If you follow Super Smash Bros in any capacity, you will be aware of the recent hubbub that consumed the Sm4sh community for the last few days. For those of you who don’t know, the best Sm4sh player in the world right now, Gonzalo ‘ZeRo’ Barrios, called out a bunch of people in a post-match interview, after winning his 37th consecutive tournament, before firing a whole bunch of shots at fellow Sm4sh players on Twitter. This caused a shoot out of epic proportions, with Smashers of all skill levels throwing their two pence in at ZeRo’s callouts. While it may have seemed destructive at the time, it turns out that ZeRo’s actions are exactly what the Sm4sh scene really needed.

Up until this point, the Sm4sh scene was getting pretty stagnant. There have been no big majors for the game since Apex back in January, people are still arguing over tier lists and rulesets and no-one seems to be able to defeat ZeRo in tournament. This is completely unlike Melee, where there have been several majors across the world, with many upsets, exciting sets and general commotion all over Twitter. You have Smashers like Leffen calling people out and causing friction, which in turn causes people to step their game up, while you have the usual Gods of Melee being knocked out by non-Gods. Melee is going from strength to strength while Sm4sh was just trundling along. So, ZeRo acting as a sort of villain for Sm4sh, getting people riled up and ready to compete is exactly what the scene needed, as Smashers from across the world are now putting in work to take him down. It has even caused a bounty to be put on ZeRo’s head at CEO, with one player receiving $100 if they knock ZeRo into losers, and another $400 if they knock him out completely. This has even had ripples into the wider Smash community, with people in regional groups commenting that the bounty system should be transferred to their respective game and tournaments, which makes the overall scene more exciting.

Ultimately, this commotion has inspired Sm4sh fans to actually play the game, rather than worry about if Sheik or Rosalina is top tier, or if customs should be selectively banned. It seems a problem with the American meta, being too focused on theorycrafting for a game that is still in its infancy, rather than just playing the game and mastering it. It seems like left over guilt from Brawl in a way, that some Sm4sh players are determined to make sure that this installment does not fall into obscurity like Brawl, that they are too eager to define global rulesets or play with customs without giving the base game enough time to be properly researched and mastered.

Are you going to take down the Sinister Scarf?

While it may have sounded cocky in his post match interview, ZeRo was right when talking about Captain Falcon mains. No-one has really nailed down how to make the most out of that character, as no-one has really put the time into mastering the fundamentals. Instead, too much time has been spent faffing around with customs and determining who is the best character. For me, customs should only have been adopted into big majors until at least a year into the game’s lifespan. Once everyone has got a full grip of all the characters, the systems and really begun to master their mains, should this game-changing addition should have been adopted full scale.

This is what the Japanese meta has done and it produces incredibly interesting tournament results. A recent Japanese majors was won by a standard Villager main, not one of the typical dominating characters like Sheik or Luigi. They seem to be focused on absolutely cracking the basics of Sm4sh, sticking to a very basic stage list and going without customs until they have really discovered who is the most powerful fighters. Looking at Japanese tier lists, you see a lot of difference between the typical Western ones, often causing a lot of players to question the legitimacy or seriousness of said list. Again, the fact that there is still so much debate over who places where and who is the most strong kind of shows just how young and undecided Sm4sh is. No-one really has a solid idea of what is the best ruleset and so on, so maybe we should just play the game enough first before we start making big decisions about whether to have customs on or not. No-one is still at the level of ZeRo, so maybe players should worry about toppling his seemingly unstoppable reign and getting themselves to his level of play first, before arbitrarily moving the goalposts.

Ultimately then, this universal callout by ZeRo is a great thing. It cuts through the stagnancy that had previously gripped the Sm4sh scene, actually getting players to come and have a go if they think they’re hard enough, rather than just lamenting the fact that ZeRo is the best and going back to arguing about tiers. It gives the scene a drive to compete and play the game, to get them into the lab with their characters and to really break down the game and to see how they can win. While there is still a problem with a lack of majors, hopefully CEO and EVO after that will push players to run their own tournaments, seeing the hype that can be generated if people actually have a fierce desire to compete. I know I want to go out and become the best Ganon main in the UK now, so expect me in the lab and hopefully tearing up tournaments in the next few months.