User:ZeusDeeGoose/Drafts/PM Competitive history

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Project M developed a groundbreaking tournament scene, as the first mod to gain significant tournament play, as well as the first Smash scene to be played under active game revision, with drastic changes in characters and balance over the course of the game's lifespan. As a result, Project M developed a dynamic scene, consisting of several Melee and Brawl players uniting under one common game, before eventually developing new talent of its own. Project+, following the discontinuation of Project M, continued to do the same, though with less visibility and popularity as time went on. As it stands, it remains a respected, though small scene within the competitive Smash sphere, continuing to proceed it's base game in attendance rates.

As mods, Project M and Project+ were subject to legal action under tournament play, due to Nintendo disavowing the use of mods in tournament. As such, the modern scene, particularly Project+, is much more underground compared to other Smash titles, out of necessity to keep the game active.

2011-2013: Demo era

Project M was released on February 7, 2011, and not soon after, saw some of its very first tournament play in 2011. It was first featured at Pound V, but saw its first notable tournament at GENESIS 2 with 52 entrants, and its first major at MELEE-FC10R Legacy, with Hungrybox taking the game's first major event. During the demo era, its tournament presence was much less prevalent than it would become in the future, with most events being under 100 entrants. One more major would occur in this era; The Big House 3, won by Kirk. The early metagame was largely dominated by Melee veterans, as many techniques in both games carried over, but Kirk's victory marked the first major to be won by a player who was not particularly known for Melee, which signaled the beginning of the new talent that Project M would see.

The spacies were the most popular characters during this time, but regardless, there was no clear best character. Though the spacies were present within the top 8 of the 3 aformentioned tournaments, no player won a major with them in this era. Due to Project M's rebalancing efforts, one could not rely on the Melee or Brawl tier lists to make a judgement for the cast. While the early metagame was generally dominated by 64 and Melee veterans, character variety remained high, and no character was overtly dominant.

2013-2015: 3.0 era

With the release of 3.0 on December 9, 2013, Project M was officially considered complete, will all characters added into the roster. This also included the additions of Mewtwo and Roy, two originally cut characters from Brawl. This happened only a few months before Project M's magnum opus; Apex 2014, which became the game's first supermajor event. It shattered entrance records, at over 382 entrants, and saw a myriad of cross-game talent, with the Melee god Armada winning the event with Pit. This made Armada the best player in Europe at the time, with only Professor Pro and Leffen coming close in terms of results. Finally, aMSa was the best player in Japan, piloting Lucario to place 9th in CEO 2014.

The two best characters were firmly solidified as Mewtwo and Pit, with ZeRo notably achieving a 3-major win streak while piloting both Pit and Fox to victory, ending the year 2014 as the best player in the world. Despite Pit's 4 major titles, Mewtwo was considered to be the superior pick by far, with ZeRo going as far as to make an extended rant about the character. In the early metagame, the best Mewtwo player was Emukiller, who was one of three players to win a major in 2014, and the sole player to not have used Pit in any capacity. Though Mewtwo representation was low at Apex 2014, after his win at SKTAR 3, Mewtwo would go in to be the most used character at the time, with 3 Mewtwo players in CEO 2014s top 16 and 3 in Zenith 2014's top 8. Other notable tournament threats during this time included Diddy Kong, with Zenith 2014 seeing 3 Diddy Kong players in it's top 8, Lucas, largely represented by Pink Fresh in the early metagame, and finally, Mario, a frequent character in Mew2King's roster, and Gallo's main.

To close out 2014, the PMDT released arguably the most impactful update to Project M; aside from content additions, many characters saw reworks, buffs, and nerfs, in v3.5. Accordingly, both Mewtwo and Pit received a myriad of nerfs in v3.5, though Mewtwo fared significantly better after the nerfs overall, with Pit eventually fading into the limelight as Project M's lifetime went on. Meanwhile, though there was no official tier list for v3.5, Mewtwo finished at 3rd place in Project M's last tier list. Other former top tiers had mixed results after their nerfs. Diddy Kong and Lucas remained strong, but Mario was eventually regarded as a mid-tier as v3.6 went on.

Despite being nerfed, Junebug would end up dominating 2015 with Diddy Kong, finishing no lower than 5th at any event in 2015, and winning two majors in that time. As such, he was regarded as the best Project M player in 2015. Other notable occurrences in 2015 included prodigy MrLz winning Paragon Los Angeles 2015 just days before his 14th birthday, not only making him the winner of the largest Project M tournament at the time, but also the youngest player to win a major in any Smash game ever.

• Other top 5 contenders in 2015
• Junebug
• MrLz
• Professor Pro
• Ally
• Mew2King
  • The last 4 probably don't need large sections; Junebug is the best player in 2015
• v3.5 nerfs & changes
• Nintendo beginning to crack down on PM
  • Don't include discontinuation until next section

2016-2019: Post-discontinuation and Project+ era

Project M was discontinued in 2015, with Mewtwo2000 citing fears of legal action against the mod, with the team opting to disband thereafter.

• introduction of PMRank and PMBR
• thunder's reign
• Peak of PM popularity
• Project+ release
  • Knuckles' impact on the metagame

2022-present: Post-pandemic era

• Briefly address shadow tournaments and redirect to the section
• Rise of Lucario
• International talent (Ryzuul)
• Lower tier characters making major impacts

Shadow tournaments

Undertow, one of the most notable shadow tournaments.

A shadow tournament, alternatively referred to as a shadow major, is a term often used to refer to Project M/Project+ tournaments that are unofficially affiliated with tournaments for other Smash games and effectively held in secret. While the term is typically used to refer to tournaments for Project M, shadow tournaments may also opt to host brackets for other modded Smash games, such as HewDraw Remix. As Nintendo is not keen on these mods existing and have taken active measures to shut down all support for them, organizers of their equivalent to major tournaments often discreetly hold these tournaments adjacent to more heavily advertised tournaments, using nothing more than the resources at their immediate disposal with no direct help from said advertised tournaments.

The term "shadow tournament" begun seeing significant use after Undertow, a tournament which was hosted after Nintendo had sent a cease and desist to Riptide, forbidding them from running a Project+ bracket officially, but the first notable shadow tournament was arguably Project M In The Big House 5, a tournament ran during The Big House 5 after Project M was dropped from its roster. Due to their deliberately discreet nature, shadow tournaments are often difficult to document, but numerous have occurred over the history of the competitive scene.

Background

Project M's logo.

As noted previously, Project M saw unprecedented success in terms of carving a competitive niche, even rivaling the original game it modified. However, this time in the spotlight came with serious consequences, as Nintendo is notable for having a strict stance against modding their games. The Smash scene is the most notable example of this, with a majority of mods being prohibited from being used at most tournaments. A few notable exceptions exist, such as UCF, but Project M is unique among mods, as it's a complete rework of Brawl's mechanics, rather than a simple quality-of-life fix. Many major tournaments were prevented from streaming Project M, to which many attribute to Nintendo's increasing involvement within the competitive scene; Chia, the founder of CLASH Tournaments, had stated that they were given one final Project M stream on Twitch.

During this turmoil, one of the tournaments affected the most was The Big House 5, which was planning to have one of the largest Project M tournaments ever, but then were forced to cancel it. Attendees that suddenly had their tournament eliminated then took matters into their own hands and, commandeering several hotel rooms in the venue and using whatever setups they could get their hands on, hosted a special private tournament titled Project M In The Big House 5. As documentation of this event is intentionally limited, details are sparse, though the bracket contained heavy hitters like Plup, Bobby Frizz, and Delicious Octorock. This event is considered the earliest example of a shadow tournament, despite the term not being coined at the time.

Despite these setbacks, Project M had continued to have a present scene, albeit smaller than before, and many tournament organizers instead ran far more individualized events for Project M rather than as a side bracket. As such, Project M continued to live on, in spite of Nintendo's efforts to defame the game. The success of Project M would carry over into the release of the mod's successor, Project+, which served as an effective replacement for Project M, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, many post-pandemic tournaments had begun to prepare to host Project+, such as Riptide, Mainstage, and Low Tide City 2021. Right before these tournaments began, Nintendo unexpectedly sent a cease and desist to Riptide and Low Tide City, with Mainstage eventually dropping Project+ from its roster, to widespread backlash. Riptide was especially notable, as it was not a Nintendo-endorsed event, which Nintendo typically did not directly target. However, a new tournament held at the same venue at Riptide would soon emerge; Undertow, which was deliberately privatized, in an attempt to prevent further legal action from Nintendo. This tournament would go on to be the largest Project+ tournament of all time, and would birth the term "shadow major".

Qualities

As the concept of a shadow tournament is relatively new, there is no official constitution on the exact qualities of one. That being said, there are some generally agreed upon elements shared among them. Firstly, the tournament has to feature a mod for the Smash series or any other piece of software Nintendo openly disapproves of. The tournament also has to take place around the same time as another tournament that is exclusively hosting official Smash releases, sometimes even within the same venue. The mainstream Smash community attends the authorized tournament, while the underground community attends the shadow tournament. While both events are not affiliated in any official capacity for the most part, the mainstream community is often aware of the shadow tournament but looks the other way. This allows both communities to protect each other from Nintendo, as the mainstream community can have plausible deniability, while the underground community is leaner and more agile if they get caught.

The shadow tournament itself is not heavily advertised and operates on an extremely low budget. Though the name of the shadow tournament is often a cheeky reference to the mainstream tournament happening alongside it, the staff typically receives no official support from said tournament to keep the appearance of plausible deniability. Players even knowing these events exist is primarily done through word of mouth and having connections. Some shadow tournaments go as far as to outright lie about the game lineup, sometimes advertising itself as a Brawl tournament. The staff is usually completely different and the players often exclusively attend the shadow tournament, as well as the livestream being handled entirely by the organizers with no mentioned connection to the mainstream tournament happening nearby, if a livestream is even feasible for the tournament to begin with.

As of 2025, few notable shadow tournaments has been targeted by Nintendo, and as such, it remains an effective strategy. The only notable incident was with Undertow 2025, which was sent an official cease and desist from Nintendo and was forced to rename themselves Big Ohio Tournament and claim the tournament was for the board game Battleship. However, the inherent lack of marketing for these events come at the cost of a general lack of popularity, as no Project+ tournament has matched the entrants of the largest Project M tournaments, but many have came close.

List of notable shadow tournaments

• Project M In The Big House 5
• Undertow (series)
• Uprooted 2025
• Jailbreak
• Shipwrecked

Impact on Melee and Brawl scenes

Competitively, Project M was a runaway success, particularly after the demo era. Apex 2014 marked the first time that a Project M major outplaced Brawl in entrance counts, and especially in the post-Smash 4 metagame, would continue to trump Brawl in entrance numbers. While Brawl began to see higher peak entrance numbers again after the pandemic at the Supernova tournament series (previously known as "Super Smash Con"), Project M's successor Project+ would continue to see higher entrance numbers overall outside of it.

Project M is the first game to truly unite the legacy and modern Smash scenes into one area. Though attracting mostly Melee players, many Brawl players also displayed interest in the title. Mew2King, Brawl's greatest player and one of the greatest Melee players, was a respected competitor in Project M, ranking 11th in the all-time rankings for Project M. Some other top Brawl players who notably competed in Project M were Ally, ZeRo, ESAM, Reflex, Pink Fresh, and Anther.

Project+, on the other hand, has been much less successful in this regard. While Melee players and the mainstays of Project M during its prime often dabble in Project+, few, if any top-level players who got their start post-Brawl do the same. This is potentially due to preference, lack of technical crossover, lack of hardware for post-Ultimate players, or reduced visibility of modern Project+ tournaments. Many Melee events have shadow tournaments to supplement main events, but these are usually unofficial and often held in a separate venue. Brawl events may elect to do the same, but often do not due to the aforementioned issues.

Criticisms of Project M and Project+

• Project M had an infamous crashing rate, due to a memory corruption bug. This has since been fixed in Project+.
• Neither Project M nor Project+ support non-NTSC-U versions, making international play far more difficult without importing a disc or piracy.
• Project+'s official Dolphin build doesn't support rollback, unlike similar mods like Slippi.

External links

• This Game Should Not Exist, a documentary by Wisely about Project M's history that additionally covers shadow tournaments.