Tournament:The Big House 3

The Big House 3 was a Super Smash Bros. Melee and Project M national tournament held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 12-13th, 2013, hosted by and Strong Bad. It is the third event in the Big House series of tournament events, following The Big House 2.

This tournament was the first time in years where American and  player  won a national tournament with at least two of the other "gods" of Melee in attendance. Over the past several months, he had repeatedly lost to and  by significant margins; however, in this tournament, he defeated Dr. PeePee 3-2, with a 3-stock on Fountain of Dreams in the last game, then went on to win both winners' and grand finals against Hungrybox in a very dominating fashion. This is commonly referred to as the beginning of the "Return of the King".

Schedule
Friday, October 11th

9:00 PM: Doors open 11:00 PM: Melee It On Me live from The Big House 3 featuring The Smash Brothers documentary premiere 1:00 AM: Doors close

Saturday, October 12th

9:00 AM: Doors open 10:00 AM: Melee singles pools, Project M singles pools 4:00 PM: Food break 5:00 PM: Melee doubles, Project M doubles 8:00 PM: Melee singles pools (2nd round) 11:00 PM: Doors close

Sunday, October 13th

9:00 AM: Doors open 10:00 AM: Project M singles bracket 2:00 PM: Finish Melee doubles, finish Project M doubles 4:00 PM: Food break 5:00 PM: Melee singles bracket 9:00 PM: Tournament ends

Melee ruleset

 * 4 stock, 8:00 time limit
 * Items OFF
 * Ties after the time limit are determined by stocks, then by percentage.
 * Master Hand is banned.
 * Wobbling is banned.
 * Stalling with 's Rising Pound or 's Peach Bomber used against the wall repeatedly is banned.
 * Glitches such as the ' freeze glitch and 's soul stunner are banned.
 * Dave's Stupid Rule: A stage that a player has won on in a set cannot be counterpicked unless the opponent agrees.
 * Stage strike from neutrals for the first match of the set in "1221" fashion:
 * First player strikes one stage.
 * Second player strikes the next two stages.
 * First player strikes one stage.


 * After each match:
 * Winner announces stage ban (except in best-of-5 sets)
 * Loser chooses counterpick stage
 * Winner chooses their character
 * Loser chooses their character

Stage list
Singles Starters: Counterpicks:
 * Yoshi's Story
 * Fountain of Dreams
 * Fountain of Dreams
 * Fountain of Dreams
 * Fountain of Dreams
 * Pokémon Stadium

Doubles Starters: Counterpicks:
 * Yoshi's Story
 * Pokémon Stadium
 * Pokémon Stadium
 * Pokémon Stadium
 * Pokémon Stadium
 * Kongo Jungle N64

Project M ruleset

 * 4 stock, 8:00 minute timer
 * All items set to OFF and item frequency set to NONE
 * Input Assist set to OFF.
 * Ties after the time limit are determined by stocks, then by percentage.
 * Dave's Stupid Rule: A stage that a player has won on in a set cannot be counterpicked unless the opponent agrees.
 * Stage strike from starters for the first match of the set in "122112" fashion:
 * First player strikes one stage.
 * Second player strikes the next two stages.
 * First player strikes the next two stages.
 * Second player strikes one stage.


 * After each match:
 * Winner announces two (2) stage bans
 * Loser chooses counterpick stage
 * Winner chooses their character
 * Loser chooses their character

Stage list
Singles Starters: Counterpicks: Doubles Starters: Counterpicks:
 * Battlefield
 * Dream Land
 * Final Destination
 * Fountain of Dreams
 * Pokémon Stadium 2
 * Smashville
 * Yoshi's Story
 * Dracula's Castle
 * Green Hill Zone
 * Lylat Cruise
 * WarioWare, Inc.
 * Yoshi's Island (Brawl)
 * Battlefield
 * Dream Land
 * Final Destination
 * Pokémon Stadium 2
 * Smashville
 * SSE Jungle
 * Yoshi's Island (Brawl)
 * Dracula's Castle
 * Fountain of Dreams
 * Green Hill Zone
 * Lylat Cruise
 * WarioWare, Inc.

Melee singles
Entrants were split into 16 round robin pools of 10-11 players each. The top four players from each pool advanced to the next round of pools, in which the top four players advanced again to a final bracket of 32 players.

(172 entrants) [[Media:TBH3MeleeBracket.gif|Bracket]]

Melee doubles
(48 teams) [[Media:TBH3MeleeDoublesBracket.gif|Bracket]]

Project M singles
Entrants were split into 8 round robin pools of 5-6 players each. The top three players from each pool advanced to a final bracket of 48 players.

(90 entrants) Bracket

Project M doubles
(35 teams) Bracket

Trivia

 * The Big House 3 marks the first time a Project M character was made available to play before being officially released (the character being ).
 * was also announced to join the Project M roster at the event, following the Project M top eight matches.
 * The Big House 3 partnered with VGBootCamp, East Point Pictures, and Melee It On Me to present the "The Smash Brothers" documentary premiere.
 * Episodes of the documentary were released concurrently with the tournament after the premiere.
 * With 172 Melee entrants, The Big House 3 became the biggest Midwest Melee tournament since MELEE-FC Diamond in 2007.
 * This was the last major tournament before dropped.