Smash Bros. has always been relatively international, but things have taken a dramatic shift since quarantine ended. The heavy presence of Wifi seems to have sharpened the competitive skills of players the world over, with places like Mexico and Japan catching particular attention. Just last year, I covered the Central America event Smash Legends 3, an event representing the growth & development of a deeply underrated Latin American scene.
Today, however, I will look at an even less discussed area: Southeast, and to a lesser extent, East Asia. I would formerly map these areas together, but the East Asia South online qualifiers for the 2021 Smash World Tour exposed the sheer distances at play.
Regardless of where we draw lines, these two areas are colliding at ACE-HIGH, Indonesia’s largest ever event, with players flying in from Australia, the United States, and Japan. The last event of its kind was Korea’s Uprising 2019, but it lacked the multinational pull that this event holds.
Indonesia’s Rise
One way I’ve tended to track regional activity is through qualified player sheets. Prior to 2023, this meant OrionRank’s. This year, it’s UltRank’s. In the late weeks of 2022’s season, I noticed something I hadn’t in a long time: an Indonesian event.
Southeast Asia’s most visible country in Smash tended to be the Philippines, but a regional nearly 1800 miles from Manilla – Batavia Brawl, held in Jakarta – appeared. Since then, two more Batavia Brawls have been logged by UltRank. By now, it’s one of Southeast Asia’s most active scenes.
Their best player is Raelu, who has used a variety of characters over the years. He’s seeded a relatively low 14th – unusual for a host nation at a B-Tier event – but seeding this event is a thankless job given how little interaction we tend to see between these countries.
Broad International Attendance
It’s not that unusual for areas like Europe, the USA, Central America, South America, or the Middle East have a high # of countries present at their larger events. Whether through incentives to go to majors or proximity to other countries, even smaller regions having a notable international presence are standard.
With ACE-HIGH, it’s a bit unusual. There are extreme distances between a lot of the countries attending events here, spanning from Japan to Australia, a space that covers over 5,000 miles. America is also a consideration, with North Floridian Falco player Zeon and South Carolinian Rosalina player Eldin in attendance.
Despite the mapping split of SEA and EAS, we’re also seeing Tanark – one of South Korea’s best players – in attendance. Both of Hong Kong’s historical top players, XIFL and Maiden, are in attendance, fresh off attendance at a few Asia-Pacific events.
One interesting but often undiscussed modern factor in East Asian Smash is China. While the country has been variably active for years, this year is proving to provide the most exposure it has seen to date with sixteen qualified players on UltRank.
In particular, Guangzhou has become a wholly active scene that is probably the flagship region for the country. Yooo, one of their best players, holds a 9th seed going into the event. They are likely the best Zelda player in East Southeast Asia, and recently placed second out of 126 entrants at Smash Odyssey GZ Station 2, the largest ever Chinese event.
Australia has also sent two formidable players. Sebpro101, one of Australia’s best travelled players, is the event’s third set and is perceived as the most likely non-Japanese player to win. Fryd Ryce, a Western Australian player widely considered to be the country’s best Pikachu, is the second big AUS threat. They are seeded 15th, but an over performance wouldn’t be surprising.
Japan’s two killers here are the event’s top seeds and ascendant players that have only recently become well known. Neo, a Corrin player from Tokyo that has quickly risen to top 50 status, is the event’s favorite to win.
However, Neo has had difficulty fighting Snake players before, and as it would turn out, his primary opponent is Kyushu-bound Snake player Hurt. Hurt has recently become a top 50 case after a string of impressive regional performances and a strong run at Kagaribi 10.
If we dial back a bit, we find the rest of Southeast Asia’s attendees. Singapore’s best, Terrarian, is vying for a shot at winning the event. He would go toe-to-toe with DD at Phantom 2022 about a year ago, but lost 2-3 and placed 25th at the AUS national. He’s joined by much of Singapore’s top power ranked players – six, seven if you count former PR’d player Skullkid. At the very least, the event will give us fantastic data between Indonesia and Singapore.
Closing things out, we have single representatives from Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Lookkrung – Thailand’s former best player – is the 10th seed. Malaysia, which has scarce data to work with, has sent Cam Ping, their best player. Lastly, there’s Hashibobo, a Diddy Kong player that closed out the mid-year 2021 wifi season in the Philippines at 4th.
How Will It All Shake Out?
Considering how rare interactions between these countries tend to be, there’s not really much value in predicting things. It’s reasonable to expect Hurt & Neo are the favorites to win, but the event is full of active scenes that receive minimal coverage.
If we assume scene activity might correlate to some success, I think players like Yooo and Raelu may overperform their expected placements. Both of Hong Kong’s players are worth noting, consider XIFL took a handful of great wins in Ontario during his stay in Canada.
As I said, though, there’s not a ton of value in predicting things. The event has all the hallmarks of an entirely chaotic tournament where seeding can only estimate the unknown at non-JP East Asia’s most significant event in four years.
This event has been covered before by Chicago TO & fellow nerd Trade War, which you can find here. I recommend it as it delves into detail about how the Southeast Asian scene has thrived, details some prior events held in the region, and discusses some history of scenes I only briefly mentioned in this piece.
Lastly, thank you to the TO Lemonace (@lemonaught) for their dedicated work in making one of the most important events for Southeast Asia in Smash’s history.
Where to Watch?
While GOML and UltCore will get the most attention this weekend, I encourage everybody to keep track of ACE-HIGH if you’re up late and or wake up early! It starts at 10:00 Jakarta time, which is 10PM in the Central USA, going from Saturday to Sunday. If you’re familiar with watching Japanese events, this is similar in terms of timeframe.
https://www.youtube.com/@_BGLucky_ < Stream Link
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