Pacific Northwest
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The Pacific Northwest (often acronymized to PNW) is a Smash region in the United States. The PNW generally refers to the states of Oregon, Washington (which is typically further split into Eastern Washington and Western Washington due to the difficulty of travelling across the state) and the province of British Columbia (BC). Additional regions like Alberta, Idaho and Montana may occasionally be grouped in, but in most cases the region is exclusively the coastal states and provinces. The Pacific Northwest harbors one of the most active Smash Ultimate scenes in the United States, as well as one of the most active P+ scenes. The scene is most populous in Western Washington, where attendance count for locals such as Orbitar are remarkably high and - in the case an attendance cap is needed - reach capacity quickly. However, the region has struggled to obtain mainstream relevancy on the same level as other regions due to a number of factors, from geographic isolation to other regions scheduling larger events over the PNW's own. Despite this, very strong players for all Smash games have come out of the region, including SilentWolf, Bladewise, Ka-Master, moxi, Big D, and Pikmon. The Pacific Northwest has also received a significant amount of direct support and events from Nintendo, as the Nintendo of America headquarters is located in Redmond, Washington. Examples include attending the annual conventions Emerald City Comic Con and Penny Arcade Expo's PAX West with dedicated booths. While not officially affiliated, PAX also has its PAX Arena tournament, which usually features at least one Smash game. Nintendo also has a traveling booth that they fill with games and events and bring to local festivals like Seafair and the Seattle Street Food Festival. More minor examples include Nintendo sponsoring technology based institutes like Digipen Institute of Technology, but direct support of local competitive tournaments has remained sparse to nonexistant. ContentsSuper Smash Bros. Melee[edit]Notable Players[edit]Globally Ranked Players[edit]
Other Notable Players[edit]Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]History & Events[edit]2018-2019[edit]As expected, the Ultimate scene was initially comprised of many Smash 4 veterans, as well as dozens of new players. The Pacific Northwest was one of the first battlegrounds for an Ultimate major, as Don't Park on the Grass 2018 was held only a week after the game's release. Konga would be the highest-placing Pacific Northwest player at 3rd, with Big D, Captain L, and Magister joining him in Top 8. The Pacific Northwest continued a largely quiet existence separated from the rest of the national scene, with occasional trips to majors made by the scene's most prominent players at the time, namely moxi, Big D, and Captain L, all of which would eventually earn a PGRU spot. Battle of BC 3 and Port Priority 5 were the largest events held in the northwest since DPG, reaching over 400 entrants each. 2019 also saw an anticpated rise from those who joined the scene after the release of Ultimate, including Ouch and Mystery Sol. 2020[edit]With the Smash World Tour marking Port Priority 6 as a Gold-tier event and Emerald City 9 looking to pull more national talent from out of region including the likes of Elegant and Scend, the Pacific Northwest was projected to have a greater spotlight on it compared to previous years. However, the COVID-19 Pandemic quickly halted any offline activity on the global scale, forcing Emerald City 9 to cancel only a few days before the event, and relegating all Smash competition to online events. The Pacific Northwest was unique among other regions participating in the WiFi-era, the biggest difference being that players largely participated in tournaments region-locked to the PNW region rather than nationwide events like Mega Smash Mondays, The Box or Smash @ Xanadu, causing the scene to become more isolated than ever. Additionally, numerous power-ranked players rarely or entirely refused to participate in wifi tournaments, opening the door for quickly improving players like rm8, Justice and JDV to gain lots of tournament experience over quarantine. 2021[edit]The first half of 2021 largely continued on the same path as 2020 had ended. The initial seeding for the SWT: NA Northwest Ultimate Online Qualifier came under scrutiny for the local playerbase as the seeding team weren't aware of the PNW's habit of only participating in region-locked wifi events, leading to questionable seeding. With the help of local wifi TOs including Cube, this problem was quickly resolved, and the tournament is noteworthy for being among the least upset-prone major Ultimate events ever. Local tournaments began to resurface around the summer. Within only a few tournaments, players dedicated to online play began to perform exceptionally well, with JDV winning the first Western Washington tournament back, Ouch winning Pinnacle 2021 & dominating the British Columbian scene, and Domnique securing the #1 spot in Oregon. Due to US/Canada land border complications, Canadian participation in American tournaments has plummeted dramatically - and vice versa, with the only player regularly crossing the border being Capsize. This also led to numerous BC players being unable to attend Port Priority 6, the Pacific Northwest's first truly undisputed major for Ultimate with over 600 entrants. Notable Players[edit]Globally Ranked Players[edit]
Other Notable Players[edit]
Super Smash Bros. 4[edit]Notable Players[edit]Globally Ranked Players[edit]
Other Notable Players[edit]
Instances of overlapping major events with other regions/organizations[edit]Pacific Northwest events have been prone to being scheduled over by other larger organizations or events, oven splitting or crushing viewership for the northwest.
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