Analyzing ACE-HIGH: A Brief Look at Southeast Asia’s Most Important Event

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.

A Dead Heat – The USA Southwest

Stretching from El Paso and Denver to Las Vegas, the United States Southwest is one of the largest geographic regions in the Smash Bros. competitive scene. While not as obscure as the Pacific Northwest, the region is growing rather fast, and has a newfound ability to regularly demonstrate its depth.

Initially, in 2015, the region’s best player was FOW, a Las Vegas Ness main and Brawl veteran. His activity has been sporadic across the years and often very local in nature, resulting in him occasionally being unranked nationally yet retaining a #1 power ranked position above nationally ranked players.

His absolute peak performance could likely be the subject of debate due to the issues with early Smash 4 rankings, but major highlights include a top 8 placement (with a win on Rain) at EVO 2015 and a top 6 placement at GENESIS 3 with wins over Larry Lurr and Hyuga.

The story of a viable Ness at top level play essentially formed at Double Vegas Down Attack (DVDA), a Las Vegas regional series that was the first major post-Wii U era series of Southwestern events. Players from Southern California, Arizona, and Las Vegas frequently competed, with FOW generally running top 3 at the event, losing to ZeRo and, often, Tyrant.

After a string of successful major runs during the Wii U’s Patch era, FOW began to attend national events far less. Despite this, he ranked in the top 60 all-time in the PGR 100, and proved to be a powerful early “hidden” boss in Ultimate. To date, he has defeated Shaky, Javi, Nicko, and Suinoko, as well as numerous top Southwest players. He currently ranks #1st on the Las Vegas power rankings, holding a near iron grip on the region.

While not the only player from the Southwest to make an impact, FOW’s long status as a scene veteran made him the best player from the region for a very long time. Now, however, the region has expanded – and Nevada’s neighbors are here to play.

A Bridge between Two Nations – The Pacific Northwest

The year is 2015. As Smash 4 is still expanding, much of the competitive spotlight isn’t focused on the upper West Coast – it’s focused on the Eastern Coast of the United States, and California. Many areas go entirely unnoticed – from out-of-country regions like Europe and Japan to even major metropolitan areas like the Midwestern United States.

Cacogen, an ascendant Sheik main from Washington, was quietly the top player in his state and the best player in the larger cross-country Pacific Northwest – a region colloquially consisting of US states Oregon, Washington, and Idaho – as well as Canadian province British Columbia.

He became way more loud in 2016 when he managed to successfully defeated top California players Tyrant, Ito, and Xzax and solidify Washington as a significant threat. Later, he performed well at GENESIS 3, defeating top Kanto Peach player Umeki, the top-50 Floridian Nick Riddle, and top NorCal sheik player Trevonte.

This represents a major starting point for the Pacific Northwest making significant inroads at larger international events. While Cacogen’s national attendance faded after his successful 17^th at GENESIS 3, it’d only be the beginning for the region.

A Hunger Rises – Europe’s Breakthrough at Smashdown World

Glutonny and ANTi shake hands after Glutonny’s upset 3-2 win in Winners Semis.

After months of questions about the European scene and its ability to compete with the best of the North America and Japan, magic happened.