Super Smash Bros. Melee pro loses $2k tournament final to a glitch after falling through the stage: "There's just no way"

Fox from Star Fox surfs on a space ship against a cloudy sky — (Image credit: Nintendo)

One of Super Smash Bros. Melee's biggest tournaments came to an end when one of the competitors managed to glitch through the stage.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is notable in a few ways; it being the highest-selling GameCube game (and one of the best GameCube games ever made), the tournament community for the game is still huge almost 24 years later, and that it was developed in just over a year compared to the years-long developments of the Smash games released since.

However, that short development time resulted in a number of glitches and unintended tech falling through the cracks. Some are interesting, like the ability to play as the final boss, Master Hand. Others are frustrating, like Bowser (who is already the worst character in the game) doing zero damage to certain characters with one of his throws. And there are some that were big tournament standbys, like Ice Climbers' "Wobbling" infinite grab combo (which was later banned in most tourneys).

During the grand final match of Melee at the tourney, Cody Schwab and Moky faced off, with the final match taking place on the Pokemon Stadium stage. Both players were down to one last stock, with Cody needing one more kill to take the entire tourney. Moky was situated on the tree in Pokemon Stadium's Fire form (the stage changes layouts at regular intervals), and while wavedashing on the platform waiting for his opponent to strike, Moky's Fox slid right through the tree and the stage, losing the final stock of the tournament and the $2,202 prize.

While it was a disappointing end to the tourney, it undoubtedly made for a fun stream highlight, with some members of the r/LivestreamFail Reddit reckoning Moky pulled out the glitch intentionally for the sake of making a moment. However, a user of the r/SSBM community claims to have talked to Moky, saying, "I asked and he said he was just being dumb and he knew that wave dashing COULD cause that to happen," adding, "He was just trying to keep his hands warm. Trust me he definitely wanted to win that game and the tournament." So far, all Moky has said publicly is simply "there's just no way LMAO."