More than 70 players from across the country played in a Super Smash Bros. online charity event held on February 5th. The event, created by the combined efforts of the Kent State University Smash Community and Pitt Smash’s Man On A Ledge, united the two scenes to raise $1000 for the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank.

The event had three different tournaments: a singles and doubles bracket for the almost 20-year-old Super Smash Bros. Melee and a singles bracket for the newer Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

This event was one of many organized online during COVID-19, thanks to the advent of Slippi, a program that allows Super Smash Bros. Melle players to use rollback netcode, which allows low-lag connections and smooth inputs. Rollback just came out last June and may not sound like a lot, but for an almost 20-year-old game, it was a huge breakthrough.

“The Melle scene online has been super good because of Rollback,” said Laurel “Sp1nda” Yoho, one of the event organizers. “A lot of new players have started playing, and people who wouldn’t normally have access to tournaments have access to tournaments.”

Super Smash Bros. tournaments typically involve a group of friends huddled around a set of CRT televisions, but playing online allowed more players from more regions to play.

“It went super well. The event ended up raising over $1000 for the charity, which was really awesome. I didn’t expect that for the first charity event I ran,” Said Yoho.

Yoho hopes to organize more charity events monthly, the most recent one being a first for Kent’s Smash scene.

Zach Shepherd covers technology. Contact him at [email protected].