The Big House is an annual ''

Super Smash Bros. ''Super Smash Bros.'' is a Crossover (fiction), crossover fighting game series published by Nintendo. The series was created by Masahiro Sakurai, who has directed every game in the series. The series is known for its unique gameplay objectiv ...

'' tournament series held in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

since 2011. It is considered one of the largest and most prestigious ''Smash Bros.'' tournament series alongside

GENESIS Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

, Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and Super Smash Con.

History

2011–2014

The first Big House tournament was held on October 22, 2011, on the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

campus in

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

. 115 entrants participated in ''

Super Smash Bros. Melee ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' is a 2001 Fictional crossover, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. I ...

'' singles and the event was won by Oscar "Lovage" Nilsson. It was an

Apex 2012 Apex was an annual esports tournament held in New Jersey that was focused on ''Super Smash Bros.'' The event's first incarnation was in 2009 with Jesus "Jman" Fernandez as the champion of ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' and Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oya ...

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 Joseph Manuel Marquez, known by his gamertag Mango (stylized MaNg0 or Mang0), is an American professional ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' player and streamer from Norwalk, California. Known for his aggressive, high-risk playstyle, he is widely cons ...

. '' Project M'' was won by Brian "metroid1117" Lin. The Big House 3 was held from October 12–13, 2013 in

. It was won by

Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman Jason Sheldon Zimmerman (born February 5, 1989), known by his gamertag Mew2King, commonly shortened to M2K, is an American professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' player from Cinnaminson, New Jersey. He has won more than 70 tournaments during his car ...

. The Big House 4 was held from October 4–5, 2014 in

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...

. It was won by

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. It was won by

Adam "Armada" Lindgren Adam Lindgren (born 28 March 1993), known by his handle Armada, is a Swedish professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' player from Gothenburg. He is widely considered one of the greatest ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' players of all time and the greatest ...

over Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma in the grand finals. ''

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and (colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS a ...

'' 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. 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. Mango and smash players - Connor Smith - TBH

Mango and smash players - Connor Smith - TBH

The sixth Big House was held on October 7–9, 2016. It was the first American tournament that William "Leffen" Hjelte attended since HTC Throwdown 2015. ''Melee'' was won by

, marking it as his third win at The Big House. ''Wii U'' was won by Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios and was his third consecutive title at The Big House. The seventh Big House was held on October 6–8, 2017 at the

Cobo Center Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly as TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Was ...

in Detroit. ''Melee'' was won by Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma over Justin "Plup" McGrath. ''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. ''Melee'' was won by Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma over Justin "Plup" McGrath. ''Wii U'' was won by Brian "Cosmos" Kalu over Eric "ESAM" Lew. The original ''

'' was won by Daniel "SuPeRbOoMfAn" Hoyt over Josh Brody. The Big House 9 was held on October 4–6, 2019 at the

in Detroit. ''Melee'' was won by

over

Zain Naghmi Zain Naghmi ( or , born June 11, 1996), more commonly known by his tag Zain, is an American ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' player from Reston, Virginia. Beginning his career in 2014, he rapidly climbed the ranks, becoming a ranked top 100 player in ...

. '' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' was featured for the first time, and was won by Sota "

Zackray , also known by his gamer tag (stylized Zackray until mid-2019), is a Japanese professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' player. As of the end of 2019, he was ranked the seventh best '' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' player in the world and the highest ...

" Okada over Samuel "Dabuz" Buzby. ''Smash 64'' was won by Josh Brody over Prince. 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 The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Tournament organizers later announced an online tournament for December 2020. The tournament was again cancelled after they received a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...

letter from ''Super Smash Bros.'' publisher

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

. Nintendo took concern with the tournament's plans to use an emulator that enables

netplay A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

and matchmaking for ''Melee'' but requires use of a ripped copy of the game, citing piracy concerns.

2022–present

The Big House returned to an offline format for its tenth iteration, held on October 7th-9th, 2022 at the Huntington Place in Detroit as part of the Nintendo-sponsored Panda Cup. ''Melee'' was won by Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto over

, marking the first time "aMSa" and a Yoshi player won a major tournament in the game's competitive lifespan; Cody "iBDW" Schwab,

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.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big House Events in Michigan Recurring events established in 2011 Super Smash Bros. tournaments University of Michigan 2011 establishments in Michigan