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Thursday, October 24, 2019

Next Up: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open November 2019!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - YOU can register! ...In October! (Or up until the tournament starts.)

Today, Nintendo and Battlefy announced the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open November 2019, the next in their Online Open series—this will be the seventh. You may remember the previous one being for September 2019—they took a break for October 2019.  But you can sign up for the November tournament right now. It's free. If you're one of four winners, you get a ticket to the Genesis 7 tournament in January. More on that in the article.

Depending on where you are in North America, the tournament is either on Saturday, November 9 (starting 10 AM Pacific); or Sunday, November 10 (starting 11 AM Eastern). That's already a big change from how they've been running these tournaments lately, which have been all on the same day across the continent. I believe this is because they're expecting much more participation than last time, and they want to spread their dispute resolution staff less thin.

This article is going to go over the changes from before, because they're largely favourable for the player experience and deserve to be recognised. I'm also going to discuss potential implications for... Super Smash Bros. Ultimate downloadable content!

But first, here's the new logo, which is now tinted blue instead of red: 

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open November 2019 logo Battlefy Nintendo blue
I like this more.

First, let's talk about the prize. The GENESIS tournament series is a prestigious Super Smash Bros. super-major. Unfortunately, like the September tournament's prize of The Big House in Detroit, Genesis 7—occurring the weekend of January 24—doesn't take place in a great locale. Oakland, California is littered with crime, illegal immigrants, and is a one-party Democrat city. Oakland is recently notable for its mayor tipping off illegal immigrants that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid was coming, allowing the illegals—many of whom were convicted criminals—to evade deportation.

The approximate retail value of the hotel you'll be staying at went from $1,000 in Detroit to $620 in Oakland. Same 4 nights of lodging. That's a bit of a shame. But you still get a $350 Visa gift card, round-trip tickets, and entry into Genesis 7. And if you're a minor, a parent/guardian (one) gets to come with you.

The tournament structure changes are far more interesting. There's still a ladder round, a bracket round, and a finals round. (See the Online Open August 2019 article for a picture.) This time, the ladder round is still “play at least 8 games to qualify for the top 32 in your region”, and based on experience, you're going to want to play more than 8 games unless you somehow win all 8. Your ladder matches are best-of-3s. Also this time, the ladder round is only three hours long instead of four, so it's much less exhausting. However, that means you need to be quicker about the games you play, and that's been a challenge for me since I like to be conversational with my opponents and also play on the non-aggressive side. My personal rate of game-playing is much slower!

As I mentioned, Regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 (think western side of North America + Mexico) are playing their whole tournament on Saturday, November 9. There will be four bracket rounds (one per region of 32 players each) until there's a top two. Then the top two from each region's bracket round will play in the finals round (eight players). The top two there will be going to Genesis 7. Regions 5, 6, 7, and 8 (think eastern side of North America) are playing their whole tournament a day later on Sunday, November 10. And that's the additional two people, for four total participants going to Genesis 7.

Here's the best part. The stage list has changed... for the better! They've heard our feedback and dropped Frigate Orpheon and Castle Siege, and in their place (and in addition to Final Destination, Battlefield, Yoshi's Island, Pokémon Stadium 2, and Smashville) have added Yoshi's Story, KoopaTV-favourite Lylat Cruise, Kalos Pokémon League, and Town & City. All of these are fairly good, reasonable stages, and it should dramatically reduce the amount of stage-related pain from the August and September tournaments.

Here's a little secret you won't find discussed anywhere else. Remember Terry Bogard? ...Well, I kind of don't, since I don't know who he is, but he's the fourth Fighters Pass character revealed in the September 2019 Nintendo Direct. He's reportedly going to release in November 2019.

Knowing Nintendo of America, they know when Terry will release. We know Nintendo likes releasing their DLC after tournaments because they dislike disruption. Nintendo of America also planned this November 2019 tournament, since they're the sponsor. They picked the dates.

Terry Bogard will likely release after November 10, 2019. When that happens, I still won't know who he is. ...And if they release Terry before the tournament, well, let's all hope that he isn't immediately broken and easy-to-play or something. And then I hope Battlefy adds him to their character selection in the matches—before the tournament begins—for my statistics purposes.

Here's the registration link again for the tournament.



Ludwig will participate in the tournament as well, and he will update the comments section of this article with his performance. You need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription by the beginning of the tournament in order to play an online tournament. Fortunately, KoopaTV is offering a one-year membership to the KoopaTV Nintendo Switch Online family group. You just gotta win the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program, which ends in... a week. So if you haven't started, you probably won't win. BUT, you can act now to get a head-start for Round 29 (see that hyperlink for full details), and historically, KoopaTV's winter-holiday prizes are more valuable than average!


Ludwig was very wrong about Terry Bogard's release timing, but he was personally told that at least he'll be on the Battlefy character selection.
Here are the results of the November tournament, as well as fighter usage stats.
You can now register and play in the February 1–2 2020 tournament!

5 comments :

  1. Ehhh guess they're gonna release Terry mere days before the tournament.

    WHOOPS.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Match 1: Vs. MARIO the Mario player. Yes, the exact same guy from match 1 in September. First game in Yoshi's Story. Won easily. Second game in Yoshi's Island. Also won easily. Three-stocked him twice as Bowser. All he does is Smash Attacks and trying to land directly above me with down-air. Bowser's Up-Smash invalidates up-air, but he never figured that out. Frustratingly, this dense plumber fan took 10 minutes to realise the stage list changed since September. I now have four Smash Tags from this guy. Two from September and two now.
    Match 2: Vs. a guy named Gab. I asked if it's like the social media site. He replied "no lol". Bowser vs. Samus game 1 on Lylat. Fortunately, I three-stocked him. Then he said Samus isn't his main and switched to Fierce Deity Link. I had switched to Ludwig. Again, Lylat. I two-stocked him this time. With Samus, he didn't try to do Morph Ball stuff and rarely tried to stuff me out with his safe forward-air. No comment on his Link.
    Match 3: VS. a Hero main named Festive. He wished me good LUCK 'cause he's RNG-based. Picked Bowser. Once again, Lylat. Two-stocked him. No strange Hero RNG in that match. Then his mom was telling him something after the first match ended and he brb'd. Fortunately he came back quick and we went game 2 at Yoshi's Island. This time, he misclicked a Kamikaze, did a Magic Burst while I had ledge invincibility, and Kaclanged instead of Heal. So... RNG worked against him.
    Match 4: Now I'm paired up vs. JayD, who at this time has 5 wins and 0 losses and is at spot #1 on the ladder. He plays Lucina. Alright, I'll keep going Bowser. We played on Battlefield and I won game 1, making key use of Bowser's Flying Slam and Whirling Fortress. He told me, "You're legitimately the first person I've fought that's good" He then switched to Roy. We went to Final Destination and I two-stocked him because he buffered air-dodged very unfortunately at his last stock. Oof. In this time, the #1 spot is held by Adamski, who already played 8 games. (7 wins, 1 loss). Right now it's 58 minutes in.
    Match 5: Vs. Greninja3535. I've played him several times over the past couple of days since he decided to become an active participant in the Online Open Discord server. He plays an obnoxious Joker and knows how I use my Bowser. But I gotta stick by my King. We got to Kalos, which is almost exclusively where we've played before. His favourite thing when I'm standing by the ledge is roll backwards and back-throw. The platforms at the side are useful for stalling out Arsene, but he generally knows my movement around them and can up-air me. Still, I won game 1. Game 2 was on Smashville and he won since I did a dumb predictable Bowser Bomb on his Arsene, which countered it. He also likes to dash attack a lot in all forms. And forward-tilt. Do I character switch? Well, no one else I use really has a good match-up vs. Joker. It's all Bowser as my dedicated anti-Joker guy. Game 3 to Town & City and he won. I did a hail mary Up-Smash, he didn't land on top of me, he rolled behind me, and forward-smashed me to win.
    Match 6: Vs. Jayy. He's ranked 8 on the ladder with 8 wins and 1 loss. He's a Pokémon Trainer. I secondary Pokémon Trainer, yes, but do I know how to fight them? No. I picked Jigglypuff and we went to Kalos. It turns out that Water Gun is incredibly effective against Jigglypuff, and Rollout beats Flare Blitz. But he three-stocked me since I got Charizard to 210% but couldn't KO it. He switched to Terry and I switched to Ludwig and we went to Yoshi's Story. I was clearly in the lead. He was at 1 fresh stock and I was at 2 fresh stocks, but he managed to RADICAL KNUCKLE me when he was at 204% and I got KO'd. WHY CAN'T I JUST KO THIS GUY? UGH.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Match 7: Versus NiTE. He's a Ness player with a Jeff icon. I figure I'll go Pokémon Trainer. Squirtle seems to be someone who can douse PK Fires, and you can Pokémon Switch out of PK Fire. We went Kalos. He taunted me with "Pk fire !!!" in chat. And that's how he started the match. I didn't do so well, not having played PT in some time. Having lost that, I switched to Bowser on Yoshi's Island. I two-stocked him fairly easily. Down-air beats PK Thunder, fun fact. Game 3 was on FD and he asked me to go back to Pokémon Trainer. I stayed as Bowser and mauled him. (It helped he saved me with PK Thunder.) We now have an hour left.
      Match 8: Vs. Yektrion... and BOWSER? He's playing pink-hair Bowser. I play green Bowser. We fought on Pokémon Stadium 2 and I JV two-stocked him. I took the first two stocks by forward-smashing his missed forward-smashes. Game 2 he switched to SHULK and we went back to Stadium 2. The problem for him is that before the tournament started, I got extensive Shulk experience by playing against former KoopaTV staffer (rip) RawkHawk2010, and Rawk's a better Shulk. So I won because after he forward-aired my first stock away, he Back Slashed to death on his last stock. With 8 games complete, I'm now at rank 82. ...Everyone else has finished far more matches in this time. I gotta keep going.
      Match 9: Versing QuazaPlaza. He's playing Terry. I'll try Jigglypuff this time since Ludwig couldn't finish it last time. I've actually played with Jigglypuff against Terry the most, so my Jigglypuff has the most Terry experience. But like Hillary Clinton, is the experience good experience? We went to Pokémon Stadium 2 and I won. He switched to Ike, and no way am I doing Jigglypuff vs. Ike. I switched to Bowser. Game 2, let's go! In Lylat Cruise. I three-stocked his Ike. Twice I got to forward-smash where his Quick Draw would land. Now at rank 61 with 7 wins and 2 losses. The #1 position has 13 wins and 1 loss. Rank 32 is Greninja3535, with 9 wins and 2 losses. Well, guess I gotta win at least two more times. 33 minutes left.

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    2. Match 10: Versus Drak. I wonder if it's a Dr. Drakken reference from Kim Possible. I'm getting a lot of that in my YouTube recommendations now. HE'S A SCHOOLGIRL INKLING. Using Ludwig. Though note: Clown Car loses to Splash Roller. He never got a chance to bury me because we played in Battlefield. I two-stocked him with 88%. He didn't know cannonball and shield mechanics. He told me, "I haven't fought a Jr in like months lol" Then I two-stocked him again on Yoshi's Story, avoiding the fate I had vs. Jayy. Now at 8 wins to 2 losses and rank 49.
      Match 11: 17 minutes left. Versus a guy named Smash A. He's rank 43 with 10 wins and 4 losses and a Dark Young Link profile icon. He plays pink Young Link. I'll pick Bowser. I heard I just need to Fire Breath and it's a decent match-up. I dunno why. But after playing, it's because it invalidates his bombs. I got some fortunate Up-Smashs and KO'd Young Link early, as well as a Fire Breath cheesy edgeguard. (Smashville) Game 2 at Yoshi's Island and despite his strong match-up advantage, I took him to a last hit situation. He won, though. Game 3... should I switch from Bowser? Well, Ludwig has no way of getting through projectiles, and I know Young Link counters Jigglypuff in Melee. I played Bowser still and I won with FIRE BREATH in Yoshi's Story. w00t! Rank.. 43. I got 9 seconds left to get a match in so...
      Match 12: siyabend the Ganondorf he's rank 90. Ludwig eats Ganondorfs. GO KOOPALING. Smashville. I lost horribly wtf help. I'm staying Ludwig I just gotta calm down. Game 2 in Pokémon Stadium 2, start sweating wildly, my second stock got destroyed in an edgeguard that ended with him up-tilting me. But I won. Took washing claws break. Time for game 3. I beat his first stock only taking 16.6%. I beat his second stock with me only at 29% or so. Then his third stock he got slightly better at manuveuring projects and KO'd me, but I finished it with a well-timed back-throw with Mecha-Koopa clipped on, so it'd explode as he was being thrown and then he'd get to the blast zone.

      I GOT TO RANK 31! I QUALIFIED! 10 wins and 2 losses! HOORAY. I FINALLY GOT PAST POOLS IN THIS.

      Delete
    3. I fought QueVeen in the TOP 32 BRACKET ROUND.
      They play Mario.

      My Jigglypuff got super-pwned in game 1 on Yoshi's Island.
      Then my Bowser got barely-pwned in game 2 on Kalos.

      QueVeen ultimately beat Sola, lost to SassyFlygon, who lost to John Numbers. :o

      So yeah, I did better in this tournament overall than any other. I'm happy.

      Seems very typical I got eliminated by Mario, though.
      I'll have to do better and TRAIN to beat him for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

      Delete

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