Super Smash Bros. Ultimate uses a weird leaderboard system to rank its players online.
Global Smash Power, or GSP as it is commonly known, is a number that shows how much better you are at a character, game mode, or part of the game than other players in the world.
For example, if you have a GSP of 450,000, that means that you are better than 449,999 other people that play this game. The bigger your GSP rank, the better player you are.
The GSP score will change as more players buy the game and the online community grows, so be sure to play a lot of matches to keep it as high as possible.
So, how does this affect online play?
To put it simply, GSP is used to match you up with other players around the world with a similar skill level. Online, each character you play has its own GSP rank and you need to level them all up individually.
By getting a high enough GSP with a certain character, you will gain access to Elite Smash Battles, which puts you into a separate online matchmaking queue against other high-ranking players.
Related: What are Elite Smash Battles in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and how to unlock them
The total amount of GSP needed to enter this mode isn’t really known and people seem to just get promoted to it randomly.
How does online work then?
Before entering an online quickplay match, players need to specify the rules that they would like to use, such as if the game uses items, etc.
When you then press quickplay, Nintendo will try to match you with other players with a similar ruleset. This doesn’t always work, however, and you might find yourself using a random ruleset when you actually enter a match which is nothing like you wanted.
Related: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s online experience is awful—here’s what Nintendo could do to fix it
The matchmaking system could stand for significant improvement. Let’s hope Nintendo fixes it soon.
