Super Smash Bros. Brawl in competitive play
Super Smash Bros. Brawl's competitive scene started soon after its release, following the popularity of its predecessor. Before Brawl's North American release, Nintendo held promotional tournaments across the United States, although they were played on the default 2-minute timer with items on.
Players immediately noticed the many changes made in Brawl, with Melee veterans such as Mew2King initially being highly critical of the game. Nevertheless, Brawl would go on to have an eventful competitive scene.
2008-2009: Beginnings
Unlike its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Brawl became home to a large and active tournament scene shortly following its release in March 2008, and TOs and players were already familiar with the tournament process, thanks to previous experience with Melee. Tournament activity sprung up across the United States, particularly in the Tristate Area, Southern California, Texas, Maryland/Virginia, and Florida; these regions became the major centers of Brawl activity throughout its lifetime. The Brawl scene was famous for its frequent 100-man "locals" in the months after the game's release, as the post-release hype generated unprecedented tournament numbers. The more significantly developed Internet of 2008, with popular sites such as YouTube, Smashboards, and All is Brawl, helped spread the growth of the Smash community faster than ever before. Brawl's usage of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection also facilitated competitive play outside of the tournament venue.
Brawl's release resulted in a temporary dropoff of Melee tournament activity, as the Smash scene largely shifted its focus to Brawl for most of 2008. Many Melee players, including Mew2King, Azen, Ken, and Chillin, actively played Brawl during its early competitive life. The game, however, was heavily criticized for its radically different gameplay mechanics; many Melee players disliked the game's slower and floatier gameplay, the ability to act out of hitstun (largely removing potential true combos), and the introduction of random tripping. The removal of wavedashing and the diminished power of edgeguarding led many community members to perceive the game as lacking in competitive depth. Because of these criticisms, most Melee veterans dropped Brawl and returned to playing the older game once its tournament activity picked up again in 2009. The Brawl community consisted mostly of newer players who had just entered the competitive scene. Brawl's activity eventually died down a bit after the initial-release hype in 2008, but still maintained large entrants at its events in 2009.
Meta Knight and Snake were considered the best characters in the game, and dominated early competitive Brawl, placing high at many tournaments; it was not uncommon to see the top eight players of a tournament all using the two characters. Meta Knight in particular was seen as overpowered by many players, as his unrivaled attack speed and edgeguarding ability could overwhelm most foes. He was considered so powerful that the community debated whether or not to ban him, but, since it was still too early in the metagame to make big decisions, the Smash Back Room decided by vote to leave him alone.
Mew2King was known as the strongest Brawl player in its early lifetime, placing 1st at almost every large tournament he attended with his Meta Knight. Ally rose to fame as one of his few potential challengers, as he defeated him at both Apex 2009 and GENESIS.
2010: Major League Gaming
Major League Gaming picked up Brawl for its 2010 Pro Circuit. Various MLG-hosted nationals were held throughout the eastern half of the United States, attracting attention from across the country. However, Nintendo prohibited MLG from livestreaming Brawl matches, further reinforcing Nintendo's lack of support for the competitive Smash community. Gnes ultimately won the circuit final, MLG Dallas 2010, winning $12,500, the largest prize check ever won by a single player at the time.
An infamous splitting incident occurred at MLG DC 2010 between Mew2King and ADHD, leading to the two being banned from MLG Dallas 2010. This is commonly cited as a reason why MLG dropped Brawl after the circuit ended.
2011-2013: Post-MLG
Following the MLG era, Brawl activity largely centered on the scene's grassroots tournaments, particularly Apex. The advent of streaming groups such as CLASH Tournaments allowed for high-definition footage of Brawl sets, featuring high-quality, professional commentary for the first time in Smash tournaments. The Tristate Area, as the home of Apex and CLASH Tournaments, became the most active and publicized region in the United States, and the unofficial center of the Brawl community.
Mew2King lost his status as the undisputed best Brawl player, as he was unable to win a national throughout 2012 and 2013. He was notorious for frequently getting upset by perceived lower-skilled players, most notably by OCEAN at Apex 2012 and Salem at Apex 2013. Players such as Nairo, ESAM, Otori, and ZeRo, with their dominance at American events, began to compete with Mew2King for the title of best Brawl player. Salem became particularly famous for his victory at Apex 2013, where he defeated players such as Otori and Mew2King using Zero Suit Samus, a character widely considered below the threshold for a top tier character; his grand finals set vs. Mew2King has become one of the most famous sets in Brawl's history.
While Snake eventually fell on the tier list and lost his former dominance, Meta Knight's presence in the metagame only continued to grow. as he continued to fill the top spots in tournaments. More debates on Meta Knight's legality waged, as players complained that he was over-centralizing the game. This culminated in the Unity Ruleset Committee banning Meta Knight by vote in September 2011, taking effect in January 2012; this was lifted in April as the Committee disbanded, and it was once again up to tournament directors to decide whether to ban the character. Meta Knight was commonly banned in regions such as the Midwest and Texas, but remained legal in the Tristate Area, the strongest, most active, and most prominent region in the world. The dual Meta Knight ban in doubles, though, became widespread, as this was seen as less extreme, while still permitting Meta Knight players to participate in these events.
Besides Meta Knight's continued dominance, the Ice Climbers and Olimar also rose on the tier and list and became prominent in the Brawl metagame. These characters were criticized for creating a slow, campy, and defensive-based gameplay that was boring to watch. The Ice Climbers were particularly detested for their "cheap" and "overpowered" zero-to-death chaingrabs on every other character, ruining the tournament environment for both opponents and spectators. Many players claimed that the Ice Climbers ruined competitive Brawl even more than Meta Knight did.
2014-present: Decline
Following Melee's resounding success at EVO 2013, and Brawl's shift towards a more unpopular defensive and campy gameplay, tournament activity underwent a significant decline, as many newer players shifted to the more popular Melee or the Brawl mod Project M. Melee and PM's entrant numbers outclassed Brawl's at every large event, and nationals that were formerly centered on Brawl, such as Apex 2014 and SKTAR 3, became dominated by the other, faster-paced Smash games, while the Brawl events in comparison remained small, and turnout was significantly lower than expected. With the expected release of the newer Super Smash Bros. 4 in late 2014, Brawl players realized that the game's competitive lifespan was nearing an end, and following Smash 4's release, Brawl activity disappeared almost entirely, as the entire Brawl playerbase shifted to the latest Wii U title.
Unlike Smash 64, which maintains a small but thriving community, Brawl has become completely replaced by Smash 4, which has been more well-received for its increased hitstun, allowing for more combos, and the removal of random tripping. While Melee and Smash 4 are only continuing to grow, Brawl is now largely nonexistent at locals, as it suffers from a lack of competitive interest. Brawl is occasionally featured at supermajors, such as Super Smash Con, but even then, it is largely relegated to a side event and is rarely taken seriously; its entrants largely consist of Smash 4 players who formerly played the game, looking to make additional money or simply have fun in a casual manner. A few attempts, such as the hosting of Revival of Brawl, have been made to bring the game back into the competitive spotlight, as with the Melee scene in 2009, but these endeavors have been unsuccessful, attracting limited interest from both players and viewers.
Smash 3, a documentary on competitive Brawl, is currently in development.
Criticisms of competitive Brawl
Brawl's mixed competitive reputation is the result of reactions to the numerous key changes to the gameplay that were altered from Melee.
Combos
One of the most common complaints regarding Brawl's competitive scene is the lack of any true combos in the game. This can be attributed to three main changes:
- Hitstun cancelling allows fighters to airdodge after just 13 frames (0.22 seconds) of hitstun, meaning that any followups that rely on hitstun lasting longer than this are never true combos.
- Significantly lower fall speeds make combos and juggling much harder to pull off.
- Moves generally seem to have more ending lag in this game.
As a result of this, the vast majority of the competitive gameplay revolves around very hard reads, and hoping that the opponent will make a mistake.
Game speed
Although the main contributing factor to the slow feel of the game is the lack of combos, the lower falling speeds, combined with generally lower movement options in general also cause the game to seem very slow. Many players and spectators have felt that this makes the game less exciting, harming its competitive scene.
Roster balance
The case could be made that all of the games in the Super Smash Bros. series have issues with balancing the fighter roster, but Brawl is notorious for having a very poorly balanced cast. Newcomer Meta Knight is one of the few characters in the game with true combos, and his numerous jumps and effective recovery make him powerful both offensively and defensively. His frame data is also unrivaled among the game's roster, and these factors have led to him being the most-used character in competitive Brawl. Multiple Meta Knights finishing in the top places of Brawl tournaments is not uncommon, and some have complained that the lack of viable characters has made the game's scene less diverse. Meta Knight has in the past been banned from tournaments due to his sheer strength, and still remains banned nowadays in many regions. The Ice Climbers' zero-to-death have also been criticized for being overpowered, uninteresting to watch, and requiring little skill to use effectively, and many players believe that they "ruin" the game, in a similar manner to wobbling in Melee. Unlike in Melee, however, the Ice Climbers are ranked at the very top of the tier list and have seen consistent tournament success, further exacerbating many players' frustrations with their dominance.
On the other end of the spectrum, Ganondorf is arguably the worst character in the history of competitive Smash. Drastic nerfs from Melee, combined with sluggish frame data, make most of his moves unsafe against the majority of the roster. Ganondorf is the only character in Brawl without any positive matchups, and some characters, such as Meta Knight, are considered to be nearly impossible for Ganondorf to defeat.
Other criticisms
- The game is considered to be easier to master than Melee, which some players who prefer Melee have an issue with.
- Random elements such as tripping were widely panned and also harm the competitive scene.
- Many popular advanced techniques from Melee, such as Light Shielding, L-Cancelling and wavedashing were removed, removing from the game's perceived competitive depth.
- Many multi-hitting moves had higher SDI multipliers added to them, making them very easy to escape.
