You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
On March 9, 2008, two major things happened in the world of gaming. You can guess the first: Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released to the public on the stroke of midnight. The second, you might have missed if you were living under a rock. At midnight on that fateful day began GameStop’s nationwide Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament, which culminated in the Grand Championships in San Jose, California last Saturday. Thirteen finalists came from all over the country to battle it out in a final brawl after some 79,000 other contestants were beat out in competitions across America.
The Ground Rules: GameStop frontman and tournament proctor Jay Hilpen told us, “We wanted to keep things as fair as possible and we agreed [with Nintendo] on rules that we thought were the most fair.” The tournament was set for Wii Remotes only (too keep Melee fighters from having an edge), no items, tournament mode instead of free-for-alland starting characters only (sorry, Ness). Matches were set at five minutes, victory going to whoever took best two out of three. Officials picked the stage at the start of a tournament phase and only then were contestants allowed to choose their characters (keeping that character for the rest of that tournament phase).
