Things are going nuts in the Super Smash Bros Ultimate major tournament Frostbite in Detroit. What’s going on is a major change in the meta of Smash Ultimate. There are so many things going on that should not be going on that it is extremely hard to explain.
First let’s talk about seeding and upsets. People seed tournaments by putting players against someone they are expected to win against. Players are expected to perform their seed and when they go against a player with a higher seed than them, they are expected to lose. What’s going on in Frostbite is nothing but a chaotic mess. Players considered better than other players by nearly anyone prior to the event are getting upset like crazy.
For every Californian, let’s talk about Prodigy. Prodigy is the best player in Northern California, a Mario main, and young talent coming into the scene. In Spring 2019, he was ranked 37th of the PGRU. In the Frostbite, he had to fight against Mkleo, the undisputed best player in the entire world. Much to everyone’s surprise, he beat Mkleo 3-0 in a best of 5. This is actually insane, that the undisputed best player lost to Prodigy. This is just one of the many upsets that occurred.
Another major upset that occurred was Hungrybox beating RFang. Hungrybox is the best player in Super Smash Bros Melee, but has never done that well in Super Smash Bros Ultimate yet. He beat a top 50 player in the world and the best player in South Carolina. This is an amazing upset as Hungrybox was expected to get 293rd place and RFang was expected to get 37th.
Every major tournament will have its own upsets. That is inevitable. But to have hundreds of upsets so that nearly 25% of each set will be an upset is insane. To the normal smash tournament, 25% upsets would be nuts in a local setting where there is a lower skill ceiling. At a major tournament where the skill level is already high, upsets are wild by themself.
Some of the characters and people making upsets are wild. Ganondorfs have done surprisingly well in the tournament. Ganondorf has been considered a low tier by many people, even people I compete with. It’s no surprise that people think he is a low tier character since he has a hard time getting in and gets combod easily. However, he has the ability to punish characters harshly for their mistakes and get early knock outs due to his huge strength.
With the huge amount of upsets, something else that may be surprising is the amount of close sets. Top players have almost lost sets against complete randoms, players not known at a top level and may not even be the best in their region. In this tournament, ranking does not matter, anyone can beat anyone.
The amount of upsets at this tournament is honestly extremely surprising and tells me that lots of players are adapting and getting better at the game. I honestly admire Prodigy for beating Mkleo and hope that it’s a start for Northern California to become a stronger region.
FutureGamingPro 