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EVO 2015 YO GUYS. Some of you may remember the biggest Smash tournament ever, Apex 2015, and the thread I made for it. Well, it has officially been replaced, as EVO 2015 has something stupid like ~1800 entrants for each of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Melee. In this thread I will be covering like, three things: A) Some background. B) Stream schedules. C) Storylines going into the tournament. [spoiler=Background Info]EVO is a longrunning fighting game tournament (like, 15 years old at this point or something), and this year has nine (9) games in its lineup:Guilty Gear Xrd Killer Instinct Mortal Kombat X Persona 4 Arena the Ultimax Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Super Smash Bros. Melee Tekken 7 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Ultra Street Fighter IV This year marks the first time that Smash will have two different games at EVO; Melee is returning for its third consecutive year, and Smash 4 is making its first appearance (obviously). This is also the second year that this tournament has the official support of Nintendo. Both games have pools and quarterfinals on Friday. Smash 4 has semifinals and Grand Finals on Saturday, Melee has semifinals on Saturday and Grand Finals on Sunday, with the other four top billed games. EDIT: SSB4 Crew Battle happening Thursday, 9 p.m. PST. Stream Link. Melee Salty Suite happening Saturday, 9 p.m. PST - Bizzarro Flame vs. Kage at 10. Stream Link (probably?). [spoiler=Stream Schedule, sorted by game + links to streams] http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo1 http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo2 http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo3 http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo4 http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo5 http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo6 http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo7 http://www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters [spoiler=SSB4 Storylines]At Apex 2015, Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios (, ) established himself as the undisputed best at Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, winning the tournament with his Diddy Kong, and only dropping a single game across the entire 1000+ player bracket. Since then, he has won every tournament he's entered, and has only dropped one set, to a Luigi player, after the Diddy nerfs. These days, he's largely switched to Sheik, and we've yet to see his Sheik lose a set. His dominance is such that at CEO (and I believe EVO as well) there's a $500 bounty to eliminate him from the tournament. Dabuz (, ) took second place at Apex; among other accomplishments, he eliminated Mew2King's Diddy with his Olimar, cementing in the minds of many that Olimar was a contender to be taken seriously, but nevertheless ZeRo beat his Olimar fairly effortlessly. Since then he's been considered #2 at points, but recently has been overshadowed by his regional rival, Nairo, and lost out at CEO to ESAM before once again being eliminated by Nairo. From the same region as Dabuz, Nairo (, , ), lost out at Apex, but since then has dedicated serious time and effort to improving, especially his Zero Suit Samus. His Robin and Pit / Dark Pit, all seldom seen in tourneys, are also quite fearsome, despite their relatively low positions on tier lists. Recently, he's been convincingly beating almost everyone but ZeRo, including taking second place at CEO a couple weeks ago, and in my mind he's likely the "best of the rest." ESAM (, ) has been largely absent from most tournaments, but his Pikachu is a force to be reckoned with, especially in a customs environment. While he lost out at CEO to ZeRo and then Larry Lurr, he was one of the few people to take a game off of ZeRo. With customs on, he's likely to do better, owing to his demonstrated ability to bait out aerials/airdodges he can punish hard with Heavy Skull Bash. He also has a pocket Samus that was able to take a game from Larry Lurr's Fox, before being counterpicked and eliminated by Luigi. idk I'm getting kinda tired of writing these, especially when I know there are other, better write-ups I can link you to. Other players to watch out for: - Larry Lurr (, ) is largely ignored, but his Fox is imo incredible and probably the best there is...and he has a solid Luigi as well. - Mr. R () is a widely considered to be one of the best Sheiks in the world, but we don't get to see much of him, as he lives in the Netherlands. He recently got taken out early by MVD and Larry Lurr at CEO, so it seems like he might not be as much of a threat as people think of him as. - If FOW () is gonna be at EVO, his Ness is quite strong, although he was taken out quite solidly by ZeRo at DVDA #5 Grand Finals. - Unfortunately, Mew2King is missing EVO this year, due to health struggles and hand pains. - AND OF COURSE, OUR VERY OWN PKL () will be at EVO this year... I think. If other people have ideas for smashers who should be on this list, gimme a blurb and I'll put them up. [spoiler=Melee Storylines]EDIT: TeamLiquid has a better write-up; go read it. The two-time reigning champion of Melee at EVO, Cloud 9 | Mang0 (, ), bombed yet another Apex this year. However, historically this has been followed by him taking things more seriously and kicking ass at EVO in the following summer. His other accomplishments are so numerous I don't feel inclined to list them all. This year, however, he's been having major troubles since Armada broke out his incredible Fox, which has forced Mang0 vs. Armada sets into counterpick wars, as Mang0 hates both the Fox ditto and Falco/Peach matchup. Recently, it seems as though Mang0 decided to suck it up and learn the Fox ditto, but it remains to be seen if he'll be able to master it enough before EVO. Mang0 has also had some major difficulties against the up-and-coming challenger Leffen. Armada (, ), a Swedish player known for his incredible Peach, retired several years back after a period of dominance. Since his return to the scene, he's probably been winning the most, however, he's yet to win a major tournament. He recently picked up Fox, after deciding that the overall skill level had improved to a point where solo-maining Peach simply was no longer viable, and this kicked off an incredibly strong showing this year, including finishing second at Apex, losing to PPMD after eliminating both Mang0 and Leffen. Hungrybox (), the best Jigglypuff in the world, recently announced his impending retirement, as he is starting at a new job shortly. He'll be looking to take one last tournament before he bows out, but given his trouble against other top players such as Mang0, Armada, and Leffen, it's doubtful that he'll be able to win this last super-major. Mew2King (, ), the oldest of the five "Melee Gods," will be missing EVO 2015 due to hand problems, so that leaves only PPMD (, ). The most reclusive of the gods, PPMD seldom attends tournaments due to his own struggles with depression and other things, but nevertheless has managed to win Apex two years running, despite attending extremely few tournaments. He's kind of a wildcard at this EVO, but it would be foolish to count him out after he clutched out his second Apex in a row earlier this year. Lastly, the up-and-coming challenger Leffen () has been dominating the tournaments he's attended recently this summer, convincingly beating out the likes of Armada and Mang0 without dropping a set at CEO, FC Return, and What the Fox?, and so is going into EVO as the leading favorite to take the tournament. Another Swede, Leffen only won his first major tournament in December? of 2014, but went on to take 3rd place at Apex, losing to PPMD in Winner's Finals and being eliminated by Armada immediately afterwards, however he solidly beat Mew2King and Mango, and did put up great fights vs Armada and PPMD. In the tournaments after Apex, however, he had some major difficulties as Armada's Fox seemed to be unstoppable, and it looked as though he might have been doomed to fade back into Armada's shadow again. Clearly, that is not the case; Leffen's Fox is stronger than ever, and he looks set to win his first super-national tournament. Other players to watch out for: - aMSa () did extraordinarily well at Apex, as his Yoshi performed at levels we had not known were possible, making top 8 before narrowly losing to Mang0 in game 5 of their set. While he only recently won his first tournament in Japan, he's historically performed quite well at US tourneys. - The NorCal Three: PewPewU (), Shroomed (), and SFAT (), are all top-15? players matched very closely, and hold a special spot in my heart due to being from the best region on Earth, objectively speaking. PewPewU and Shroomed especially did quite well at Apex 2015, with Shroomed beating out M2K in Sheik dittos to make it top top-8. Again, if anyone has suggestions/corrections, lemme know and I'll add them. Results will be added to either this post or the next post as they happen. [spoiler=Results][spoiler=Melee]1. Alliance|Armada (Fox, Peach) 2. Liquid|Hungrybox (Jigglypuff) 3. EG|PPMD (Marth, Falco) 4. PG|Plup (Sheik, Samus) (!) 5. TSM|Leffen (Fox) 5. C9|Mango (Fox, Falco) 7. Tempo|Axe (Pikachu) 7. MH|ChuDat (Ice Climbers) somewhere in top 16 (!): KEN bracket [spoiler=Smash 4]ZeRo won the entire thing without dropping a single game holy shit is this man even human 1. ZeRo (Sheik, Diddy Kong) 2. LLL|Mr. R (Sheik) 3. Nairo (Zero Suit Samus) 4. ASA|Abadango (Wario, Pac-Man, Rosalina & Luma) 5. Boreal|Ally (Mario, Marth) 5. IQHQ|DaBuz (Rosalina & Luma, Olimar) 7. PG|Esam (Pikachu) 7. GW|FOW (Ness) can't actually find a bracket at this moment wtf EDIT: I suck at updating thread titles

APEX 2015 The latest tournament in the Apex Series JUST ENDED! [spoiler=congratulations to]first of all: Can we all give props to Zero, for being so good his sets only last 3 games? (stolen from /r/smashbros) Melee Singles: 1) PPMD 2) Armada 3) Leffen 4) Mango 5-6) aMSa, Hungrybox 7-8) KirbyKaze, Shroomed Melee Doubles: 1) Mew2King and Hungrybox 2) Armada and Android 3) Ice and Leffen 4) Chillindude and ChuDat SSB4 Singles: 1) ZeRo 2) Dabuz 3) Mr. R 4) 6WX 5-6) Mew2King, Nietono 7-8) Abadango, MVD SSB4 Doubles: 1) Mew2King, ZeRo 2) MjG and FOW 3) Mr. R and Cyve 4) Nietono and Choco MOVED VENUES, EVERYTHING WAS DELAYED. don't really have the time to be typing up an explanation, but /r/smashbros has a good one tl;dr stuff starts on saturday new schedules and stuff: http://smashboards.com/threads/apex-2015-new-venue-official-new-schedule.389066/ [spoiler=Brackets]http://apex2015melee.challonge.com/singles http://apex2015melee.challonge.com/doubles http://apex2015smashwiiu.challonge.com/singles http://apex2015brawl.challonge.com/singles http://apex2015smash64.challonge.com/ (pools aren't done, so there's no top bracket) other FGC: http://apex2015fgc.challonge.com/ [spoiler=Sunday schedule, as far as I can tell]NOTE: As far as I can tell VG BootCamp is streaming top-8 of both Melee and SSB4. Melee stream: http://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp SSB4 stream: http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky Not sure who is streaming the other games, it looks messy. Melee top-48 starts somewhere between 12 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., and goes until 4:30 p.m. Melee top-8 starts at 7:30 p.m, and goes until maybe 11 p.m. Melee Doubles top-16 starts at 9 a.m., and goes until 12 p.m. SSB4 top-32 starts at 9 a.m., and goes until 12 p.m. SSB4 top-8 starts at 4:30 p.m., and goes until 7:30 p.m. Brawl top-16 starts sometime between 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m., and goes until sometime after 1:30 p.m. SSB64 pools start at 9 a.m., and go until 12 p.m., and resume shortly after. SSB64 top-8 starts immediately after pools conclude (sometime between 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.), and goes until 4:30 p.m. Other FGC streamed by http://www.twitch.tv/bifuteki Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 top-8 starts sometime between 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m., and goes until 1:30 p.m. Ultra Street Fighter 4 top-8 starts at 1:30 p.m. and 12 p.m., and goes until sometime between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Guilty Gear Xrd top-8 starts at 9 a.m., and goes until sometime between 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. old stuff: [spoiler=Saturday schedule, as far as I can tell]SSB4 and Melee Pools start at 9 a.m. EST today (Saturday) and go until 6 p.m., then resume at 7:30 p.m. and go until 9 p.m. Melee stream: http://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp SSB4 stream: http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky SSB4 doubles start at 9 a.m. EST and go until 3 p.m., then resume at 9 p.m. SSB4 doubles stream: http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky Melee doubles start at 1:30 p.m. EST and go until 7:30 p.m. The top-32 to finals then resumes at 9 p.m. Melee doubles stream: http://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp Salty Suite begins at 9 p.m., and is streamed by VGBootCamp Other FGC streamed by http://www.twitch.tv/bifuteki Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 starts at 9 a.m., top-32 to top-8 is 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Ultra Street Fighter 4 starts at 10:30 a.m., top-16 to top-8 is from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Guilty Gear Xrd starts at 9 a.m., top-32 to top-8 is 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Killer Instinct starts at 9 a.m., top-16 to finals is 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pokemon ORAS starts at 10:30 a.m., top-32 to finals from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and is streamed by http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky [spoiler=Schedule (warning: deprecated. also large.)] [spoiler=Background/Info/etc.]For those of you not in The Know, Apex is a tournament series notable mostly for allegations that its (now departed) founder sexually harasses women, and for conspiring to kill the SSBB mod Project M. As a sidenote, Apex 2015 also happens to be the largest Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament literally ever, with over 1000 entrants. It also has the less-impressive title of largest Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament of all time (800+ entrants). (It also happens to be one of the only major SSB4U tournaments so far, so.) This year it has all official Smash Bros. games, as well as several other fighting games. And also Pokemon because why not? It ALSO is officially partnering with The Big N itself for the first time, which is sort of cool I guess. All (or close enough) the top players from the various games are gonna be there, etc., there may even be drama involved (coughcoughleffencough), it sounds like it's gonna be fun. As Nintendo is involved this year, and cares about the casual viewer, Apex 2015's format will be 4-player free-for-alls with all items on and set to "Very High." Additionally there will be no banned st- sorry what's that? It's not? What IS new, and pandering to the "casual" or otherwise not in The Know viewers, is that there will be a special Smash Newcomers stream geared towards, obviously, newcomers. Anyways, it starts on Friday, with the interesting stuff on Saturday and Sunday. The stream schedule is in the first spoiler. I guess this is a spectator/discussion thread? idk if there's actually interest here or if I just wasted like 20 minutes on this post