Well, what a way to finish the Smash season. While there are a couple of sagas from the 2GGaming team to come and the UGC Open before the end of the year, The Big House 6 acted as a suitable last gathering of the Smash 4 world before the holiday break, and the eventual kick off of the 2017 season at Genesis 4 in January. High production values in combination with top quality sets across the board made The Big House 6 one of the best Smash 4 events so far.
Japan Kicks It Off With an Explosive Opening
Before the pools were filled with hungry sharks, day one of The Big House 6 got off to a thunderous start with the regional crew battles. This event saw the East Coast, West Coast, Japan and the Midwest fighting against each other in a 15 stock, single elimination tournament to decide which region reigns supreme. Going into the event, the general consensus was that it would be an East vs. West Coast final, with the East fielding players like RNG|Dabuz, MVG|Salem and NRG|Nairo, while the West had TSM|Zero, eLv|Larry Lurr and CLG|VoiD leading their team. The consensus couldn’t have been more wrong, with both the East and West Coast getting knocked out by the other two contenders, the Midwest and Japan. The Midwest must have drawn power from their local supporters, with their anchor C9|Ally taking 5 stocks and upsmashing the West Coast out of the tournament.
For East Coast, they had quite a damaging set-back going into their match with Japan, with Dabuz pulling out of the battle and forcing the East to swap in Tweek as their substitute. While Tweek is still a fantastic player, the loss of one of their big guns probably inflicted some mental damage to the East Coast crew. The battle still went down to last stock for both teams, with Komorikiri clutching out the win in a last hit showdown versus Nairo.
In the final battle, after an early surge of stocks, the Midwest was looking on target to win the whole event. With their heavy hitters of Kameme, Abadango and Komorikiri already dispatched, the Midwest was up a whole three stocks going into Japan’s final player. However, Japan’s anchor was not to be underestimated. This man was Kie, veteran Brawl player and regarded as the best Peach player in Japan. Already proving his worth as a stock taking machine against the East Coast, Kie did have a mountain to climb going in, tasked with taking out both Ally and Rayquaza07. Managing to take Ally out, Kie only had a single stock going into his fight versus Rayquaza and my god, did this man put in some work. Surviving to 187% on this final stock, Kie carried his Japanese brethren to victory with a miraculous three stock on Rayquaza. The open mouths of EE, TKBreezy and Bear said it all after the match was done. Japan had set off The Big House 6 with a bang.
Komorikiri and the Seven Chaos Emeralds
Speaking of Japanese success, Komorikiri put on the performance of his career–at least his career away from home–during The Big House 6. Before the tournament had even begun, seven major Sonic players received a Chaos Emerald to hold during the tournament. Once they were knocked out, that player then had to give their Chaos Emerald to a fellow Sonic, until one final Sonic remained. As Sonic after Sonic fell in the bracket, Komorikiri quietly gathered all of these jewels together, becoming the last hedgehog remaining in bracket.
After taking revenge on Nairo for Abadango Saga in Winners’ Quarters, it was time for Komorikiri to draw upon their power and become Super Sonic, bringing out the Blue Blur for his Winners’ Semis match against IMT|ANTi. Unfortunately, the power of the emeralds did not let Komorikiri hold onto his Winners’ bracket life, falling into Losers’ after ANTi’s clever counterpick to Zero Suit Samus to deal with the rapid rodent.
The Emeralds then quickly morphed into materia, with Komorikiri’s Cloud taking out CLG|VoiD in an intense game 5 situation in Losers’ Quarters. With the final push upon him, Super Sonic returned to the stage for Komorikiri’s final matches, taking out Mr. R–who had just finished an amazing reverse 3-0 on Dabuz with his own Cloud–before losing to ZeRo’s Diddy in Losers’ Finals. This tournament was the event where Komorikiri finally broke his Limit, gaining top 3 at an American event and putting him in back in contention for a place among Japan’s top 3.
The Roulette Wheel Spins Again
As with any Smash 4 supermajor, the deck was stacked and the dice were loaded for some top contenders to be drown in pools. Japanese Toon Link main Ri-ma acted as the pool cleaner, collecting the heads of any homeland player that dare cross him in the initial brackets. He sent eLv|Larry Lurr and SuperGirlKels into Losers’, as well as eliminating Rayquaza07 before finally losing to Fatality 3-2 in Losers’ Side of top 32. Keep in mind Ri-ma was not in the Japan crew for the crew battle, so just imagine how many stocks Japan may have won by if their best Toon Link was in the line-up.
Elsewhere in bracket, New York’s monkey man DKWill sent the winner of the North American Key to The Big House online qualifier, Wrath, into Losers in a shocking upset, overcoming a dreadful matchup for the great ape. Georgia’s Wario TheReflexWonder claimed the souls of fellow southeast players in round 2, eliminating both Wrath and EVB|Dath but narrowly missing out on top 32 thanks to the efforts of the best R.O.B in the US, 8BitMan. Louisiana Bayonetta CaptainZack was another top player hunter, eliminating PG|ESAM ahead of top 32 and defeating FOX|Mew2King before losing to fellow Bayonetta player MVG|Salem. Speaking of Bayonetta team kills, VGBC|Pink Fresh was another pools casualty, losing to Utah’s Calculus 2-1. With the success of the big Bayonetta players, it would not be at all surprising if we see way more of this character in 2017.
CEO 2016 runner up Zinoto was also sent to Losers’ early, losing to Texan Corrin Cosmos in round 2, while C9|Ally felt the wrath of SS|WaDi, sending the Evo 2016 champion out into the lower bracket earlier than expected. Unfortunately, a combination of sleep deprivation and headaches actually forced Ally to drop out from finals day, drastically changing the layout for top 32 and simplifying the run to the final 8 for some.
The Immortals Smile on ANTi
However, as one Mario falls, another one rises; it was ANTi’s turn for a stellar Mario performance. He stuck with Mario throughout, though his Zero Suit Samus did also put in some work in his match against Komorikiri and he even switched to Charizard in the final game of the first set of Grand Finals, but the less said about that the better. His new sponsorship has definitely had a positive effect on his play, as he practically sailed into Grand Finals with no real opposition. Besides that ZSS set, ANTi’s Mario was pulling double duty, dismantling players like SS|Mr. E and CLG|VoiD, but his Winners’ Final match with TSM|ZeRo was the most convincing, starting off with a cheeky taunt which set the tone for the whole set. It was dunk after dunk, with ANTi shutting down ZeRo’s control of the neutral and chasing down any of his attempts to get back onto stage. By all appearances, ANTi was set to take another supermajor absolutely free. Unfortunately, ZeRo had other plans.
The Return of the King
Like with other tournaments during the course of this year, ZeRo went into The Big House 6 focused on victory. He asked for little to no fan interaction, trying to channel all of his energies into winning the last flagship event of the season. While ANTi lost a game or two on his path to Winners’ Finals, ZeRo was knocking out clean 3-0s against every player he faced. Dabuz, Abadango, Tweek; all annihilated by ZeRo’s Diddy. Like with Shine, watching his Diddy felt like we as an audience had travelled back to 2015 and were watching pre-patch Diddy destroy any unwitting opponent. Even after his loss to ANTi, he regained his composure versus Komorikiri, beating him 3-1 to get the runback in Grands.
ZeRo must have been sandbagging in Winners’ Finals as Grand Finals was a complete blowout in his favour. At points, it wasn’t even close; ZeRo had clearly been using their first set as data to download ANTi and then demolish him with a clean 6-0. For a tournament of upset after upset, it was a bit of a shame for it to end on such a one-sided set, but congratulations to ZeRo for returning to that 2015 form after a bit of a blip in the middle of the year. With the Panda Global Rankings for 2017 coming up before Genesis 4, it will be interesting to see if ZeRo does retain his top spot after his recent run of wins, or if Ally has done enough during the summer to potentially knock ZeRo down to second.
RESULTS:
1. TSM|ZeRo (Diddy Kong)
2. IMT|ANTi (Mario, Zero Suit Samus, Charizard, Cloud)
3. Komorikiri (Cloud, Sonic)
4. Mr. R (Sheik, Cloud, Bayonetta)
5. RNG|Dabuz (Rosalina and Luma, Olimar)
5. CLG|VoiD (Sheik)
7. NRG|Nairo (Zero Suit Samus, Lucina)
7. DNL|Marss (Zero Suit Samus)
Sources: smash.gg; Unrivaled Tournaments