Super Smash Bros. 4 in competitive play
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Super Smash Bros. 4's competitive scene began before either version was publicly released at the Super Smash Bros. Invitational on June 10, 2014, hosted by Nintendo of America at E3 2014 where they presented a demo of the Wii U version. ZeRo had emerged victorious, beginning his infamous winning streak of many Smash 4 majors to come.
Smash 4 is the first Smash game to have patches via online download, which had a significant impact on tournament play. These updates forcefully shifted the metagame multiple times through 2014 into 2016.
2014
The 3DS version had a small amount of time in the limelight from September 12th until around the end of December. The vast majority of the competitive scene now utilizes the Wii U game, as it allows for superior viewing quality and far better control capabilities. Besides online play, the 3DS version of the game has fallen into obscurity.
Since the 3DS game started with version 1.0.0, it initially had a plethora of bugs, (primarily carried over from Brawl), some of which was either an enhancement or was a deterrence to the competitive scene. Gameplay imbalance was also far more prominent. For instance, DACUS was still in from Brawl, and was discovered through using hacks to make the GameCube controller usable. However, it was completely removed in the Wii U version.
The Umebura tournament series was among the only national level tournaments ever held for Smash 3DS.
2015
This marks the first year of the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U's competitive timeline. This Smash game had a rather unique start compared to previous ones, considering the fact that the 3DS version was essentially the same game. Players were able to "hit the ground running" going into the new year.
2016
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2017 and the future
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Effect on the Melee and Brawl communities
Smash 4 has had little impact on Melee's tournament scene, as it is not uncommon for both games to be featured at tournaments simultaneously. Most already established Melee players have chosen to stay with the Melee community over Smash 4 due to several factors; they include the physics of Smash 4 being more similar to the controversial Brawl game engine, or their main being more tournament viable.
Brawl's competitive scene has largely tapered off and moved onto Smash 4 since it was released. Almost all of its high level players, examples being Salem or ESAM, primarily played it because it was simply the latest installment in the series after Melee and was therefore their personal preference.
