Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (often acronymized to PNW) is a Smash region in the United States. The PNW is unique in that it is the only North American Smash region to include two different countries: it generally refers to the American states of Oregon and Washington (which is typically further split into Eastern Washington and Western Washington due to the difficulty of travelling across the state) and the Canadian 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 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate scenes in the United States, as well as one of the most active Project+ scenes. The scene is most populous in Western Washington. Historically, 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, but has been gaining traction since 2021 and is currently the North American region with the most LumiRank tournaments. Very strong players for all Smash games have come out of the region, including SilentWolf, Bladewise, Ka-Master, Ouch!?, JDV, 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. Seattle, Washington was also chosen as the location for Nintendo Live 2023, which featured two Smash tournaments. 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.
History[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.
2022[edit]
2022 saw more activity, both in tournaments and in player performance. After travel restrictions loosened for Canada, Big D would emerge from Get On My Level 2022 as a top level threat, following it up with a top 8 finish at Ludwig Smash Invitational and 3rd at Mainstage 2022. Ouch!? broke out at 3rd place during Battle of BC 4, defeating several top players and remaining a consistent threat at majors. From Oregon, jaredisking1 would place 5th at Rise n Grind and become Oregon's best player. Justice placed Top 8 at Port Priority 7, becoming Washington and the Pacific Northwest's first player to do so at the tournament series since Port Priority 4.
Western Washington experienced multiple shifts near the end of 2022, including several high level players moving or having extended leaves. H4 and Ludo would travel to Japan and Europe respectively for several months, while moxi and Justice would move for school. In the power vacuum, JDV would emerge as Seattle's best player.
2023[edit]
2023 started off strong, with 6 players placing in the top 64 of GENESIS 9 and 6 more finishing at 65th.[1]
Battle of BC 5 emerged as one of 2023's strongest and most important Ultimate tournaments, named a P-tier by LumiRank. MAJOR UPSET and Port Priority 8 reached major and supermajor status, respectively, giving all three primary regions a major in the same year.
Smashers[edit]
- See also: Category:British Columbia smashers, Category:Oregon smashers, Category:Washington smashers
The following players are currently or were previously ranked. Their highest placement is listed.
Globally ranked players[edit]
| Tag | Character(s) | Best placement | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Aura (Oregon) |
 |
 SSBMRank 2025: 17th |
|
| Akimi (Washington) |
 |
 PMRank 2018: 28th |
|
 aMSa (British Columbia) |
 |
SSBMRank 2022: 2nd |
Originally from Kansai, but resided in British Columbia between mid-2022 and mid-2023. |
| Big D (British Columbia) |
   |
 2025 SSBBRank: 13th OrionRank 2017: 125th UltRank 2022: 19th |
|
| Bladewise (Washington) |
|
SSBMRank 2014: 33rd |
|
| Blunted_Object10 (British Columbia) |
 |
SSBMRank 2013: 67th |
|
| Cacogen (Washington) |
 |
PGR v1: 46th |
|
| Captain L (British Columbia) |
    |
PGR v5 36th Spring 2019 PGRU: 50th |
|
| Chango(Washington) |
 |
SSBMRank 2023: 84th |
Originally from Mexico. |
| Chevy (Washington) |
 |
PMRank 2017: 29th |
|
| Eggz (Oregon) |
 |
SSBMRank 2013: 74th |
|
| FatGoku (Oregon) |
|
MPGR 2019: 39th |
|
| Graves (Washington) |
|
SSBMRank 2025: 52nd |
|
| H4 (Oregon) |
|
OrionRank Mid-Year 2022: 126th |
Went to university in Kansai in 2023. |
| Iceman (Washington) |
 |
SSBMRank 2017: 93rd |
|
| jaredisking1 (Oregon) |
 |
UltRank 2022: 51st |
|
| JDV (Washington) |
 |
LumiRank 2023: 131st |
|
| JeJaJeJa (Oregon) |
 |
UltRank 2025: 128th |
|
| Justice (Washington) |
 |
OrionRank 2022: 143rd |
Resides in South Carolina since 2023. Currently banned. |
| Ka-Master (Washington) |
 |
RetroSSBMRank 2008: 9th |
|
| Konga (Washington) |
  |
PGR v4: 30th |
|
| Lemmon (British Columbia) |
 |
OrionRank Mid-Year 2022: 144th |
|
| Locus (British Columbia) |
   |
PGR v3: 22nd |
|
| moxi (Washington) |
   |
OrionRank 2019: 30th |
Known as Pandarian in Smash 4 and early Ultimate. Moved to Georgia in 2022. |
| Ouch!? (British Columbia) |
|
LumiRank Half Year 2025: 19th |
|
| Panda (Washington) |
|
MPGR 2019: 97th |
Originally from Florida, but resided in Washington in 2019 and 2020. |
| Pikmon (Washington) |
  |
PMRank 2019: 8th |
|
| Plup (Oregon) |
 |
SSBMRank 2023: 5th |
Originally from Florida, and moved to Oregon in 2021. |
| PwrUp! (Washington) |
  |
 PMRank 2022: 44th |
|
| Qtip (Washington) |
 |
PMRank 2022: 45th |
|
| Rori (Washington) |
 |
RetroSSBMRank 2004: 8th |
|
| Silent Wolf (Washington) |
|
SSBMRank 2015: 11th |
|
| Sion (British Columbia) |
|
SSBMRank 2013: 85th |
|
| Stiv (Washington) |
|
SSBMRank 2023: 83rd |
|
| Valdens (Washington) |
|
2024 SSBBRank: 16th |
|
| Vish (Washington) |
 |
SSBMRank 2013: 84th |
Prominent Melee commentator. |
| Zushi (Washington) |
 |
PMRank 2025: 28th |
Nationally ranked players[edit]
| Tag | Character(s) | Best placement | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biggymouth (Washington) |
 |
OrionRank 2022 North America: 179th |
|
| Deci (Washington) |
 |
OrionRank North America Top 200: 109th |
|
| embo_z (Washington) |
 |
LumiRank 2023 North America: 157th |
|
| Fizzmint (Washington) |
|
OrionRank 2022 North America: 197th |
|
| Ludo (Washington) |
  |
LumiRank 2023 North America: 157th |
|
| Machu (British Columbia) |
|
LumiRank 2023 North America: 172nd |
|
| pokepen (Washington) |
   |
OrionRank North America Top 200: 151st |
|
| SpamCop (British Columbia) |