The Big House (tournament)

The Big House is an annual Super Smash Bros. tournament series held in Michigan since 2011. It is considered one of the largest and most prestigious Smash Bros. tournament series alongside GENESIS, Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and Super Smash Con.

The Big House

The Big House 6 logo
Tournament information
Game	Super Smash Bros.
Location	Michigan
Established	2011
Number of tournaments	10
Administrator	Robin "Juggleguy" Harn
Current champion
Melee: Cody Schwab Ultimate: Michael "Riddles" Kim Smash 64: Josh Brody
Final champion
Project M: Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios (2014) Wii U: Brian "Cosmos" Kalu (2018)

History

2011–2014

The first Big House tournament was held on October 22, 2011, on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 115 entrants participated in Super Smash Bros. Melee singles and the event was won by Oscar "Lovage" Nilsson.^{[1][non-primary source needed]} It was an Apex 2012 qualifier.

The second tournament was held on October 6–7, 2012 on the campus of the University of Michigan. The Melee event was won by Joseph "Mango" Marquez. Project M was won by Brian "metroid1117" Lin.

The Big House 3 was held from October 12–13, 2013 in Ann Arbor.^{[1][non-primary source needed]} It was won by Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman.^[2]

The Big House 4 was held from October 4–5, 2014, in Romulus. It was won by Joseph "Mango" Marquez.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

2015–2019

The fifth edition of The Big House was held from October 2–4, 2015, in Dearborn. Prior to the tournament, top Swedish player Leffen was denied entry into the United States at customs because of lack of a proper work visa due to his affiliation with an American company, Team SoloMid.^[8] It was won by Adam "Armada" Lindgren over Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma in the grand finals.^[9] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was featured for the first time, and was won by Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios, who also won all nationals he attended up to that point, including the super majors Apex 2015 and EVO 2015.^[10] There were 1,317 singles entrants for Melee and 512 for Wii U. This iteration of the tournament dropped Project M as an official event.

Competitors playing Super Smash Bros. at The Big House 6 (2016)

The sixth Big House was held on October 7–9, 2016.^[11] It was the first American tournament that William "Leffen" Hjelte attended since HTC Throwdown 2015. Melee was won by Joseph "Mango" Marquez, marking it as his third win at The Big House.^[12] Wii U was won by Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios and was his third consecutive title at The Big House.^[13]

The seventh Big House was held on October 6–8, 2017, at the Cobo Center in Detroit.^[14][15] Melee was won by Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma over Justin "Plup" McGrath.^[15] Wii U was won by Samuel "Dabuz" Buzby over Tyler "Marss" Martins.

The Big House 8 was held on October 5–7, 2018, and it was once again held at the Cobo Center in Detroit.^[16][17] Melee was won by Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma over Justin "Plup" McGrath.^[17] Wii U was won by Brian "Cosmos" Kalu over Eric "ESAM" Lew. The original Super Smash Bros. was won by Daniel "SuPeRbOoMfAn" Hoyt over Josh Brody.

The Big House 9 was held on October 4–6, 2019, at the Cobo Center in Detroit.^[18][19] Melee was won by Joseph "Mango" Marquez over Zain Naghmi. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was featured for the first time, and was won by Sota "Zackray" Okada over Samuel "Dabuz" Buzby. Smash 64 was won by Josh Brody over Prince.^[20] There were also smaller Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii U side events, respectively won by Hunter "Player-1" Rogers over Will "Lain" Vetter and Brenden "ShyDude" King over "AFMbot".

2020 cancellation

The Big House cancelled its 2020 tournament in July due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tournament organizers later announced an online tournament for December 2020. The tournament was again cancelled after they received a cease and desist letter from Super Smash Bros. publisher Nintendo. Nintendo took concern with the tournament's plans to use an emulator that enables netplay and matchmaking for Melee but requires use of a ripped copy of the game, citing piracy concerns.^[21][22]

2022–present

The Big House returned to an offline format for its tenth iteration, held on October 7–9, 2022. at the Huntington Place in Detroit as part of the Nintendo-sponsored Panda Cup. Melee was won by Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto over Joseph "Mango" Marquez, marking the first time "aMSa" and a Yoshi player won a major tournament in the game's competitive lifespan; Cody "iBDW" Schwab, Zain Naghmi and Miles "Soonsay" Foster qualified for the Melee bracket of the Panda Cup Finale. Ultimate was won by Michael "Riddles" Kim over Paris "Light" Ramirez; Ramirez, Gavin "Tweek" Dempsey and Antony "MuteAce" Hoo qualified for the Ultimate bracket of the Panda Cup Finale. Smash 64 was won by Josh Brody over Keanu "OJ" Betancourt.^{[23][24][25][26]} As with the previous tournament, there were smaller Brawl and Wii U side events, respectively won by Christina "Chia" Korsak over "Merrick" and "Mr. Spikes" over "Arico".

Events

Event	Dates	Venue	Location
The Big House	October 22, 2011	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Big House 2	October 6-7, 2012	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Big House 3	October 12-13, 2013	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Big House 4	October 4-5, 2014	Sheraton DTW Hotel	Romulus, Michigan
The Big House 5	October 2-4, 2015	Adoba Hotel Dearborn	Dearborn, Michigan
The Big House 6	October 7-9, 2016	Edward Hotel & Convention Center	Dearborn, Michigan
The Big House 7	October 6-8, 2017	Cobo Center	Detroit, Michigan
The Big House 8	October 5-7, 2018	Cobo Center	Detroit, Michigan
The Big House 9	October 4-6, 2019	TCF Center	Detroit, Michigan
The Big House 10	December 4-6, 2020 (cancelled)	Virtual	Virtual
The Big House 10	October 7-9, 2022	Huntington Place	Detroit, Michigan
The Big House 11	October 20-22, 2023	Huntington Place	Detroit, Michigan

References

1. "The Big House 3". UM Smash. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
2. Lee, Daniel (October 5, 2016). "The Big House 6 preview". ESPN. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
3. Barker, Ian J. "Big House 4 shows why watching esports is better in person". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
4. Barker, Ian J. "Zero and Armada talk Smash 4 at Big House 4". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
5. Barker, Ian J. "High and low with Hungrybox at Big House 4". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
6. Barker, Ian J. "Midwestern underdogs shine in Big House 4 bracket". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on January 27, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
7. Barker, Ian J. "Big House 4 heads into championship rounds". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on January 27, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
8. Demers, Matt (September 30, 2015). "Leffen denied entry to USA for Smash tournament". TheScore eSports.
9. Womack, Barrett (October 6, 2015). "The Big House 5: A Retrospective". Red Bull. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
10. "The Big House 5: Super Smash Bros. Melee & For Wii U Results". Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 5, 2015. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022.
11. Harn, Robin. "The Big House returns October 7-9, 2016". Melee It On Me. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
12. Rosen, Daniel. "Mang0 wins The Big House 6". TheScore eSports. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
13. Rosen, Daniel. "ZeRo wins The Big House 6". TheScore eSports. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
14. "The Big House [October 6-8, 2017]". UM Smash. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
15. "The Big House 7 - 'This is the first tournament of the new era'". ESPN.com. 2017-10-09. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
16. "The Big House [October 5-7, 2018]". UM Smash. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
17. Lee, Alexander (October 8, 2018). "Hungrybox bounces back at The Big House 8". ESPN. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
18. "Mango wins Melee at The Big House 9 | Esportz Network". 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
19. "The Big House [October 4-6th, 2019]". UM Smash. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
20. Michael, Cale (October 6, 2019). "Here's all the results from The Big House 9". Dot Esports. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
21. Good, Owen S. (November 19, 2020). "Smash Bros. tournament The Big House 10 canceled over netcode". Polygon. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
22. Donaldson, Alex (November 24, 2020). "As Nintendo shuts down a tournament, Smash fans unite under the #FreeMelee hashtag in futility". VG247. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
23. "The Big House 10". start.gg. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
24. "Super Smash Bros. Melee Player Pulls Off Massive Upset With Yoshi at The Big House 10". comicbook.com. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
25. Taylor, Nicholas 'MajinTenshinhan' (2022-10-07). "The Big House 10 results". EventHubs. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
26. "Panda Cup ft Super Smash Bros.™". pandacup.com. Retrieved 2022-10-11.

External links