Posted by Justin 'AdaptiveTrigger' Gordon • December 25, 2021 at 11:49 a.m. PST • Comments: 17
The release of Sora in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate marked the end of DLC development for the game. It's crazy to think that there are 86 playable characters in this game.
Shortly after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was first released nearly 3 years ago, I set out on a goal to get every fighter into Elite Smash. Back then, I didn't know there'd be 86 characters total as DLC was still being unveiled and released. After many struggles, I was finally able to achieve this goal earlier this month.
To achieve Elite Smash with a fighter, a certain amount of GSP (Global Smash Power) needs to be attained by winning more than losing. In the days leading up to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's release, those with the Elite Smash rank were described as being "good" by Masahiro Sakurai himself.
"When you reach this level, feel free to pat yourself on the back," said Sakurai during the November 2018 Smash Ultimate Direct. "You're good. Period."
This has become something of a meme within the Smash community as... not everyone in Elite Smash are necessarily good players. It's fairly easy to find a clip of an Elite Smash player doing some rather silly things that make you question how they were able to get that much GSP in the first place.
Regardless, I actually found myself struggling to accomplish this goal at many points. The biggest road blocks for me personally were Sheik, Bayonetta and Luigi.
All 3 of these characters each required several months of attempts for me to successfully acquire elite status. Now that their runs are behind me, I find that I'm now quite comfortable with these characters after having spent so much time trying to boost their GSP.
To clarify, it only takes 2 wins in a row to get a new character into Elite Smash. By getting just 2 quick wins, a character can be easily finished in no time.
If you start losing, however, you tend to get less GSP from wins. The amount of GSP you get from winning is somewhat based on your win rate. Needless to say, how the GSP system awarded points just felt bizarre at times.
Should you run into an opponent that rage quits before a match ends, you'll be awarded no points. I remember this one time with Sheik where I basically 3-stocked a Simon player just before he ended the match prematurely.
Had I acquired the points, I would've had enough points to get Sheik into Elite Smash. Following this, I went on a losing streak that prevented me from getting Sheik into Elite Smash until months later.
Events like this one caused me to quit the challenge several times. However, I would always come back with renewed interest.
I knew there were a few easy ways to get characters into Elite Smash by adjusting the "preferred rules" in just the right way. For example, it would've been beneficial to turn on Final Smashes for characters like Peach, Daisy and Zelda because their Final Smashes are just blatantly broken.
But that wouldn't have been a true victory in my eyes. I stuck to tournament rulesets during each character run, though I would occasionally be forced to play some other odd ruleset set by someone else.
It took nearly 3 years, but I was eventually able to get all 86 characters into Elite Smash. What started with the decision to just get Ridley into Elite Smash ended with a 3-stock victory as the Pokémon Trainer.
