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 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 o ...

, 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 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), ...

, Michigan. 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. '' 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. 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 Joseph "Mango" Marquez.

2015–2019

The fifth edition of The Big House was held from October 2–4, 2015 in

Dearborn Dearborn may refer to: People * Dearborn (surname) ** Henry Dearborn (1751–1829), U.S. Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson, Senior Officer of the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 Places in the United States Forts * Fort 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 over Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma in the grand finals. '' 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. 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 Joseph "Mango" Marquez, 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 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 Cobo Center in Detroit. ''Melee'' was won by Joseph "Mango" Marquez 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. 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 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,

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