Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in competitive play: Difference between revisions

Similar to ''Super Smash Bros. 4'', ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''{{'}}s competitive scene started before the game was released with the {{Trn|Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018}}, an invitational tournament hosted by [[Nintendo]] at E3 2018 on June 12th, 2018. Similar to the [[Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018|last invitational]], professional Smashers were invited to compete against each other; however, only eight players were invited this time, four of them being top ''SSB4'' players while the other four were top ''Melee'' players. The only invitee who participated in the previous tournament was {{Sm|ZeRo}}, who managed to defend his previous title and defeated {{Sm|MkLeo}}, winning his first ''Ultimate'' tournament.

When ''Ultimate'' was released on December 7th, 2018, many tournaments started hosting the game, with a lot of them having over 100 attendees. By the end of the year, ''Ultimate''{{'}}s largest tournament, [[Umebura SP]], had hosted 745 players, over 7 times more entrants than ''Smash 4''{{'}}s largest tournament in the same period of time.

The [[Panda Global Rankings Ultimate]], or PGRU, made a return for ''Ultimate'', starting [[Summer 2019 PGRU|its first season]] with GENESIS 6 and {{Trn|Sumabato SP 2}} on February 1st, 2019, and ending with {{Trn|Albion 4}}, {{Trn|The Pinnacle 2019}}, and {{Trn|BigWinChampionship 2}} on July 7th, 2019. Although the PGRU has almost the same mechanics as the previous iteration, there were some notable changes. The biggest change was the international multiplier, which counts entrants from tournaments outside of the continental US as 1.25 entrants, allowing more international tournaments to have representation on the PGR.  

Unlike ''Smash 4'', where {{Sm|ZeRo}} dominated competitive play, during the first few months of the first season, many people were unsure about who would take the top spot; MkLeo was commonly viewed as the best player after his victory at GENESIS 6 until {{Sm|Tweek}} defeated him twice at {{Trn|Frostbite 2019}} and took the tournament. This renewed the debate for the best player, which saw some new contenders as well, such as Zackray, {{Sm|Marss}}, and {{Sm|Shuton}}. Most potential candidates have several top placements but a few mediocre ones as well; for example, MkLeo had won GENESIS 6 but also placed 33rd at the {{Trn|Umebura Japan Major 2019}}, and Zackray has had weaker performances abroad. However, as the metagame progressed, MkLeo - after switching mains from {{SSBU|Ike}}, {{SSBU|Lucina}}, and {{SSBU|Wolf}} to the DLC character {{SSBU|Joker}} - started to gain more wins than the other contenders; since {{Trn|MomoCon 2019}}, he has not placed outside of top 2 at all the tournaments he attended. While some complaints arose of Joker being potentially broken, few outside of MkLeo have achieved as much success with the character, in contrast to characters such as {{SSB4|Bayonetta}} and {{SSB4|Diddy Kong}} in previous installments. As it stands, MkLeo is currently widely viewed as the best player in the world, though nowhere near as dominant as ZeRo's presence in ''Smash 4.''

In the second half of the year, the presence of international players in the competitive scene started to increase. Japan started hosting more Umebura and Sumabato tournaments, allowing players such as {{Sm|Kuro}} and {{Sm|Choco}} to gain more recognition. Furthermore, Europe - previously seen as a weaker region in ''Smash 4'' - started to gain more recognition thanks to {{Sm|Glutonny}}'s outstanding placements at majors and several of Europe's best players defeating other top players, including {{Sm|Space}} defeating {{Sm|kameme}} at {{Trn|Ultimate Fighting Arena 2019}}, {{Sm|quiK}} defeating {{Sm|KEN}} at {{Trn|2GG: Kongo Saga}}, and {{Sm|Leffen}} defeating both {{Sm|Maister}} and {{Sm|Tweek}} at Super Smash Con 2019 and {{Trn|Smash Ultimate Summit 2}}, respectively. Finally, several players from Mexico and Central America also had incredible performances at national tournaments, including brothers {{Sm|Meme}} and {{Sm|Joker}} defeating {{Sm|Light|p=Connecticut}} and {{Sm|ESAM}}, respectively, at {{Trn|Low Tier City 7}} and {{Sm|Yei}} defeating {{Sm|Mr. E}} at {{Trn|Smash Factor 8}}. Most notably, Maister placed in the top 8 at every PGR tournament he attended except {{Trn|EVO 2019}} and {{Trn|Mainstage}}.

As with most new ''Smash'' games, character viability was significantly different from ''Smash 4.'' In the early days of Ultimate, some popular veteran picks included {{SSBU|Palutena}}, {{SSBU|Pichu}}, {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}, {{SSBU|Lucina}}, {{SSBU|Olimar}}, {{SSBU|Peach}} (along with her new Echo Fighter {{SSBU|Daisy}}), {{SSBU|Pokémon Trainer}}, {{SSBU|Snake}}, and {{SSBU|Wolf}}. Many veteran characters received multiple buffs that made them significantly more viable. Pichu's self-damaging was offset by its great combo game and kill power, Palutena's reduced landing lag made her aerials oppressive, Olimar and Wolf received hitbox buffs to their smash attacks, and Peach's use of float canceling to perform highly damaging strings and combos made her a top tier threat, to name a few. As for newcomers, early opinions of {{SSBU|King K. Rool}}, {{SSBU|Simon}} and {{SSBU|Richter}} were strong, but it was a matter of time before their weaknesses were highlighted. {{SSBU|Inkling}} was once commonly thought to have the most potential, with the ink effect allowing damage to racking up very quickly. Many top tiers from previous iterations fell, including {{SSBU|Diddy Kong}}, {{SSBU|Sheik}}, {{SSBU|Ice Climbers}}, {{SSBU|Rosalina & Luma}}, {{SSBU|Sonic}}, {{SSBU|Ryu}}, {{SSBU|Corrin}}, {{SSBU|Meta Knight}}, and most notably {{SSBU|Bayonetta}}, who had been drastically nerfed as a result of her controversial dominance in ''SSB4''. Other characters saw a handful of buffs that made them significantly more viable, albeit not overbearing, than in past iterations, including {{SSBU|Pac-Man}}, {{SSBU|Greninja}}, and {{SSBU|Ike}}.

After launch, Olimar, Peach, Daisy, Pichu, Wolf, Pokémon Trainer, Snake, and Lucina were commonly viewed as among the best characters in ''Ultimate'', though numerous patches have toned some of them down. Peach, Daisy, Wolf, and Lucina were still viewed as top tiers after nerfs, albeit less dominating, while Olimar and Pichu fell out of "Top Tier" status in the eyes of most players. Patches also improved other lower tier characters, such as {{SSBU|Sheik}}, {{SSBU|Ryu}}, {{SSBU|Ken}}, and {{SSBU|Diddy Kong}}, to where they see much more tournament representation and results. The advent of DLC characters had some wary of a new overpowered character. {{SSBU|Hero}}'s use of randomised mechanics and being able to kill opponents at low percents with ease had some players argue the character should be banned, but no such ban was ever widely implemented, and Hero's results remain decent at best. Instead, {{SSBU|Joker}} rose from being viewed as a decent high tier to a universal top tier with {{Sm|MkLeo}}'s dominance. Nerfs saw other already viable characters steal the spotlight, including {{SSBU|Pikachu}} with its strong combos and confirms. As it stands, the top 3 characters were widely considered to be Joker, Pikachu, and {{SSBU|Palutena}}, though many Japanese players also make the argument for {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}; some thought Pikachu was believed to have the strongest kit in the game, though its lack of notable results prevented regions like Japan and Europe from rating it any higher.  

''Ultimate'' has shown to be the best game in the series in terms of character balance. It is fairly common to see an entirely unique character pool in top 8s for many major tournaments. Additionally, there are few low- and bottom tiers that are seen as completely unviable, and there are no top tier characters that over-centralize the metagame in the same vein that {{SSBM|Fox}} in ''Melee'', {{SSBB|Meta Knight}} in ''Brawl'', and {{SSB4|Bayonetta}} in ''Smash 4'' did. So-called low/bottom-tier characters have received decent results as well; {{Sm|Ben Gold}} notably won Australia's largest major with King K. Rool, a character who at the time was notably viewed as one of the worst characters in the game. While there may be clear high-tier and low-tier characters in ''Ultimate'', the gap between the two is nowhere near as significant as it was in previous games.

The second iteration of the PGRU was released prior to {{Trn|GENESIS 7}} and {{Trn|EVO Japan 2020}}, and for the first time in PGR history, the number of international players outnumbered American players. The list caused controversy over the placements of certain players and the increase in Japanese representation, although several complaints were due to misconceptions about the rankings. As a result, the PGRU received an overhaul for the third season, expanding the rankings to top 100 and getting rid of the algorithm in favor of a panel-based system. The international multiplier was also split; while Japan maintained the previous multiplier, all other international tournaments received an even greater boost at x1.67. This allowed smaller regions such as the United Kingdom, Chile, and El Salvador to gain more recognition. MkLeo ended up taking the number 1 spot on the second PGRU as well.  

Nintendo's support for the competitive scene was called into question when the EVO Japan 2020 prize pool was announced, revealing that ''Ultimate''{{'}}s top prize was only a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller (awarded to champion {{Sm|Shuton}}), in contrast to other games which had large prize pools. Despite the wishes of players such as {{Sm|Hungrybox}} to have Nintendo provide a prize pool for ''Smash'', Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa stated that Nintendo would not fund tournaments. In response, the team behind {{Team|VGBootCamp}} and [[Super Smash Con]] announced the {{Trn|Smash World Tour}}, a circuit that would provide over $250,000 in prize money. This announcement was received with praise from players, and the circuit was set to start at {{Trn|CEO Dreamland 2020}}.

With the pandemic slowly winding down and with vaccines being released, the scene slowly began shifting back towards an offline metagame. Debates arouse as to whether players who broke out during the online metagame could maintain their strong performances online. Thus, many eyes were placed on Wi-Fi Warriors such as {{Sm|Sparg0}} - the best player in the online metagame by 2021 - and {{Sm|Jake}} - a {{SSBU|Steve}} player who had seen consistent victories at large online weeklies. The first tournament to feature these rising players was {{Trn|InfinityCON Tally 2021}}, a tournament that began as a small regional but quickly garnered entrants from around the country. The tournament marked Jake's first appearance offline, and he ultimately placed 9th, defeating {{Sm|Goblin}} along the way. Following this tournament, more Wi-Fi Warriors began placing high at major tournaments and taking top player wins, including {{Sm|yonni}} defeating {{Sm|Dabuz}} to finish 9th at {{Trn|Riptide}} and {{Sm|sisqui}}'s strong performances in Europe that ultimately established him as the continent's second-best player. Ultimately despite initial doubts, Wi-Fi Warriors were able to prove that they were able to replicate their success offline.

They would meet each other in two different tournaments. The first was at {{Trn|Smash Ultimate Summit 3}}, where Tweek's Diddy Kong defeated MkLeo's Byleth in the first game, prompting MkLeo to switch to the Aegis for the rest of the tournament. Tweek subsequently defeated MkLeo in both winner finals and grand finals in a 6-0 fashion, claiming victory. The next tournament, {{Trn|Riptide}}, initially seemed like it was to be the same, with Tweek up 2-0 against MkLeo's Byleth. This time, however, MkLeo stuck with the Byleth and reverse 3-0'd Tweek in winner finals; he preceded to defeat Tweek again 3-1 in grand finals, winning the tournament. As the season went on, MkLeo continued his dominance, winning every tournament that he attended and shifting perceptions on Byleth's viability. Tweek, on the other hand, was upset at least once at every tournament he attended and often placed below his seed. Thus, MkLeo ultimately won the rivalry for the year.

Aside from Sparg0's rise, there were many new shakeups at top-level play. {{Sm|ProtoBanham}}, the best {{SSBU|Lucina}} player in the world, picked up {{SSBU|Min Min}} as a co-main and used both characters to become the best player in Japan. {{Sm|Tea}}, who had missed out on the top 10 in the previous season, saw major wins in both Japan and Europe, as well as strong performances in the United States. Other players also became potential candidates for the year's top 10, including {{Sm|Kola}}, who won the Florida major {{Trn|CEO 2021}}, and {{Sm|Yoshidora}}, a player who flew under most player's radars but placed top 8 at every Japanese major he attended. On the other hand, some players who were strong pre-pandemic noticeably struggled in the new metagame. Most notably, {{Sm|Marss}} chose to focus more on his content creation, which coincided in declining performances at major events.  

 

After a COVID-19 surge ended in Japan, the [[Smashmate]] prodigy {{Sm|acola}} started to go to offline tournaments, notably getting 2nd at {{Trn|Maesuma Offline}} losing only to {{Sm|Yaura}} and {{Sm|Shuton}}, before really breaking out at both {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 7}} and {{Trn|Kagaribi 7}}, where he would proceed to win both tournaments, taking out many top Japanese talent in the process, including {{Sm|Shuton}}, {{Sm|Tea}}, {{Sm|Yoshidora}} and {{Sm|Asimo}}, becoming the new #1 in Japan after {{Sm|ProtoBanham}}'s recent underperformances during [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan) Golden Week], and {{Sm|Zackray}}'s hiatus due to playing Pokemon Unite. Due to {{Sm|acola}} and {{Sm|Asimo}} both getting top 2 at {{Trn|Kagaribi 7}}, they were invited to {{Sm|GIMR}}'s new tournament, {{Trn|The Gimvitational}}, an Summit-esque invitational where a lot of the best players would compete, including {{Sm|Sparg0}}, {{Sm|Light}}, {{Sm|Tweek}}, {{Sm|Kola}}, {{Sm|Riddles}}, {{Sm|Cosmos}} and {{Sm|Marss}, in addition to {{Sm|Gackt}}, {{Sm|Yonni}}, {{Sm|Jin}}, {{Sm|Larry Lurr}}, {{Sm|Chase}}, {{Sm|Ferps}} and {{Sm|loaf}}, who were all voted in, with {{Sm|loaf}} replacing VoiD after he was unable to attend due to health issues.

Similarly to ''Brawl''{{'}}s competitive community when ''SSB4'' was released, most ''SSB4'' players transitioned to ''Ultimate'' when the game was released, causing the ''SSB4'' scene to completely disappear.  

''Ultimate'' was the only ''Smash Bros.'' game in {{Trn|EVO}}'s lineup at {{Trn|EVO 2019}}, while ''Melee'' was relegated to a side event. Some players were worried that this, combined with the absence of Armada, {{Sm|PPMD}}, and {{Sm|Mew2King}}, signaled the decline of ''Melee''. However, ''Melee'' has continued strong regardless of this absence and has been notably less dominated by the Five Gods; players such as {{Sm|Wizzrobe}} and {{Sm|Axe}} would go on to majors with unconventional characters. The decline of the Five Gods and rise of new players and characters to fill the void has kept interest in Melee growing, or at worst, steady.

*Removal of microspacing options such as perfect pivoting and shield dropping through platforms such as the ones in {{SSBU|Battlefield}}, with the former having a major effect on characters such as {{SSBU|Little Mac}} and {{SSBU|Marth}}.  

*Platforms notably are much harder to drop through in ''Ultimate'', causing costly misinputs [https://youtu.be/k_9jQuehtj8?t=1146].

*The execution of the [[stage hazard]] toggle effecting non-intrusive hazards such as [[Smashville]]'s moving platform and the wind on [[Dream Land (64)]], as well as not eliminating problematic stage elements such as [[Spiral Mountain]]'s lower wall and the cave-of-life transformations on [[Arena Ferox]].

*The continued presence of the widely criticised [[rage]] mechanic and to a lesser extent [[hitstun canceling]].