

Earth takes home some swag along with his win at Sumabato 10.

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HIKARU





@Atelier (left) and @HIKARU (right) pose before entering the Sumabato 10 venue.





@Rin illustrated this month's Sumabato name cards featuring his main character!

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Those outside the Japanese Smash Community who attempt to figure out what is going on by tournament results alone will almost certainly only end up more confused. Currently only @Kameme , the player who boldly proclaimed last week that he is going to win EVO , has shown consistency in his tournament results. Every other player, including every Japanese player who made it into Panda Global's Top 50 Rankings , have extremely inconsistent results in Japan. There is always a huge character variety in Japanese Top 8s and rarely are the same players placing near the top from week to week. While it has puzzled me and many of you for quite some time, I may have found out the reason why.At Sumabato 10 ( previewed here last week @Earth finally broke his losing streak. Panda Global's #33 ranked player told me before the event started that he was really focused on having better results as he has been struggling recently. He also had extra motivation as well, someone offered him character goods of one of his favorite characters if he won. Earth made it perfectly clear in his speech before grand finals, "I was told I will get that Yayoi Takatsuki towel if I win Sumabato 10. Iwant that towel." Japanese Smash Brothers tournaments may not have prize money, but character goods are serious business.The rest of the Top 8 Results are as follows:1st Earth (Chubu; Pit)2nd Shiguma (Chubu; Toon Link)3rd HIKARU (Kansai; Donkey Kong, Bowser, Little Mac)4th Mangalica (Kansai; Cloud, Sheik)5th Tsu~ (Chubu; Captain Falcon)5th Nasubi (Kansai; Wario)7th Kie (Kansai; Peach)7th Taiheita (Chubu; Lucas)Let's be clear, I am not trying to infer that character goods are the reason for inconsistent tournament results throughout Japan. Many people have theories as to why this happens. @Abadango has been widely known to place well at international tournaments, but struggles to even Top 16 at Japanese locals. @Komorikiri has not gotten close to a Sumabato Top 8 in the last two months even though he has been known to regularly win all of Kansai's tournaments. @9B is in the middle of yet another character crisis post Bayonetta nerfs, placing 33rd with Mewtwo in his first tournament since returning home from BAM8. Before Sumabato 10 Earth was also in the exact same spot as the other top players. So why is it so incredibly hard to place in the Top 8 of Japanese tournaments?Many claim that Abadango does not care about his results in Japan because there is no prize money and therefore no motivation to win. Others assume that other Japanese top players may share those feelings and take off a tournament here and there. The fact is this could not be any further from the truth. Every top player does not ever want to lose, but there are times theyAfter speaking with almost every top player in Japan multiple times and meeting with representatives from the United States, Australia, Canada, France, and Mexico throughout my voyage in Japan so far one thing is absolutely clear: the skill level of the average player at Japanese tournaments is much higher than anywhere else in the world.I may have only a small sample size of countries, but every single player I have met in Japan, regardless of where they come from or where else in the world they have traveled to, unanimously agree that Japan's average player would mop the floor with the average player of any other region. In North America the skill difference between our top players and our average players is unbelievably large. To Top 8 a Japanese tournament you have to fight through dozens of extremely talented players who also solo-main some highly underrepresented characters. Currently, there are not any players in Japan who are familiar enough with the entire cast to consistently Top 8.Japan's most consistent player mains Mega Man. There are three Duck Hunt players, a Lucas player, multiple Toon Link players and a Donkey Kong player who everyone is regularly scared to match up against in bracket because they do not have enough experience with those match ups at their level to be confident that they can win. Twelve of Zero's The Best Player Of Each Character In Smash 4 live in Japan. Sumabato's Top 8 had no character overlaps. Japanese local tournaments have player and character match ups you would only be able to see at a national-level tournament in the US. I do feel like the extreme rule set differences from region to region and the variance issues some of those rules cause are also partly responsible for these results, but the fact remains it feels like almost every player in a Japanese tournament is a threat.As there are so many unknown players in Japan I want to try and spotlight a player or two (like I did for Umebura 23) each week to give them a chance to let their voices be heard. Last week I followed @FILIP and @Raito on their Top 8 journey and this week I followed @HIKARU , the crowd favorite heavy character user from Kansai. I think Zero is going to have to double check his list because @DKWill , you have nothing on this guy.Even though they are only high school students, Atelier and HIKARU are some of the biggest bracket threats in Japan, and rivals. Well, it is not much of a rivalry as Atelier and his Rosalina and Luma is the match up HIKARU says is his absolute worst. As long as HIKARU avoids Atelier in bracket he has a shot at a good placement. Luckily for HIKARU though, Atelier placed 13th clearing the way for HIKARU to make his first ever appearance in winner's finals at a regional tournament. Unfortunately for him, he ended up losing to Earth and dropping loser's finals to the match up he dislikes the most, Toon Link. He says he goes Bowser for Toon Link, Ness and some other match ups and has actually defeated Shiguma's Toon Link in a previous tournament with this strategy. Unfortunately, it did not go so well for him this time.He is the crowd favorite in Japan due to his mannerisms while playing the game. He will regularly declare "Reach!" (what you say in Japan when you are only one spot from getting a bingo) when he has his opponent in cargo throw to up air kill percents and actually spins his arm just like Donkey Kong does while charging his neutral B attack in-game after taking a stock. Every time HIKARU gets on the stream station people crowd around to watch because you are always guaranteed some amazing games of Smash. HIKARU told me that the hardest match up of the tournament for him was Taiheita (Lucas) as he plays a character he is not very familiar with. He then admitted that his opponents' inexperience with his characters is probably a large factor for his own success. Underused and underutilized characters are starting to make their way out into the meta. Watch out, you never know when the next Taiheita or HIKARU will be meeting up with you in bracket.As they have been rather popular, I will always end my articles with the unique name cards given out for all participants at Japanese tournaments. This time @Rin , one of the world's best Wii Fit Trainers who made it to Top 32 at Genesis 3, provided the art featuring his main character. I hope you enjoy it and give him a follow on Twitter!Immediately after the tournament ended I took the stage with Sumabato TO @Nojinko to announce that The Big House will be awarding the winner of July's Sumabato a fully funded trip to compete this year at The Big House 6 . The Japanese Melee community is also getting their own shot at sending their best to TBH6 as well. The winner of Master Hand in August will get the opportunity to represent Japan at TBH6 to compete against the world's best. I want Smashers all over the world to experience the Japanese Smash Community however possible. I will continue to work on getting Japanese players sent to tournaments in the US and getting players from the US sent to tournaments here in Japan. I hope to see many of you either at a Japanese tournament or at the next major I can attend in the US.Sayonara until next week.