Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Don’t Park on the Grass Recap

Don’t Park on the Grass was the first major for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Here, we’ll look at what went down in what will be the first of many great events for the Ultimate competitive scene.

Your Champion

Jestise “MVD” Negron was clearly the best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player in attendance this past weekend. Before winners finals, MVD had lost a total of two games. He lost one before just top-32 to Julian “Jtails” and the other was to Martinez Landon “Captain L.” Trybuch. Both players tied for 5th place at the event.

Courtesy of Red Bull esports

His other losses were to his Panda Global teammate Eric “ESAM” Lew. MVD sent him to the lower bracket by beating him 3-1 in winners finals. Then he met ESAM again in grand finals, where ESAM took one more game. With all said and done, no player was able to take MVD to a fifth game. He looked dominant at the first Ultimate esports event.

MVD’s Snake play was both impressive and oppressive. His use of projectiles to control space, especially grenades, was impossible for ESAM to overcome. MVD’s playstyle was defensive but still had its moments of hype. The last stock of the tournament even found itself on ESPN’s Snapchat.

With a win at the first major for Ultimate, MVD is set up to become one of Ultimate’s best players right from the game’s inception.

The Best of the Northwest

There were a number of players fighting for supremacy in the Northwest. However, the Seattle event featured one native who shined above the rest. Calib “Konga” Byers was that player. On Washington’s final Smash 4 power rankings, Konga was listed second and had previously been the highest ranked player.

Konga’s top-eight began against ESAM with an incredibly close set. He took the Pikachu main to his final stock, but ESAM ended up the victor. In the losers bracket, he defeated Julian “Jtails” Martinez and Dawson “Big D” Perron before falling to ESAM again. Konga finished in third place.

Coming to the United States via Brittish Columbia, Captain L. repped for his region as well. The former Pikachu and Jigglypuff main finished Smash 4 in fifth. In Ultimate, he’s traded Pikachu for Pichu. Pichu hasn’t been a playable character since Super Smash Bros. Melee, where he was among the worst of the game’s characters. Captain L.’s performance is a promising sign for the former low tier.

The Future of Ultimate

Nintendo is still figuring out how to create a successful system for online play, but moves like the creation of Nintendo Versus point to their desire for esports. Don’t Park on the Grass gave viewers their first look at competitive Smash Ultimate and what they saw can be described as nothing less than promising.

Eleven different characters were played in top-eight alone and none appeared to be awfully over-powered. MVD’s Snake looked difficult to play against, but ESAM took a game off of him in both sets. In no way was it unbeatable. The event ran smoothly and was more than just a polished version of Smash 4, which many believed it to be.

The viewership figures were also encouraging for fans of Ultimate as a profitable esport. Esports organizations need to see a hungry and growing fan base to want to be involved with a fighting game like Ultimate. Don’t Park on the Grass gave them just that.

Courtesy of VGBC: The Godfather of Smash Streaming

Twitch Metrics lists the peak viewership of the event (streamed on VG Bootcamp) at 40,875 concurrent viewers. This is the second highest mark for an Ultimate stream behind Chance “Sodapoppin” Morris’ stream the night of the game’s release.

This event featured no players from Smash 4’s final top-10. Only MVD and ESAM were ranked within the top-50 in the PGR 100 rankings. Viewers of this event weren’t necessarily watching to see the world’s best compete on one stage. They just wanted to see high-level Ultimate play. When names like ZeRo or MkLeo are added to the mix and the title of “Best Smash Ultimate Player” comes into play, the number of eyes on the game will increase significantly.

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Feature image courtesy of: Don’t Park on the Grass