'War' Stories: 4 stories that emerged from 2GGC: Civil War

The smoke has cleared from 2GGC: Civil War, with Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby standing tall as the winner of the most talent-heavy tournament in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U history. The event ended with Team ZeRo victorious over Team Ally in the Civil War crews battle, with peace declared among both sides.

But where one story ends, others begin. Here are some ongoing threads to keep an eye on over the course of Smash 4’s summer season and beyond.

The Japanese invasion

Smash 4 tournaments have often featured top Japanese talent, but Civil War was a showcase of Japan’s best players.

Ten Japanese players made it to top 32 from the winners bracket; each winners matchup featured at least one player from Japan. Some of those pros were familiar to long-time viewers, like Rei “komorikiri” Furukawa, Yuta “Abadango” Kawamura, and Ryuto “Ranai” Hayashi.

Other players were newer to American audiences. “T” (no name given) dazzled with his Link play, riding the Hero of Time all the way to a third place finish. Eita “Hikaru” Hoshi used Donkey Kong to knock out top players like James “VoiD” Makekau-Tyson and Ramin “Mr. R” Delshad. Tsubasa “Tsu” Takuma and Shuto “Shuton” Moriya have only been competing in the United States since February. Their Civil War performance continued to show that they belong with the top players in the world.

The infusion of Japanese talent has been one of the most interesting elements of Smash 4 over the past year, exposing audiences to unfamiliar faces and established pros to whole new rivals. Organizations like 2GGaming and Most Valuable Gaming have worked hard to bring in that country’s best to the U.S. and with names like Noriyuki “Kirihara” Kirihara winning events like Frame Perfect Series 2, the top of the Smash 4 mountain looks to be more volatile than ever before.

ZeRo at a crossroads

The biggest casualty of the early Civil War upsets was top-ranked player Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios. His losses to Matthew “Xzax” Liberatore in pools and “Luhtie” (no name given) in top 96 were entirely unexpected. ZeRo’s 49th place finish was the worst of his entire Smash career. It also left him with an unfamiliar feeling: self-doubt.

A series of tweets (since deleted) imply that the losses hit ZeRo harder than his previous ones. And while he’s feeling better about the situation (as indicated by both a Twitter statement and an interview with Yahoo Esports), his road may not get much easier going forward.

While ZeRo has been winning at events like Frostbite 2017, 2GGC: Genesis Saga, and 2GGC: Midwest Mayhem Saga, the wins aren’t coming as easily as they used to. Players like Elliot “Ally” Carroza (who has beaten ZeRo multiple times since 2016) and Leonardo “MKLeo” Perez (who beat ZeRo at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga) are starting to catch up. The infusion of international talent is starting to catch on to the Diddy Kong matchup, as evidenced by Kirihara’s win at Frame Perfect Series 2 and by Tsu narrowly missing his own tournament win. ZeRo is still the king of the Smash 4 world, but holding on to his crown is going to be tough in 2017.

Play your own character

“Always play the character you want” is an adage across all fighting games. If you like a character, play as that character. Don’t worry about how “good” that character is.

Civil War proved that this saying is no cliche. Top 8 was filled with low-tier characters, all wreaking havoc on characters considered to be the best in the game. There was T’s Link, a character seldom used in tournament play. There was Hikaru’s Donkey Kong, which knocked off two of the game’s best Sheik players. Mason “Locus” Charlton took a niche DLC character in Ryu and propelled him to a seventh place finish.

Cloud, Diddy Kong, Mario, and Sheik were all shockingly absent from top 8. Of the top-tier characters, only a single Bayonetta made it in. Zack “CaptainZack” Lauth survived with his character, but a solid field of Bayonettas, including Saleem “Salem” Young, Marcus “Pink Fresh” Wilson, and Japan’s Yuya “9B” Araki, did not make it that far.

The ultimate example of staying true to a character is Civil War runner-up Griffin “Fatality” Miller, who found success with his long-time mainstay Captain Falcon. His best tier 1 major performance prior to Civil War was a seventh place finish at Super Smash Con 2016. While Fatality has had success at Florida weeklies, this was the first time he was able to translate that success to a worldwide stage. He did so without compromising his character pick, remaining a loyal Captain Falcon main the whole way, even in the face of inherent matchup problems against characters like CaptainZack’s Bayonetta.

Two of Smash 4’s biggest tournaments (Civil War and Frostbite) have been largely defined by uncommon characters. While it’s unlikely a Jigglypuff or King Dedede will pop up and take a tournament by storm any time soon, Smash 4’s character diversity has been a welcome development.

Consistently inconsistent

One of the biggest knocks against Smash 4 has been that it’s a game dominated by one player. However, Civil War has proven Smash 4 is actually extremely volatile, with few players able to maintain a consistently high level. ZeRo’s troubles have already been covered, but he wasn’t the only player who struggled to close out easy sets.

Ally has been bitten by the upset bug several times in recent months. He lost at Civil War to PGR top 50 players Locus and Eric “ESAM” Lew alongside unknowns like Komota at Frostbite. Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland has had some issues this year as well, losing early to Mexican Bayonetta player Chag at Genesis 4 and to Freddie “FOW” Williams at Civil War. MKLeo has shown the potential to be a Smash 4 prodigy, but flopped at Civil War after Meteor and Armando “AC” Villalobos sent him crashing to a 65th place finish.

Dabuz was Civil War’s model of consistency, but even he has suffered early losses, like an early 2GGC: Genesis Saga loss to NorCal Meta Knight player Shoaib “DSS” Rasooli. With the increasing influx of Smash talent from around the world, the potential for upsets is greater now than it has been at any other point in Smash 4’s life cycle.

There were hints of Smash 4’s volatility at EVO 2016, the last tournament to see so many top stars fall early. Civil War has amped up that sense of vulnerability among the game’s top pros, with mid-level players, regional Smashers, and international talent catching up to the cream of the crop. Any top star can fall at any time, because there’s a wide field of hungry players looking to cement their spots as Smash 4 stars themselves.

Ozzie Mejia is excited by Smash 4’s rising talent. Follow him on Twitter @Ozz_Mejia.