News

It's time to level up! It's not as easy as eating a rare candy however. To really improve in Smash there are some thingsto be learned first. Fortunately players like BAM on his channel For Glory Gaming are making videos to help players do just that. In the first video of The Level Up series he sits down to explain how to apply pressure safely while learning the defensive habits of an opponent. Give it a watch and use this knowledge to improve!

Tier lists. A subject that causes much debate over where characters should be placed, if one should exist at all, how they should be formed, and much else. Many efforts to devise tier lists have been made from EventHubs to the /r/smashbros monthly voted tier list with each project having various levels of success and failure. But just how important are they in the long run and how should we approach using them to select characters?

Pikachu main and Smash 4 player ESAM discusses just this with his latest Let's Talk video. He gives his professional opinions all about tier lists and discusses the different motivations for playing characters either who are the best or worse. Give it a watch and leave personal thoughts...

Super Smash Flash 2 is sometimes overlooked when it comes to the fanmade Smash games. Many do not realize it has a vibrant competitive scene with its own top players, notable tournament organizers, and intricate development history. Each Wednesday over the month of September will feature an article covering a unique aspect of the game or scene. We've discussed the history of the game, met a top player, and met a top streamer. This week we'll learn a bit about the tournament scene of the game with a prominent TO: Dark Ermac.

Dark Ermac's gaming life started back with Super Mario World played on his cousin's...

Missed the best moments from the past week in the competitive Smash community? EMG has you covered and just posted the 37th installment of their Play of the Week series! Featured in this episode is an incredible 0-death punish courtesy of DJ Nintendo and highlights from tournaments around the world, including HTC Throwdown and Dreamhack London to name a few.

You can watch EP #37 in the video below:


To support the team, you can check out Even Matchup Gaming's...

Kirby is more than just a copycat: he has his own techniques! HUP Canceling, a technique that has had good applications for Kirby since the days of Brawl, is still possible within Smash 4 and is just as useful. Youtuber Ƥнλπ7σϻ has made a video explaining how it can be applied within the newest Smash title. Give it a watch and try to HUP to victory!

Familiar with Omni's Smash Bros content on youtube? The channel has recently launched a series feature all about user-generated content! Smashboards will now feature the Weekly Top 5 Smash Shorts series into its weekly Smash News rotation. What is a Smash Short? As the name suggests, it's a quick moment or series of events in Smash that is so good that you have to share it with someone. And we're giving you (yes, you) the opportunity to share those moments for a chance to be selected as one of the Top 5.

Check the links below to learn how you can submit your content right here on Smashboards...

Welcome to SmashBoards Writer's Interviews! This is a series that will appear at least once every month covering a writer. These are more casual interviews, but depending on the interviewer, we leave it up to you whether they'll answer further questions.

This week we have SmashBoards Second-in-Command writer, SmashCapps! Given that many other head honcho's of the writing staff are busy, he does a lot to make sure things stay active around here, so give it up for SmashCapps.


Thirdkoopa: Tell us a little bit about yourself!

SmashCapps: There's probably a lot to say here. I have a first name, but everyone just called me Capps so I combined that with Smash and made the unoriginal name I've got today! I used to go by AylasHero and was the largest tournament organizer for Playstation All Stars back when the community was strong. I've hosted...

The following is a mirror copy of the original article by Juggleguy here, with his permission to re-post.

I’m very excited to announce that The Big House 5 is teaming up with Gamers Outreach, who will be the official charity partner of the event coming up October 2-4, 2015 in Dearborn, MI!

Gamers Outreach Foundation is a Michigan-based 501(c)(3) charity organization that provides therapy and recreation to children in hospitals using video games! One of their specific projects (piloted at Mott Children’s Hospital of Ann Arbor) includes building portable video game kiosks for kids hospitals who are in need of bedside activities. Having personally worked with the Gamers Outreach team before at Gamers for Giving earlier this year, I can say they are not only some of the best TOs...

Wanting to get those hands on the new indie game Rivals of Aether but haven't been able to? Count those lucky stars because Rivals of Aether is now on Steam Early Access! More information can be found on the game's steam store.

Want the game but feeling a bit low on funds? Smashboards will be running a contest to give away two keys to download the game on Steam! The contest will end and winners be chosen after September 30th. Come support the website, the game's developer, and our Smashboards writers by entering.

Hopefully this gets fans of indie games and those who love Smash-like games excited...

With shield being buffed in Smash 4, grabs may just be more powerful than ever. Many of the cast have easy combos and setups from grabs as well as kill throws. Besides from avoiding being grabbed, mashing is the best way to avoid a potential combo or kill. Mashing also helps with escaping out of shield breaks and the buried state. That's why Beefy Smash Doods is here to show the most effective way to mash!

Mind Over Meta is a weekly series of articles on /r/SSBPM, the Project M subreddit. Written by several different authors, this series covers many of the mental aspects of playing smash and other subjects related specifically to Project M. This week user MeTricK wrote about respect. The original article can be found here. To read the rest of the series check out the Mind Over Meta Archive. Sit down, read, and enjoy.


Hey guys! My name is MeTriK and I am a current sport psychology masters student, mental skills trainer for some European eSport organizations and most recent member of Smash Practice. I...

AMondAys is a weekly feature on /r/SSBPM, the Project M subreddit. It features AMAs from various members of the Project M Development Team and allows them to directly interact with the community in an awesome way. This week features ds22.


Hey everyone, I'm ds22 from the Netherlands, and I'm one of the wizards (ASM coders) of the PMDT. Joined the team end August 2010 as PSA coder, and gradually grew from there, gaining experience in PSA, ASM, and SFX modding, among other things. I also assisted with the Clone Engine, being responsible for getting things like cosmetics, soundbanks, and even Kirby hats in a workable state. Ask me anything, and I'll try to answer any question you guys have for, be it about me, Project M, or even about Brawl modding in general. P.S. Due to the differences in timezones, it may take a while before I can answer your...

Just over a month ago, the return of the legendary Genesis tournament series was announced. Not much was known about the tournament except for that it would be a major international tournament in Northern California during the Winter of 2016, and that it would hold the The Melee Games finals.

Now, some new details have been revealed! Genesis 3 will take place from January 15th-17th, 2016 at the San Jose Convention Center. The San Jose Convention Center is 3.9 miles away from the local airport, and offers over 100,000 square feet of space.

Be sure to stay tuned to the Genesis 3 smash.gg page for future details, and check out the official teaser trailer.

Umebura FAT is being held on September 21st and 22nd in Tokyo, Japan.Umebura FAT (First Anniversary Tournament) is the 100th event, and is taking place during the first two day’s of Japan’s Silver Week. Some of the greatest players Japan has to offer will be in attendance as well as some foreign challengers from distant lands.

Any Smash fans that have not viewed a Japanese smash event before may notice that the ruleset used differs in several ways from those commonly used in other countries. Many know Japanese rulesets for being very limited on stages and in general being conservative. Here is a rundown of the ruleset to help fans at home:


General rules:

• 2 stock
• 7 minute time limit
• Double elimination...

Hey everyone! Thanks for sitting tight during our extended maintenance this morning. We've made a number of upgrades to the site, some of which you can see detailed below. As a side effect of this upgrade, the entire forum skin had to be rebuilt from scratch. If you see or notice anything that looks strange or broken, please let Warchamp7 know in the comments or in a forum PM!

Check out some of the juicy details below.

Following our nightly maintenance tonight at 2AM PST / 5AM EST, we'll be performing some additional updates to the site.

These updates are expected to take a few hours and Smashboards will not be available during this timeframe. We're placing a generous estimate of 7AM PST / 10AM EST for the site to be available again, but this is not guaranteed.


Be sure to follow our Facebook and Twitter for updates while the site is unavailable, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

The newly released game, Super Mario Maker, will be coming to Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U as a DLC stage! This new DLC stage was revealed spontaneously on Nintendo's YouTube channel at 6:00 PM PDT.

Greetings, @ Gunla here, Smashboards Moderator and member of the Smashboards Rankings Staff. We have once again updated our rankings system to include some more features, and some other updates like positions for Smashboards Rankings. I’m going to give a rundown of the full Rankings Update! Without further ado, let’s rock!

Rankings Basics: We are aware that there is occasionally some confusion on how exactly are rankings are calculated, and what their purpose is. This section serves to alleviate that! Our rankings system works by allotting a certain number of points to events. We do this by placing them into categories (more on that in a bit), and players will get a certain amount of points based upon their ranking in the event. We calculate the player’s average of their top 10 events in a 12 month period, and that results in their rank. Please note that this value is...

The Events system on Smashboards has received an overhaul tonight! Much of the functionality you're familiar with is still here, but in a much easier to use way, both for event organizers and people in attendance.


You can still find Monthly and Weekly views of upcoming events by visiting the Events section. One of the new features however, is you can visit the Events Settings page and choose to filter the events by game, and also by their location relative to you.

When submitting an event, you will find a lot of similar fields to fill out such as the Title, Description and venue. You will also now find a field specifically for an address to use for a Google Maps display, as well as for the distance based filtering system. The specific address is not required, and can be left blank if you so choose and will...

Paragon Los Angeles 2015 is shaping out to be one of the biggest Smash tournaments of 2015. With over 1,000 unique entrants and a plethora of top players from Melee, Smash 4, and Project M, the tournament will be an exciting experience for players and viewers alike. After recent majors such as EVO 2015 and Super Smash Con, storylines for Melee and Smash 4 are as fresh and exciting as ever. Meanwhile in Project M, Paragon LA 2015 will be the game's biggest tournament ever and the most stacked PM tournament for a long time. Here's everything you need to know about Paragon Los Angeles 2015!