SuPeRbOoMfAn vs. Gerson (Tacna 2014)

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SuPeRbOoMfAn vs. Gerson was an infamous Losers' Semifinals match that took place at the Peruvian superegional Tacna 2014 between Super Smash Bros. players SuPeRbOoMfAn and Gerson. Often considered one of the worst competitive sets in Smash history, the match is notable for its incredibly long length, with its first game being particularly infamous for being the longest game in competitive Smash history. This was done intentionally by SuPeRbOoMfAn as a protest against certain rules the tournament used, such as the lack of a proper Match timer and especially the use of Hyrule Castle as the only legal stage. This match is also cited as the catalyst for sweeping initiatives to standardize and unify the global SSB competitive community, such as requiring a match timer, either external or built-in via mods, as well as retiring Hyrule Castle in favor of Dream Land.

Background

Being the progenitor of the series, the original Super Smash. Bros lacks many features competitors of future entries take for granted. The most important missing feature to this entry is the lack of a match timer, meaning there is no way for a game to end by time out and games can theoretically last forever providing no player loses their last stock. Another issue with the game is that none of its multiplayer stages have aged particularly well for a fair competitive environment, with the majority of debate around stage selection being which one is the least broken to play on. Around 2014, this debate boiled down to the stages Dream Land and Hyrule Castle, with different regions selecting one or the other without consulting other regions first. SSB players in Peru, where the Tacna tournament series was located, were generally in the camp that Hyrule Castle should be the one legal stage, which was reflected in the rules for Tacna 2014.

For a long time prior to this tournament, Ontario-native competitive player Daniel "SuPeRbOoMfAn" Hoyt, known as among the best to ever play the game, openly expressed issue with this stage being tournament legal, given its intrusive hazards, cave of life, and large size that promotes camping. He would travel from Canada to Peru and entered this tournament as a way to plead his case to the Peruvian community that Dream Land is the superior option. However, he was a minority opinion in this tournament, given he was Canadian and one of only two foreign competitors, the other being Mariguas from the Baja California region of Mexico, so the stage list stayed as the tournament began.

The match

SuPeRbOoMfAn would enter round five of the Losers' Bracket and meet Peruvian player Gerson German Chucuya Cruz, going by simply "Gerson" and one of the best players in Peru. Considering the skill density of this particular match, a large crowd gathered to watch this historic match, unaware that it would be historic for the wrong reasons. SuPeRbOoMfAn picked Kirby and Gerson picked Pikachu, and the game was played on Hyrule Castle per the rules.

As Game 1 began, SuPeRbOoMfAn aggressively utilized Kirby's overpowered defensive capabilities to gain a quick lead and then stall as much as possible, which was fairly easy given Hyrule Castle's layout. SuPeRbOoMfAn would travel to the top platform of the stage and wait for Gerson to approach him. Despite Pikachu widely being considered the best character in the game even at the time, a glaring weakness is that Pikachu notoriously struggles in countering this campy playstyle, and Gerson responded by playing especially careful and risk averse. This led to long periods of time where no damage was taken from either player. Gerson would attempt to use Thunder, the only move that could safely reach the top platform, but it being very slow allowed SuPeRbOoMfAn to easily dodge each attempt.

During this game, Gerson reportedly offered a gentleman agreement to consider this game no contest and essentially restart the game on Dream Land, to which SuPeRbOoMfAn refused. When Gerson was on his last stock, SuPeRbOoMfAn almost exclusively attempted up throw to deal damage and end the game. Gerson finally lost his last stock to end the game after 52 minutes and 15 seconds in the longest competitive game of Smash ever recorded. As the match was a best of 3, both players had to play at least another game against each other. Gerson again offered to play on Dream Land, but SuPeRbOoMfAn insisted to play to the letter of the tournament rules. SuPeRbOoMfAn would win game 2 in about 11 minutes using the same tactics, making this the longest recorded best-of-3 set in Smash history at roughly 1 hour and 3 minutes. SuPeRbOoMfAn ultimately finished third in the tournament, losing to Marka 2-0.

Aftermath and legacy

News of this match quickly spread through the competitive Smash community, and it became a lightning rod of discourse. The most immediate discussions were people in shock at just how stubborn and petty both players were being during the match, particularly SuPeRbOoMfAn in how he effectively held the match hostage without technically breaking any rules. Others felt vindicated when they previously agreed with SuPeRbOoMfAn that this outcome was inevitable given its rules of Hyrule Castle and no time limit.

Soon after this tournament, sweeping changes were made to most tournament rulesets, mostly in regions conceding that they were misguided and conforming to the rules SuPeRbOoMfAn wanted all along. The most major changes were Hyrule Castle now being banned worldwide for the most part, with Dream Land taking its place as the only competitively legal stage. Another major change is the mandate for some kind of match timer to guarantee a game will end eventually. This initially meant the use of an external timer like the referee using a stopwatch and calling a winner if the stopwatch runs out. After a brief period of experimentation, the generally agreed upon time limit is now 8 minutes, given most competitive games use 5 stocks. Later on, gameplay mods that hack in a timer like 19XXTE have become a tournament standard, opening the door for other quality of life mods to be more acceptable in a competitive setting.

Starting in 2015 and later being built upon in future entries, Undertale and Deltarune creator Toby Fox includes a subtle reference to this match in the recurring character Gerson Boom, a dual reference to both players in this game. An additional reference in these games is that Gerson has a son named Alvin, the name of another top SSB player.

The incident saw a resurgence following GRsmash's video in December 2023 regarding the match, titled The Longest Game in Smash History. The video has since received over 700,000 views, making it the most-viewed video surrounding Smash 64 in the 2020s.