Invitational Overview
Announced earlier last month, the Super Snmash Bros. Invitational is an E3-Only event where sixteen pro players were invited to E3 to participate a non-competetive tournament. When first announced, not much was know about the Invitational except for the basics but in weeks leading up to the Invitational, more information was released such as the rules and those participating. The video blow was released in late May and contained the rules, players, and announcers:
We will be getting into the meat of the Invitational and the results later but first I want to focus on the contestants:
The Players
All come from a variety of backgrounds and even countries with aMSa coming from Japan and ZeRo coming from Chile. The rest of the players are from America. The vast majority of them are notable Melee players with varying skill levels while others also participated in Brawl/P:M tournaments. Due to the rules being that the multiple players are unable to be picked, amny were unable to playa s thier mains in Melee or Brawl thus possibly handicapping some of the players. As I said before, I will be covering the actual Invitational later.
The Announcers
Covering the event and tournament are three notable and popular commentators.
- D'Ron "D1" Maingrette
- Wynton "Prog" Smith
- Bobby "Scar" Scarnewman
Prog is one of the largest names in the Smash Competetive scene and is notable for his pitreach and dedication to not only Super Smash Bros. to the the fighting game genre. Both D1 and Prog are notable Melee commentators and players but remain at a semi-professional level. Scar is a both a commentator and a top professional specializing in Captain Falcon. Prior to the event, many were excited to see the commentary between these three giants in the Smash competetive scene.
Geoff Keighley is confirmed as the host of the Invitational and will be directing its events. Geoff is a notable writer, journalist, and host within the video gaming industry. Some of his more famous works has been
GameTrailersTV and
G4tv.com. He has also contributed for
Kotaku,
Electric Playground, and
Gamefly. He is also the executive producer of
Game Awards. In the past, he has help with the E3 Press Confrences for companies such as
Electronic Arts and
Sony.
Many were happy to see his inclusion as the Host but others aren't exactly sure what to xpect from him.
The Rules
The tournament doesn't follow standard competetive tournament rules in that this seems to be more casual based; especially with the inclusion of items and a character draw prior to the match. The rules are as follows:
- Before the tournament begins, the players will choose characters in random order. Characters may not be chosen by multiple players, and players cannot switch characters at any time.
- Each match will have 4 players. Matches will have 4 stock with a 5-minute timer. The top 2 players in terms of score advance; if there is a tie between 2 and 3, the number of KOs is the tiebreaker, and a further tie is broken by fan vote.
- The final match will take place on Battlefield, and have a timer of 8 minutes, as an explicit homage to the competitive Smash community.
- Items will be on medium for round 1, low for rounds 2 and 3, and off for the final.
- Stages are to be revealed at the tournament. (This will include Mushroom Kingdom U)
Playable Characters
As mentioned before, the players will choose characters in random order, multiple selections are not allowed, and players have to keep that character throoughout the tournament. This has recieved nuetral to negative responses; especially given the fact that players who are allowed to pick last may end up picking a character they generally dislike or unfamiliar with. In particular, Little Mac and Greninja seems to top choices for some of the players.
Here are a list of characters players can choose from:
Mario
Rosalina
Bowser
Donkey Kong
Link
Zelda
Samus
Zero Suit Samus
Kirby
Fox
Pikachu
Greninja
Marth
Pit
Olimar
Little Mac
Villager
Wii Fit Trainer
Sonic
Mega Man
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Super_Smash_Bros._Invitational
It is notable that the following are unavailable:
Charizard (revealed alongside Greninja; reason unknown)
Sheik (potentiall due to be recently revealed)
Yoshi (potentially due to be recently revealed)
Lucario (possibly due to being a locked character)
Luigi (possibly due to being a locked character)
Toon Link (possibly due to being a locked character)
Peach (reason unknown)
King Dedede (reason unknown)
Diddy Kong (reason unknown)
Ike (possibly due to being recently revealed)
It is notable that all of the confirmed newcomers are playable but there has been no mention of characters that may appear during the Nintendo Digital Event prior to the Invitational.
The Invitational Play by Play
The Invitational started at 4 pm Pacific Time to much hype and excitement. Shortly after starting the players were brought in and the rules were read. In particular, the rules for the Grand Finale which was 1v1 without items was well recieved. The players were then introduced and announced which characters they will play as:
- Lilan"milktea"Chen
- Hugo"HugS"Gonzalez
- Ken"LiquidKen"Hoang
- Daniel"LiquidKDJ"Jung
- Neha"Lilo"Chhetri
- Hendrick"DJNintendo"Pilar
- Kris"Toph"Aldenderfer
- Sam"PeachyHime"McNaughton
- Juan"Crs. Hungrybox"Debiedma
- Kevin"PewPewU"Toy
- Kevin"EG PPMD"Nanney
- Dakota"TheRapture"Lasky
- Cristin"Crismas"DesSaro
- McCain"MacD"LaVelle
- Masaya"aMSa"Chikamoto
- Gonzalo"CT ZeRo"Barrios
Sadly, it was announced that Samus and Donkey Kong would not appear in the Invitational due to balancing and technical issues. Shortly after the introductions, Sakurai made his appearance!
Sakurai tells the audience that him and his team are working hard to perfect the game and that is is happy to have the support of all of the fans. He mentions that this is game is 15 years in the making. And with that the tournament was underway.
To make it more easier for readers to read about this portion, I will be breaking it down into matches:
1. Players: MacD (Greninja), aMSa (Olimar), Crismas (Zelda), and Rapture (Little Mac)
Stage: Mushroom Kingdom U
Notes: Icicles falls fromt he ceiling.
Kamek appears and transforms the stage.
aMSa performs a Final Smash with Olimar "End of the Day"
MacD whiffs with Greninja's Final Smash "Trap Door"
Goes into Sudden Death with MacD and aMSa
Winner: aMSa (Olimar)
Fan Pick: MacD (Greninja)
2. Players: DJNintendo (Bowser), CT ZeRo (Zero Suit Samus), KoreanDJ (Rosalina and Luma), and PPMD (Fox)
Stage: Skyloft
Notes: Quick deaths under a minute
ZeRo gets the Final Smash and perform Zero Suit Samus' new Final Smash: Gunship.
A combination of the Blue Shell and Arceus causes some kills
ZeRo was able to obtain every Final Smash.
Winner: Ct ZeRo
Fan Pick: PPMD (Fox)
3. Players: PewPewU (Mario), Lilo (Wiii Fit Trainer), Toph (Pit), Ken (Marth)
Stage: Coliseum
Notes: Wii bFit Trainer peforms her Final Smash: Wii Fit
Pit performs his Final Smash: Sacred Treasures
Back Shield is used and is the X Bomb and Steel Diver
Dillon and Moltres appeared.
Sudden Death between Lilo and PewPewU
Winner: PewPewU
Fan Pick: Ken (Marth)
4. Players: PeachyHime (Villager), Milktea (Pikachu), Hungrybox (Kirby), and Hugs (Mega Man)
Stage: Town and City
Notes: Kirby performs his Final Smash: Ultra Sword
Cuckoo!
Dedenne appeared
Villager got the Smash Ball and di his Final Smash.
Kirby appears to be unchanged from Brawl
Both Arceus and Shadow appeared
Piakchu squeezes out a Volt Tackle
Winner: HungryBox
Fan Pick: Hugs (Mega Man)
5. Fan Match
Players: McD (Greninja), PPMD (Fox), Ken (Marth), and Hugs (Mega Man)
Stage: City and Town
Notes: Timed Match
Marth performs his Final Smash "Critical Strike"
Fox performed his Landmaster Final Smash
Winner: PPMD (Fox)
6. Media "Rumble" Match
Players: I have no idea...
Stage: Wily Castle
Notes: Greninja, Link, Little Mac, and Mario
No stocks
No score counter
Winner: Greninja
7. Players: aMSa (Olimar), Rapture (Little Mac), CT ZeRo (Zero Suit Samus), and KoreanDJ (Rosalina and Luma)
Stage: Pilot Wings
Notes: Strange eye blasdter item
Little mac KO move
Rosalina's Final Smash but rather easy to avoid
Pong Assist Trophy appeared
Winner: CT ZeRo (Zero Suit Samus)
Fan Pick: KoreanDJ (Rosalina and Luma)
8. Players: PewPewU (Mario), Lio (Wii Fit Trainer), HungryBox (Kirby), and PeachyHime (Villager)
Stage: Wily Castle
Notes:
A lot of Yellow Devil
Winner: Hungrybox (Kirby)
Fan Pick: PewPewU (Mario)
9. Fan Match
Players: PPMD (Fox), Hugs (Mega Man), KoreanDJ (Rosalina and Luma), and PewPewU (Mario)
Stage: Boxing Ring
Notes: No stock
No score counter
Winner:
Fan Pick:
10. Fan Favorite Finals
Players: PPMD (Fox), Hugs (Mega Man)
Stage:
Notes: No stock
No score counter
Winner:
Fan Pick:
11. Finals
Players: CT ZeRo (Zero Suit Samus), aMSa (Olimar), Lilo (Wii Fit Trainer), Hungrybox (Kirby)
Stage: Boxing Ring
Notes: Low items
4 sotck
5 minutes
Winner: CT ZeRo (Zero Suit Samus)
12. Grand Finale
Players: HungryBox (Kirby) and CT ZeRo (Zero Suit Samus)
Stage: Battlefield
Notes: No items
4 stocks
8 minutes
Great play overall from both players
Defensive play by CT ZeRo
Sudden Death
Winner: CT ZeRo
The Results
Due to the Invitational, we got our first real look at the gameplay for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. The 16 players performed well despite not having any prior experience with the Wii U version nor some of the characters they chose. What we saw was a contrasting type of abilities and play styles that had to be adapted from Brawl and Melee. Even though some of the contestants did not win, they entered into the annals of Smash history just by contending in the event.
CT ZeRo winning this event not only makes him the first winner of an E3 Smash tournament but the first winner of a Super Smash Bros. 4 tournament. Regardless if you agreed with how he played or not, he did very well and his skill shown in how well he played Zero Suit Samus.
In Conclusion
As mentioned before, this tournament will go down as the first E3 Smash tournament and hopefully it won't be the last. We got to see gameplay footage streamed live and hopefully, taking the constructive criticism and opinions from those who played; Sakurai will be able to create a Smash game that every type of player will enjoy. This certainly appears to be the case as Nintendo started this event in hopes of allowing players and viewers a chance to see the recent developement of this game, a reach out to the competetive community, and to hold us over until the release. I feel this tournament was a success no matter how you look at it and, with hope, the gameplay, characters, and mechanics will be fine-tunned and represent a game that all types of players can pick up and enjoy.