On August 26, Ultimate Summit 3, an in-person invitational three-day event for Nintendo’s blockbuster fighting game “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” began. While it was not the very first in-person Ultimate tournament since last year’s COVID-19 outbreak, it was one of the most prestigious.
On top of the largest tournament prize pool in Smash franchise history, let alone since the pandemic, Summit only invited the best of the best. All sixteen attendees from Mexico, Canada, the U.S. and Japan were invited on account of high tournament placings in the past, and most represented professional esports organizations.
It’s easy to assume that professional gamers would not be affected by a global pandemic since video games are played online all the time. While they are certainly better off than traditional sports like football and basketball and esports events can be held relatively successfully online, some games still suffer harshly from remote competition.
In fact, few games experience a worse dropoff in quality than Smash Ultimate. The miserable state of its “netcode” — the way the game handles internet connections between players — has been a sore spot among diehard players for years.
“Ultimate’s awful online has always been its, by far, biggest flaw,” said professional Smash player Leffen on his Twitter. The Smash community even made the hashtag #FixUltimateOnline go viral in mid-2020, and it is surely no coincidence that their anger boiled over during the heat of the pandemic.
I’ve played quite a lot of Smash Ultimate online and have also been to an in-person tournament, and I can say with certainty that the difference between the two is night and day. Not being able to see your opponent’s face and having to fight through laggy connections is a recipe for frustration.
Being able to watch Ultimate Summit 3 was truly a breath of fresh air. I essentially stopped following the game competitively after March of last year when it moved online, and in that time, I had forgotten just how great intense in-person matches could be.
The winner of the historic first-place prize was star player Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey, who beat world champion and archrival Leonardo “MkLeo” López. Tweek, in particular, wowed everyone by playing a new character that he had learned from scratch in the past year, a move he described as his “COVID gamble.” With even more tournaments on the horizon and MkLeo’s reign as Smash Summit champion ended, I know my favorite Smash title only has more thrilling competition to offer as these storylines develop.
All of this is simple proof that remote experiences are not sufficient substitutes for in-person events. It is a good thing to step outside of our rooms and socialize again. Obviously, the pandemic is not over. But now that we have vaccines and a better understanding of how the virus spreads, it is possible to start meeting people in person again — both in esports and on college campuses.
The organizers of the Smash Ultimate Summit took COVID-19 precautions very seriously, requiring vaccines and masks for all of its limited number of attendees. Excluding commentators and some players during their bracket games, which were cordoned off from the rest of the venue.
These minor adjustments made a world of difference and ensured that the camaraderie and thrill of high-level in-person competition could take place. Now, at BU, the same opportunity has been extended to us as students.
We are also required to be vaccinated and masked indoors, but we don’t have to deal with online classes anymore and everyone is expected to live on-campus. As a sophomore now, I’ve never known anything except last year’s limited, LfA-ready campus, and I already notice a major difference.
I will readily admit that last year, I became a recluse at times. I used the virus as an excuse to stay in my dorm and socialize less. On the other hand, this year represents a new opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people again, now that more businesses are open and there are more places to go. I am going to try to make the most of my college experience while I still have it, and I encourage everyone to do the same.
