents (back throw around 110 near the ledge), and a great escape from combo attempts (up B, with the option to down air back to the ground quickly). His greatest weakness is the lack of disjointed attacks (ones that aren’t connected to his body, like a sword), but he’s fast enough to get in and out when he wants.

TSSZ: If someone is interested in starting to play Smash competitively, how would you suggest they go about doing that? What should they do to sharpen their skills and improve as a player?

Ketchum: I’d say the most important thing by a longshot is to attend tournaments in person. Specifically, attend tournaments hosted and attended by established community members. This will expose you to other motivated individuals looking to get better, show you what high-level Smash is all about, and give you a wide range of practice partners. Make an account on Smashboards and join your area’s local Smash group on Facebook. Learn some background information on the community, and do some light reading on advanced techniques, character tutorials, or matchup analysis.

The best method to improve is to play the game. I find it particularly helpful to play with (at least) one person who’s slightly better than you, one person who’s slightly worse than you, and one person who’s just as good as you. This way, you’re constantly challenged, but you can also track your improvement alongside someone else’s, and you can experiment with new strategies you may not be comfortable with yet against a lesser player.

The way people play the game who attend tournaments looks a lot different and more masterful than casual players. Even playing a bottom-rung competitive player for a while will create massive improvement over a much shorter period than playing with the best kid at your school. The tournament scene is very welcoming and happy to help people improve, so just show up to an event and start playing! Ask for advice! It’s how most of us started, and we totally understand your plight.

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Max Ketchum is a competitor, commentator, tournament organizer, and live broadcaster in the greater New York area with years of experience in the competitive Smash community. You can catch him at tournaments a few times a week or talking about cats on Twitter @juiceDoom.