Slippi Champions League to give SSBM a needed boost

Super Smash Bros
September 28, 2020
Jordan Ashley

The Super Smash Bros Melee Slippi Champions League is about to kick-off soon after having cemented its roundup following the CLG Mixup. The Slippi League is an online tournament for the GameCube title, and that one comes at a great time for the game. Smash Bros’ competitive scene has been a bit of a weird place, personal problems and misconduct from players left a pretty big shadow over things. When combined with the difficulty in holding a tournament online, it hasn’t been fun. The Slippi League and CLG Mixup couldn’t have come at a better time to reinvigorate things though.

The Slippi Champions League is an ongoing tournament that pits some of the best Melee players out there against each other. The CLG Mixup was an event held to finalize the roster for the Slippi Champions League. While a number of payers were invited, only two have now qualified thanks to the CLG mixup.

The Slippi Champions League

The Slippi Champions League is being held over October, with 19 matches being played each week. Action is divided up into two divisions. The top 8 players compete in Division 1, and the others in Division 2. The top four players each week keep their place in Division 1 and win some prize money. The bottom four move to Division 1 relegation, where they compete with two moving down and two staying. Division 2 players also compete in four matches, with the winner heading up to Division 1 and the losers entering a similar relegation process. Those who lose in this bracket have to requalify in the open bracket.

The Slippi Champions League will run for four weeks in this pattern. Over the course of these weeks, there is going to be $20,000 in the prize pool. This makes it a pretty important event since Smash Bros tournaments are pretty renowned for their lack of prize money.

The Slippi Champions League is being played online, which is initially weird for a game that came out in the 2000s. While Smash Bros Ultimate is frequently handicapped by its online quality, Melee has been modded by fans and players to the point where it can support online tournaments pretty well. Most of the time, this fan addition to the game far out-performs Nintendo’s own attempts at online Smash Bros.

CLG MIxup

The CLG Mixup didn’t provide any big shocks in terms of results. Mango took first place, followed by iBDW. Then Hungrybox in third. While SFAT came in fourth. Further down the placements though, Shroomed and PewPewU secured their spots at the Slippi Champions League. This is thanks to a strong performance, however, they didn’t place high enough for prize money this time around.

Online Smash events are tricky. The Mixup has shown that the Slippi Champions League is going to play no differently to one played in person. This is an important step for getting the community behind this event, especially since most of the community refuses to paly Melee on anything but a vintage CRT.

Slippi is using a netplay add-on for the Dolphin Emulator. While it isn’t quite a wired GameCube controller and old TV, the emulator is about as good as it gets for a technical game like Melee. The Slippi online add on has been a breath of fresh air for Melee.

 

Smash Bros has had a weird few months. The community has been rocked by allegations and other misconduct. A lot of big-name players have left the scene permanently. The lack of real-world tournaments has also put a bit of a damper on things. The CRG Mixup was a really fun event. While it didn’t produce any big shocks in terms of placements and players, it was a nice re-centering for the Melee community. It’s nice to get things back to basics with a big tournament. The Slippi Champions League is going to be one of Melee’s most exciting events in years, especially with the hints of a solid spectator mode circling around these days.

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