So, we’ve covered traditional fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, now onto Smash Bros. Smash isn’t your typical fighting game, as the focus is not on taking down an enemy’s lifebar but by racking up enough damage onto an enemy to send them flying off stage. Due to the fact the mechanics of combat are quite different to your standard 2D fighter, a lot of very specific language has built up around Smash which may be hard to decipher for a new player or a first time spectator.

This guide aims to decode many of the terms commentators will commonly use when discussing high level gameplay, in order to help you get the most out of the many Smash streams that will appear on Twitch on the next few weeks. If you want to refresh your mind on the basic universal terminology that applies to most fighting games, make sure to check out this guide.

20XX: 20XX is a joke term invented by the player Hax, referring to a time where everyone is so good at Melee, that everyone plays Fox to such a high degree that games are decided by who gets the first controller port.

4-stocked: One lower than a JV5, 4-stocking someone is where you beat an opponent without losing a single life. In Smash for Wii U, the equivalent term is a 2 stock. Here is an example of one of the fastest 4 stocks in history.

Blastzones: Blastzones are the areas which surround the edge of the screen and cause characters to lose a stock if they touch them.

Counterpick: In Smash, picking stages is almost as crucial as picking your character. The way stage picking works is you start with a pool of neutral stages which the 2 players will take turns banning until there is only one left. You decide who bans first via Rock Paper Scissors. In Melee, there are 5 neutral stages so one player bans a stage, then the other player bans 2, then the first player bans one more stage and they fight on the remaining one. After the first round, counterpick stages then become available to pick from. The winner of the first round then bans two stages before the loser then picks the stage. The second round of banning is only in effect in best of 3 sets, there are no bans after the initial round in best of 5 sets.

Crouch cancelling: In Melee, crouching can reduce the knockback of certain moves.

Dash dancing: When a character is dashing, you can input another dash to make the character move in the opposite direction without losing momentum. Dash dancing is when you do this in quick succession and it is often used as a way to fake out opponents or space a move correctly.

Dave’s Stupid Rule: This is a ruling used in most major tournaments to stop players returning to the same stage over and over again within a set. The usual variation of DSR is that a player cannot pick a stage that they have already won on in that set. So, in a Falcon vs. Peach match, Peach loses the first game so she gets to pick the next stage. Say she picked Final Destination and then won, she cannot then pick Final Destination again in that set.

DI (Direction Influence): DI is a major part of how players survive to high percents in Smash. By aiming your control stick in a specific way whilst being launched, you can partially control the direction in which you fly. You want to aim for a place perpendicular to the direction you are being launched at in order to survive for the longest time. Having good DI means you will survive to higher percents after being launched.

DJ Nintendo with importance of DI.

Edgeguard: Edgeguarding is the act of securing the edge of a stage, so a player who is recovering from offstage cannot get back on. Characters can edgeguard by throwing projectiles to interrupt the recovering player’s jump, holding onto the edge so the recovering player cannot grab it themselves (which is known as edgehogging) or by using an attack on the edge which hits below and knocks a player away.

Fastfall: If you press down at the peak of a character’s jump, your character will fall much faster than usual. Some characters like Fox and Captain Falcon have faster falling speeds by design, and are called fastfallers.

Foxtrot: A foxtrot is where you input a dash in the same direction repeatedly.

Gentleman’s Rule: This rule overrides David’s Stupid Rule, where players can go to any stage they want as long as they both agree to it. In Smash for Wii U, most players will Gentleman’s Rule in the first game and go straight to Smashville.

Gimping: Gimping is where you KO a recovering opponent by interrupting their recovery with a move that wouldn’t kill otherwise. Blocking recovery moves like Ness’ PK Thunder or taking away someone’s jump by hitting them with Sonic’s spring would be examples of people being gimped.

Johns: A john is an excuse a player puts forward for why they played badly, like their controller wasn’t working or the sun was in their eyes. People who make continuous excuses are said to be johning and players will often say ‘No Johns’ to counter someone who keep making excuses.

JV: A JV is where you defeat an opponent without taking any damage on that stock. The number of the JV is always one higher than your stock count so if you have 3 stocks and take no damage, that would be a JV4. Getting JV5’ed is the ultimate dishonour, the equivalent of getting double perfected in a traditional fighting game.

Ken Combo: A Marth combo, discovered and popularised by the King of Smash, SephirothKen. The combo is a single jump, forward air, another jump into a down air which spikes. While it is a simple enough combo, it requires precise spacing to be pulled off consistently.

L-cancel: This, combined with short hopping and wavedashing, act as the holy trinity which all Melee players must learn should they wish to play at a competitive level. L or lag cancelling is where a player inputs the shield command a few frames before they hit the ground whilst doing an aerial attack. If done correctly, it will half the landing lag of that aerial move.

Ledge trump: This is unique to Smash 4, as players can now force someone off the ledge by grabbing the ledge at the same time as the recovering player. This causes the recovering player to let go, allowing the other player to follow up with an attack to send them further away and possibly KO them.

Meteor smash: A meteor smash is a move which sends a player straight downwards but the knockback can be cancelled by using an up b move. This is known as meteor cancelling.

OoS: Out of Shield.

Powershield: Powershielding is where you hit the shield just as an attack hits you which eliminates any shield stun. Powershielding also reflects projectiles.

Press 1: A term coined by commentator HomeMadeWaffles. Commentators will often ask people to press 1 if a player has done something embarrassing or sad, like SD at low percent or die in a particularly dishonourable way.

Press 1.

Rage: Rage is a mechanic exclusive to Smash for Wii U, where attacks start to do more knockback based on how much damage a player has on them. Rage starts at 10% but only starts to become noticeable at about 100%, where characters begin to flash red and steam comes off them. Rage tops out at 200% and many characters will become much better at rage percents, due to the fact that attacks do greater knockback.

SD (Self destruct): An SD is where a player dies without being hit by the opponent. SDing usually makes people very salty and results in a lot of 1s appearing in the Twitch chat.

Shine: This refers to Fox and Falco’s down B in Melee. Initially envisaged as reflectors, both moves do damage when used at close range and are a major part of Fox and Falco’s combo game. Fox can spike people with his shine by using it off stage, which is called shinespiking. Falco’s shine sends people upwards, allowing him to combo players upwards with consecutive shines. Some players can also input multiple shines in quick succession to inflict a great amount of pressure on an enemy’s shield. This is called multishining.

Shorthop: A shorter jump which occurs if you release the button just after your character squats down to jump.

Smash attack: A smash attack is a powered up version of a tilt attack, performing by a player tapping a direction whilst holding A. The C-Stick on a Gamecube controller is mapped to smash attacks by default.

Smash DI (SDI): Smash DI is where you control the direction a character moves mid combo, in order to avoid a particularly strong hit. Players will often SDI out of Fox’s up air, in order to avoid the sweetspot of the second hit of the move which usually results in a KO.

Sourspot: This is the exact opposite of a sweetspot, being a part of a hitbox which does the least damage or knockback.

Spacies: Spacies is the shortened form of the phrase ‘space animals’, which refers to the characters Fox and Falco.

Spike: A spike is a move which sends a player straight downwards and cannot have its knockback interrupted. Marth’s down air in Melee and Ganon’s Wizard Foot in all Smash games are moves which have spike properties.

Stage spike: A stage spike is where a player bounces off a part of the stage, knocking them downwards similar to a meteor smash. You can negate the bounce of a stage spike by teching at the right time.

Stock: The name for a single life in Smash. In Melee, they play with 4 stocks while in Smash for Wii U, they play with 2 stocks.

Sweetspot: A sweetspot is a specific part of an attack hitbox which does the most damage or knockback. For example, Captain Falcon’s forward air has its sweetspot on Falcon’s knee, which does massive damage and knockback if a player hits the sweetspot. Hitting a player with the sweetspot of an attack usually results in some obvious visual indication.

The power of the knee is just too strong.

Sweetspotting the edge: Sweetspotting the edge is when players position their recovery in just the right place, as to autosnap to the edge from the furthest possible distance. Sweetspotting can be easily thwarted by a careful edgehog, but sweetspotting the edge can be a great way to guard against people trying to edgeguard by using a smash attack right on the ledge.

Tech: Teching in Smash Bros is a little different to most fighting games. While you can tech on the ground like most fighters, you can also tech off walls which is a great way to survive a stage spike. If you hold the control stick up when you tech off a wall, you will jump off it.

Techchasing: This is where you follow someone’s tech in order to get a followup. For a character like Ganondorf in Smash for Wii U, techchasing after a Flame Choke is a major part of his game as you can continually choke slam the enemy for as long as you keep up the techchase.

Tilt attack: A normal attack which is performed by inputting A and tilting the control stick in a specific direction. Similar to aerial attacks which change based on which direction you input, you can have forward tilts, up tilts and down tilts.

Tipper: This refers to the sweetspot on the end of Marth’s sword, which does extra damage and knockback. Commentators will often refer to a tipper f-smash, which is one of Marth’s strongest moves and can KO people at low percents.

U,F,B,N, Dair: This is shorthand for aerial attacks in game. Uair means an upwards aerial, Nair means a neutral air, Fair means a forward aerial, Bair means a backwards aerial and Dair means a downwards aerial. The abbreviation system applies to smashes and tilts as well.

Wavedash: Wavedashing is not exclusive to Smash Bros by any means, but it is a fundamental part of movement when watching high level Melee. A wavedash is where after doing a shorthop, you airdodge diagonally into the stage, transferring the momentum of the airdodge into grounded movement. You know if someone has successfully inputted a wavedash as they will slide across the stage for a short burst. Whilst in a wavedash, players can perform any command that can usually be performed standing, allowing them to attack, grab, shield or go into another wavedash.

Waveland: A waveland is where you do the wavedash input on the way down from a jump, transferring momentum from the jump into a dash. Wavelanding is mainly used to move across platforms quickly or getting back onto the stage as fast as possible.

Wobbling: This is a technique unique to the Ice Climbers, where after desyncing the computer controller pink Ice Climber called Nana, a player can continually pummel and down/forward tilt an opponent until they are at kill percent. It requires specific timing to get right but it acts as an infinite if performed correctly.

There you have it, a pretty extensive guide to many of the Smash-specific terms you may hear during a tournament. This list is by no means exhaustive, there are a couple of things I have missed out, but it is enough to give you a good understanding of some of the lingo that Smash players and commentators will use regularly. Make sure to tune into CEO this weekend and EVO in July! If you want to know more about Smash in general, you can check Smashboards or the smashbros subreddit for more information.