Video: Catch Up With the Smash Bros. and Pokkén Tournament Grand Finals From Evo 2016

Including the epic Melee showdown between Hungrybox and Armada

by Thomas Whitehead Mon 18th Jul 2016

For followers of the competitive fighting game scene few events are as exciting as Evo 2016, one of the year's most hyped occasions. Pleasingly Nintendo games have a notable presence every year through Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and now Pokkén Tournament.

There were keenly fought battles for each of these, especially Melee which saw rivals Hungrybox and Armada square up in the enormous finale venue on the final day.

For those of you that missed it live you can now see them below; in this case we found them on the Scrambled Eggs channel. Enjoy!

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Wii U

Pokkén Tournament

[source youtube.com]

Tom has been involved in the games industry for over a decade, mostly writing about it or struggling to sell Indie games. Loves reading, writing, hunting Capcom’s fiercest monsters and watching baseball.

1
shonenjump86
Mon 18th Jul 2016

Ally took it for Smash Wii U. I think he won last year didn't he?

2
Clockwerk
Mon 18th Jul 2016

Melee players need to move on. Game is obsolete and the community is toxic. Plus it's way too boring to watch

3
Blester
Mon 18th Jul 2016

@shonenjump86 No, it was ZeRo.

4
EarthboundBenjy
Mon 18th Jul 2016

@Clockwerk
Boring to watch?
Did you somehow see a different Grand Finals to the rest of us or something?

5
Monado_III
Mon 18th Jul 2016

@Clockwerk I'm not a huge fan of the community either but how on earth is it boring to watch!? HBox's reset was nothing short of spectacular.

6
rushiosan
Mon 18th Jul 2016

>We have SSB4
>No, it sucks, let's play Melee instead

I'll never understand what's so special about this entry

7
ASonic3582
Mon 18th Jul 2016

Pokken, in my opinion, was the best game to watch at evo. The players showed a wide variety of characters and playstyles, and cemented the game's great balance to me since even the Pokemon that are seen poorly (like Machamp) were taking a fair number of sets on stream. My only real complaint was that Smash and the rest of the FGC took out their problems with each other on Pokken at times for seemingly no good reason. For example Smash people complained that it got a better timeslot for finals, and other games complained Pokken was taking the spot of anohter entry in their preferred game (ie SF4) or having a full day of Pokken stream take away from (Insert Game Here) when SF5 and Smash 4 also had dedicated streams until their finals. I understand Pokken is new, but given most games were annoyed with each other, it really wasn't necessary to suck another game's community into it just because it's new. Other than that, EVO was great

8
Wheeler
Mon 18th Jul 2016

Good for HB winning. Also, top kek for Tonosama's tweet for why he wanted to win Pokken.

9
EarthboundBenjy
Tue 19th Jul 2016

@rushiosan
First of all, EVO had Smash 4 as well as Melee, so what you're saying isn't even accurate. They didn't play Melee "instead". They played it alongside Smash 4.

But do you want to understand what makes Melee special compared to other Smash games?

I ask this genuinely, not sarcastically. You say you don't understand. Do you actually want to understand? Do you want to learn about the Melee tourney scene, so you could understand why people still play it?

If you've got a spare four hours, you can watch this very cool documentary about Melee and what makes its tournament history so special and amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX9hbbA-WP4

There's also other communities like /r/smashbros or smashboards.com where one could ask questions and learn about Melee and Smash in general.