Tournament:Ludwig Smash Invitational

Ludwig Smash Invitational was a Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate invitational tournament that was held on October 21st-23rd, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, hosted by commentator and YouTube streamer. There were 24 players directly invited and 8 players qualified through a Last Chance Qualifier for each game, for a total of 32 players for each main singles event. The prize pool was initially advertised as $30,002 for both Melee and Ultimate, however due to a promotion from Capital One and additional funding from MrBeast, the pot was raised to $52,502, making it the sixth largest prize pool for a Melee tournament and the fourth largest for an Ultimate tournament at the time.

The event became known for its innovations in tournament logistics. It was one of the few majors to feature a Swiss system of pools, requiring players to win three sets in order to advance to the final bracket. The tournament's side streams featured a quad-view layout displaying four sets at once, allowing five sets to be streamed at the same time for both games; this feature was subsequently adopted at many future Smash tournaments.

Format
There were Swiss system pools and a final double-elimination bracket for each game. 24 directly invited players and 8 players qualifying through the Last Chance Qualifier made up 32 players for each game. The 32 players were divided into two pools of 16 players each, with the Top 8 placing players of each pool advancing to the final bracket. In the Swiss pools, each player played until they had won 3 sets, where they qualified for the final bracket, or until they lost 3 sets, where they were eliminated from the tournament. The 4 players that went 3-0 in sets in Swiss pools were able to draft pick their Winners' Round 1 opponent out of the 6 players that went 3-2 in sets (except for any players they already played in pools). The Top 16 played in the final bracket in a double-elimination format, with everyone starting Winners' side. All sets at the event were best of 5, in both Last Chance Qualifier and main singles.

The Last Chance Qualifiers on October 21st were double-elimination brackets capped at 64 players for each game, with the Top 8 players of each qualifying for the main singles event. The Last Chance Qualifiers were played up until Top 8, and did not play out the Top 8 bracket. The players that qualified through the Last Chance Qualifier received full reimbursement for their flight and accommodations, and were provided food on Saturday and Sunday. Group A and B Swiss pools and Top 16 Winners' Round 1 were played on October 22nd. The rest of the final bracket was played to completion on October 23rd, starting with Winners' Quarters and Losers' Top 16, with separated Ultimate Top 8 then Melee Top 8 being played.

Melee
The following players were invited for Melee singles:

The Top 8 players at the Last Chance Qualifier qualified:

Ultimate
The following players were invited for Ultimate singles:

The Top 8 players at the Last Chance Qualifier qualified:

Declined players
was initially invited for Ultimate but declined. was initially invited for Melee but was unable to make the event, so was changed from being in the Last Chance Qualifier to being invited to the main singles event. for Melee and for Ultimate were initially invited to the main singles event but dropped out, so  and  respectively were changed from being in the Last Chance Qualifier to being invited to the main singles event. Joshman then registered for the Melee Last Chance Qualifier since his injured arm was recovering well, then qualified for the main singles event from Losers' side.

Super Smash Bros. Melee singles
(32 entrants) Final Bracket

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate singles
(32 entrants) Final Bracket

Controversies
After losing his Losers Finals set against, went up to commentary to argue at length that the rules did not do enough against stalling and claimed that Hungrybox had largely won by abusing the ruleset. This was largely met with disapproval from both the commentators and social media, as Leffen's complaints were brought forth immediately after losing to Hungrybox for the first time offline since, after a final game where both players played rather defensively. Leffen was also accused of hypocrisy as he has also abused rulesets in the past and only points out these weaknesses when it benefits his opponents. Hungrybox addressed the situation later in the tournament by saying he won the match within the rules and everyone needs to simply move on. Leffen apologized for his comments afterwards on Twitter.

Many spectators during and after the tournament took to social media to express their criticisms of the commentators and their behavior. The main complaint was that they were not taking the event seriously and acted unprofessional in what should be a prestigious event. This reignited the classic debate over whether commentary is necessary for a Smash tournament. Several of the commentators later responded to these comments. and both made videos on the subject and claimed that they will commentate the way they want to and that everyone is overreacting about the events of a single tournament.

Trivia

 * is the only player in the tournament who entered both Melee and Ultimate singles. He was invited to Melee main singles, and also entered the Ultimate Last Chance Qualifier separately.
 * originally entered both Melee and Ultimate's Last Chance Qualifier, but later unregistered for Melee.
 * On the day before the tournament, water started leaking from the ceiling of the venue, then the main sponsor for the tournament backed out at the last minute., one of the most subscribed YouTubers, then sponsored the tournament.
 * During Melee singles, became the first Swedish player outside  and  to defeat  in bracket.
 * Both Melee and Ultimate singles featured an Ice Climbers player in Top 16 ( and, respectively).
 * After and  (the current and former best  players) qualified through the Last Chance Qualifier, both players planned to money match in the ditto for the title of best Dr. Mario. However, they were stopped right before they could begin due to the start of Melee singles bracket.
 * Before the end of the final game between and  on  in Winners Quarters on the main stream,  had production switch over to  and 's Loser's Round 1 set (which was already on the sidestream) as a joke.
 * This tournament marks the first time and  have met in bracket, after a long period of anticipation where acola was considered a contender for Leo's status as best player in the world. MkLeo would ultimately win 3-0 against acola in both Winners Semis and Grand Finals.
 * This tournament also marks the first time acola and have played each other in bracket, with the two being considered the top 2  players in the world. acola would win their set with a 3-0.
 * Out of all players who qualified for the main event (whether for Melee and Ultimate singles) through the Last Chance Qualifier, was the only player to make Top 8 (let alone Top 3) in either bracket (doing so in Ultimate singles).
 * , the winner of the Ultimate singles bracket, lost only one game (to ) throughout the entire tournament.