Everything we know about the Smash World Tour

VGBootCamp and several other notable figures within the Super Smash Bros. community have put together the Smash World Tour, which will provide a functional tournament circuit for both Smash Melee and Ultimate. 

Similarly to how Tekken, Street Fighter, and Dragon Ball FighterZ have their own tournament circuits that culminate in a final event with a massive prize pool, the Smash community is trying to emulate that with its own World Tour. 

Because this announcement is so new and people are going to be asking a lot of questions regarding the new World Tour, here is everything we know so far about the rules, layout, and general information regarding the Smash World Tour. 

Event Tiers and World Tour Leaderboard

This is not a Nintendo-sponsored circuit and is being completely run by community veterans who have worked with dozens of event organizers and sponsors. Each tournament will be assigned an Event Tier of either Platinum, Gold, or Silver, which will, in turn, give players who place well points for the World Tour Leaderboard. 

Not every event will count towards your total, however, so you can actually have a few bad performances if you attend more than just a few Platinum tournaments. 

Only your best three placements for Platinum and Gold events will be kept for your Leaderboard placement, while six Silver tournament results will be held. So if you attend four Gold tournaments and you place high in your fourth event, the lowest result will be knocked off your total, improving your overall ranking. 

Here is how each Event Tier will be pointed, including each of the different variations of Silver Tier based on entry numbers, ranging from the minimum of 32 entrants all the way to 128.

Registration for World Tour tiering is open now for all events that meet the minimum requirements on the official Smash.gg page for the circuit. 

Smash World Tour Championships

From March 13 to Nov. 22, players will try to gather as many World Tour Points as they can to make it into the Top 31 in the rankings, which will give them an automatic invite to the World Tour Championship from Dec. 17 to 20. The 32nd slot will go to the winner of a Last Chance Qualifier tournament that will be held just before the finals. 

The Top 32 competitors, including the winner of the LCQ, will be split into four groups based on their final score totals, with each group then going on to play in best-of-five, double elimination brackets until each group reaches their grand finals. The top four players from each group will then advance into the playoff bracket, which will be run as normal. 

Players competing at the World Tour Championships will be playing for a portion of the $250,000 prize pool, split up evenly among both Melee and Ultimate. And that number could increase through various means as the World Tour goes on, so here is how the payout will be done, including the potential additional variables.

You can view the full tournament schedule on the official Smash World Tour website, and it will be updated with Event Tier listings and new events as they become available. 

Match Procedure

The Smash World Tour is going to be using the standard match procedure used in almost every Smash tournament, but here is the full listing pulled from the World Tour’s official rule document. 

1. Players select their characters. Either the player may elect to do Double Blind Character Selection (see next section).
2. Use Stage Striking to determine the first stage.
3. The Players play the first game of the set.
4. Winning Player of the preceding Game bans a stage/stages.
5. The losing Player of the preceding Game picks a stage for the next game.
6. The winning Player of the preceding Game may choose to change characters. 
7. The losing Player of the preceding Game may choose to change characters.
8. The next game is played.
9. Repeat Steps 4 through 8 for all subsequent matches until the set is complete.

The other procedures following the match procedure can be found in section eight of the official World Tour rules document. 

Game Rulesets

Just like with the match procedure, the official rules for both Melee and Ultimate have been provided, so here are the basics of what rules will be followed for each, excluding all of the extra rules. 

Melee

Game Version

• The official game version is NTSC 1.02 or PAL for the Nintendo Gamecube,
• using the Tournament Organizer’s choice of memory card data with all characters
• and relevant stages unlocked.

Game Settings

• Stocks: 4
• Timer: 8 minutes
• Handicap: Off
• Damage ratio: 1.0
• Items: Off
• Pause: Off
• Team Attack: On

Stage List

• Starter Stages
  • Yoshi’s Story
  • Fountain of Dreams
  • Battlefield
  • Final Destination
  • DreamLand
• Counterpick Stages
  • Pokémon Stadium

And as an added little note, Wobbling is banned for Ice Climber players, so keep that in mind when looking at the rest of the rules. 

Ultimate

Game Settings

• Stock: 3
• Timer: 7:00
• Handicap: Off
• Team Attack: On
• Launch Rate: 1.0x
• Items: Off and None
• FS Meter: Off
• Damage Handicap: Off
• Custom Balance: Off
• Spirits: Off
• Pause: Off
• Stage Selection: Loser’s Pick
• Stage Hazards: Off
• Stage Morph: Off
• Underdog Boost: Off
• Score Display: Off
• Show Damage: Yes
• Options
  • Radar: Small
  • Echo Fighters: Separate
  • Custom Balance: Off
  • Mii Fighters are permitted with any combination of specials.
  • Language: To be specified by the TO based on the local region of the Tournament.

Stage List

• Starter Stages
  • Battlefield
  • Final Destination
    • The Battlefield version of Final Destination may be requested by either Player.
  • Smashville
  • Pokemon Stadium 2
  • Town & City
• Counterpick Stages
  • Kalos Pokemon League
  • Lylat Cruise
  • Yoshi’s Story

More information will be made available or edited prior to the start of the Smash World Tour at CEO DreamLand on March 13, so keep your eye out for more updates coming soon.