Super Smash Bros. Melee Slippi mod launches broadcast feature early in response to #FreeMelee

The Super Smash Bros. Melee competitive scene owes a lot of its success in the pandemic-laden year of 2020 to Fizzi and the Slippi online mod. And now, as the community faces a potential turning point following Nintendo’s cancellation of a major tournament, a new feature could change everything. 

In response to Nintendo levying a cease and desist against The Big House Online, one of the largest yearly Smash events, because the tournament organizer planned on using Slippi to run the Melee portion of the event online, Fizzi is releasing broadcasting support for the mod. 

Now, all players will have the ability to broadcast to specific viewers, which was specifically designed to help tournament organizers run events without having to micromanage everyone playing in it through a Discord server or other community hub. Fizzi’s goal with pushing this live now is to help more people easily run their events and promote the #FreeMelee movement. 

The release was originally going to come as part of a bigger update that would flesh out the broadcast features with things like website integration tools, metadata displays for ongoing games, and the ability to run public broadcasts for platforms like Twitch directly. Because Fizzi is pushing broadcasting support live early the extended functionality had to be cut, though it might be added at a later date. 

As the developer of the app, Fizzi and his team originally planned to monetize the broadcast features to help support the development and upkeep for Slippi. But he decided it was more important to support the Melee scene as it continues to support itself in the face of Nintendo opposing its growth. 

“As a result of #FreeMelee, I decided to move up the broadcasting release,” Fizzi said. “Originally I was going to monetize this feature but I am now releasing it free so that anyone can easily and freely run events. Give it a try!”

Fizzi also noted that his costs for running the servers for Slippi, which he individually supports, is reaching close to $1,000 per month. As a result, he is asking for the community’s help and support as he continues to work on improving Slippi. 

You can learn more about Slippi, the broadcast features that are now live, and how you can help support Fizzi, his team, and the development of Slippi on the official Slippi website.