Summer is just about finished, and the Smash Wii U community is looking to finish it off with a bang this weekend at Shine 2017 in Boston.

Shine's sophomore iteration is the final Smash for Wii U major of the summer, the last chance for a player to end the season with a title and the culmination of an unprecedented period of growth for the game. Its talent-dense bracket of 658 entrants has even secured it S-Tier status on the Panda Global Stats Tournament Tier System, a prestige few events attain.

It's also not far-fetched to say that what happens at Shine can set the pace for the rest of the year, making it a must-watch for any Smash Wii U fan. That being said, let's take a look at key storylines heading into the event.

Watch the throne

Once upon a time, the near-entirety of the Smash Wii U landscape was dominated by one man: incumbent Shine champion Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios. Almost every major event in 2015 and 2016 featured the Chilean titan take home a championship, and his dynasty is matched by few in any esport.

Nowadays, ZeRo is still the pound-for-pound king, coming into Shine fresh off a victory at last weekend's 2GGC: SoCal Regionals Saga and numerous second-place finishes leading up to it. His statistics are as stellar as ever: ZeRo boasts a near 7:1 win-loss ratio across the worldwide top-50 in the Panda Global Rankings. This very consistency is his edge over the entire scene, and will keep him relevant for months or even years to come.

That doesn't mean his throne is safe. The passing of time has brought up competition capable of taking him down given the right circumstances such as wunderkind Leonardo "MKLeo" Perez and resurgent veteran Saleem "Salem" Young. As a result, the playing field is more even than ever, and crowns once belonging to ZeRo are now held by others.

While ZeRo is heavily favored to defend his Shine title, his rivals -- along with countless other hopefuls -- will want to further their careers by taking it for themselves.

Nairo rising

Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada possess the most momentum coming into the tournament, having won the Super Smash Con earlier this month over ZeRo himself and a competition pool of 1,531 participants. Given his hyper-aggressive and risk-taking playstyle, every small interaction can make or break his run at Shine; should he bring his A-game though, a successful tournament is all but assured.

Closing out the summer with the championship trophy this weekend would give the New Jersey native a solid case for the top spot on the PGR, something that has eluded him since the game's release.

Witch time

Despite Bayonetta's massive nerf in mid-2016, the witch-loving community has shown that the character still has the ability to totally dominate brackets.

Many recent nationals have seen these Bayonetta specialists give the character more high-level representation than any other. Low Tier City 5 had four such specialists in the top eight, while 2GGC: SoCal Regionals and Super Smash Con had three and two, respectively. Bayonetta's premier representatives in Salem, Zack "CaptainZack" Lauth, Jacob "JK" Johnson and Tamim "Mistake" Omary will be at Shine, so don't be surprised if the trend continues.

The problem, however, lies with winning. Out of the aforementioned group of players, only Salem has an international event to his name; the others peak out at top three to four. Will Shine be their breakout event?

Local threats

With the sheer amount of out-of-state talent confirmed, hometown heroes have stepped up to keep the Shine title within New England. Brothers Tyler "Marss" Martins and Alexander "Pugwest" Martins, Raffi "Raffi-X" Azar and Jacob "Craftis" Barrios all pose a solid challenge to anyone in-bracket.

Marss is a somewhat curious case. While he was ranked top 20 on the PGR two seasons in a row, all the while maintaining stable results, he hasn't been able to go to recent majors due to his lack of a sponsor. Now that the competition is coming to him, he has a chance put himself on the radar once more.

His region-mates aren't slouches either. Craftis, Pugwest and Raffy-X are all among the best at their characters (Sonic, Marth and R.O.B, respectively). They've held their own when competing against outsiders at events local and otherwise, so expect them to do well this weekend.

It remains to be seen whether or not New England's finest can defend their region successfully, but one thing's for sure: they aren't going down without a fight.