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: 

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!