Twice a year, the Super Smash Bros. Melee community celebrates what has become one of its marquee events: the Smash Summit. Founded by esports broadcasting studio Beyond the Summit, the event is a high-profile invitational where the Melee elite come together to discuss, analyze, and play. Eight of the top players are invited by BTS, two win spots by placing highly in tournaments leading up to the event, and six more are selected through a thrilling and entertaining voting process that involves the entire community. Last night, the final entrants were chosen, and now the Smash Summit 5 roster is here.
Candidates for the Summit campaign and are chosen two at a time in three voting phases. Before last night, four had already been selected—round one went to New England superstar Crush and legendary community idol Hax, while round two inducted the lovable Mike Haze and Venezuelan Luigi phenom Blea Gelo.
Within the last few minutes of the final round last night, it was between three legends for the last two spots. There was S2J, an electrifying Falcon and one of SoCal’s most beloved mascots; aMSa, the greatest Yoshi player in history; and ChuDat, who wrote the book on Ice Climbers play. With five minutes to go, aMSa and Chu were locks—and then suddenly, a huge mass of about 30,000 votes came through for S2J (Reddit user u/EightBitNacho provided this handy graph to show how quickly it played out). With little time to spare, S2J secured his spot alongside aMSa.
Being selected to the Summit is one of the highest honors the community can bestow on a player. Just take a look at these reactions (and be aware of some NSFW language):
Rounding out the list are the eight invitees, five of which are considered “gods” of the game: Armada, Mang0, Mew2King, Hungrybox, and Leffen. Rounding out the upper echelon are SFAT, Axe, and Plup, who many believe has made his ascension to godhood after recently defeating Armada—widely regarded as the best player on the planet. Also invited are Shroomed and Wizzrobe, who won spots at the Summit through placements at the recent GTX and The Big House 7 tournaments.
See how these sixteen players fare in the Smash Summit 5, starting on November 2 and streamed all weekend.