Last weekend brought to Michigan the Super Smash Bros. competitive gaming community for The Big House 5 tournament. This tournament aims to highlight and challenge the skills of those gamers who simply love Smash and it’s one of the biggest national tournaments! The Michigan Daily takes you behind the scenes to experience the tournament and to learn about the Smash community.

But, what is competitive gaming? How is the game played? How does the tournament run? To begin, watch the video below to acquaint yourself with the world of competitive Smash.

The world of competitive gaming can be intimidating at first glance but the truth of the matter is that the gamers are just normal people who really love to play games. In order to demystify the elusive gamer, the Daily asked player Dan Cushing to film his experience at the tournament in a vlog-style Day-In-The-Life of a Smash competitor. Enjoy his journey.





The Smash community is bigger than the competitors. It takes a village to raise a tournament. On top of those who are actually competing in the various events there are coordinators and organizers, supporters and backers, volunteers, presenters, friends and family members, the audience members and more! All of these people are needed to make a tournament like this run smoothly. The Smash community is incredibly supportive both on a local and a global level and this video will give you a glimpse at this loving gaming family.





Beginning in 2011 with only 115 entrants, the Big House tournament has increased in size and prominence each year. This year’s event was the second biggest Smash tournament in history with 1,320 entrants, surpassing Apex 2015. Watch the video below to learn why and how the Big House tournament is such a success.





We hope that these videos have helped to open your eyes to the wonderful community surrounding the competitive gaming and Super Smash Bros. For more information check out Daily Arts writer Jacob Rich's Bside.