Every now and then I get a reminder that the kids are alright. Sure, they’re gonna be facing some of the worst economic hardships in memory after AI replaces our jobs and capitalism finishes ruining everything else, but apparently they’ll be straight-up vibing as the world burns. The latest reminder of this comes from DJ “OG Kid” Dodd, a 15-year-old competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee player who took a selfie in the middle of a match. Iconic, honestly.
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Dodd plays Jigglypuff on the GameCube crossover brawler, and competed in a tournament at Super Smash Con in Chantilly, Virginia on August 11. The event gathered players from around the world to play every iteration of Nintendo’s crossover fighter, from the original Nintendo 64 game to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Switch. There are plenty of VODs from the show online, but I want to draw your attention to this one, in which Dodd’s Jigglypuff went up against Sushi’s Peach.
Nintendo / VGBootCamp
Dodd’s Jigglypuff is a menace, and his counterplay against Peach is fun to watch. But I gotta give the kid props for not only winning the fight, but popping off on stream both by glaring into the camera multiple times and by snapping a selfie midmatch while Peach was between spawns. Competitive play is a fun viewing experience, but I also find it delightful to watch it unfold with some swagger and theatrics. The commentators called the move “content-pilled,” but I call it “a serve.”
According to smashdata.gg, Dodd ultimately placed 129 in the 860-person tournament, but I hope to see him show up with more antics in future tournaments, as he’s been doing work in the scene for the past two years and has placed in the top 10 at several tournaments. The commentators here even say in the match that this kid could be the future of Melee, so I’m rooting for you, king.
Back in 1999, around the time of the release of the original Super Smash Bros. on the N64, Nintendo had a big idea. To help promote the game they would go to Vegas, set up a wrestling ring, get a bunch of actors to wear Nintendo character costumes and have them go at it.
So they did just that. The event, known as Slamfest ‘99, wasn’t just performed in front of a live crowd, it was also streamed online—in 1999!—and then available to watch for a few months afterwards as well. You would think that would mean that some footage of the stunt has survived, but somehow no, it hasn’t, and so for a few years now a group of “fans and archivists” from the Lost Media Wiki have been scouring the internet looking for some.
Here’s how one of that team, bozo_ssb, describes their efforts:
Despite the live broadcast, and despite it being available to be rewatched in RealPlayer for several months afterward, no video footage of Slamfest ‘99 is known to survive anywhere on the modern-day internet – it’s completely lost. With little evidence of the event even occurring, it has languished in extreme obscurity for over two decades, even among hardcore Nintendo fans. Since May 2020, a group of fans and archivists from the Lost Media Wiki have been actively searching for the lost broadcast footage (of which I’m a member).
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The bad news is they still haven’t found any. The good news is that they have now found something. The LMW team managed to track down Ed Espinoza, who was the producer for Slamfest ‘99, and Ed was kind enough to share a bunch of photos he took on the day so that the world could get a fresh look at Mario punching Donkey Kong in the tit.
Mario and Donkey would start the match. Donkey Kong, being much larger than our favorite plumber, quickly took Mario out. Yoshi came in and got his revenge on the gorilla. Pikachu would come in for the monkey only to be knocked down by Yoshi’s lethal tail. Then, before anyone knew it, Mario went crazy. He wiped out Donkey Kong, Pikachu, and his own teammate, Yoshi. Ultimately, the match would end in a crash which knocked out everyone resulting in a draw. “Everyone’s a winner!” the announcer yelled – Zelda64
Mario and Yoshi were on one team, Donkey Kong and Pikachu were on the other. It was quite funny to see the life-size mascots bouncing around a wrestling ring. Mario went on a crazed rampage hitting everyone in sight, and instead of Yoshi, Donkey Kong accidentally hit himself with his ‘mallet of doom.’ And in the most heated moment, all four mascot smashed into each other in the center of the ring, and all fell to the mat. That’s right, in true Nintendo fashion, it was a draw…and everyone is a winner! – Nintendorks
Even the ref got in on the act, biting Pikachu’s ear and declaring that it tasted ‘like chicken’. Mario shocked us with his low blow antics and Kong knocked himself out with his own magic hammer, but they all wound up best of friends at the end, the match being declared an honourable draw – N64 Magazine
We’ve shared a few of the images here, but here’s a link to the whole gallery, which is fascinating not just for the images from the bout itself, but also for the shots of the wrestlers warming up out of costume. And fun fact: there’s a good chance this whole stunt was just a chance for Nintendo to get their money’s worth out of those costumes, since they’re the same ones featured in the classic “Happy Together” Smash commercial:
Genesis 9, a major fighting game tournament, took place over the weekend. There were stellar combos and massive upsets as the supermajor event for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate concluded on January 22. Unfortunately, while the tournament was underway, one of Canada’s top Kazuya players, Michael “Riddles” Kim, sparked some heated discourse in Ultimate’s community around “top player privilege” and “ego problems” when he threw his controller after losing a match.
Considered one of the best Kazuya and Terry mains in Canada, Riddles is ranked ninth in all of North America. A member of the esports organization Team Liquid, Riddles has placed in the top 10 at just about every tournament he’s competed in, with his last first-place win being at the November 2022 Path to Glory tournament in Saskatchewan where he took home approximately $11,000 alongside the top spot. In short, the Super Smash Bros. community sees Riddles as goated. So, knowing he was entering Genesis 9, a California tournament stacked to the brim with top-tier talents such as Steve player acola and Marth main MKLeo, his ardent fans and interested onlookers were expecting him to perform. He did, but not to the level he, or the game’s community, might’ve hoped for.
Riddles found himself in the losers’ bracket after losing a close set against Palutena player Chase. Riddles would win the next two matches in that bracket, only to wind up facing off against France’s Lucina main, Nassim “Leon” Laib. The bout started heavily in Riddles’ favor. However, Leon had Riddles’ number on speed dial, as Leon switched to Chrom and gave Riddles little room to breathe.
It all came to a head when, in the last bout, Leon absolutely bodied Riddles in spectacular fashion. Riddles lost that match. After sitting in his chair for a while, the frustration clearly visible on his face and his opponent no longer on screen, Riddles threw his controller down hard before leaving the arena.
Folks were perplexed by the upset as Riddles was a top seed, meaning he was expected to place pretty high. Leon, however, is ranked 77th. The odds were ever in Riddles’ favor, as evidenced on the faces of those around the two players. Aside from congratulating Leon on his victory, most people were stunned by what happened. There were a few taking pictures of Riddles sulking in his chair, but most of everyone else in the immediate vicinity was shooketh.
ScreenKO
It’s this brief moment that has ignited the Super Smash Bros. community into discoursing about popping off in a professional setting.
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“You throw the controller,” one tweeter said to Riddles in all caps. “Do you know how much you make people suffer? You lost [and] got outplayed by a neutral character. You just cheese people at 0 so [fuck] off.”
“It’s called holding people accountable,” another tweeter said. “Something this community needs more of actually.”
“It doesn’t matter if he is humble, he still had that moment,” a third tweeter said. “If you give him a pass now, 9 times outta 10, it’ll happen again. Just stop fam lmao. Everyone has those moments, we get it, but shrugging it off like this just shows why top player privilege is a thing.”
The comments on the above YouTube video aren’t much better, with some agreeing Riddles “has no right to be salty or rage” and that he’s “a little baby” who needs to “man up.” Others laughed at the incident, while a few folks memed his name, calling him “Shittles” instead. One person even said Riddles has “insane ego problems” for reacting this way. Sheesh.
This is because Riddles mains Kazuya Mishima, one of Tekken’s protagonists, the 81st combatant part of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Fighters Pass Vol. 2, and a notorious character in the game’s scene. Kazuya is a combo-heavy fighter in Ultimate, primarily relying on his electric wind god fist to stun his opponents and rack up some heavy damage. Kazuya, and this stun move especially, have been thorns in the community’s side, with Ultimate players regularly asking for Kazuya (as well as Steve from Minecraft) to get banned from tournament use. In short, Riddles receives a lot of hate because of the character he plays, and his loss to Leon and the resulting explosion on camera, was an excuse to pile on—to the point that Riddles ended up deactivating his Twitter account.
Kotaku reached out to Riddles for comment.
In Twitter DMs with Kotaku, Leon said he was both afraid of and motivated by Riddles, ready to face him in the Genesis 9 competition. Leon didn’t anticipate beating Riddles, though, saying he was “very surprised and shocked” to do so with his secondary character, Chrom. He also wasn’t totally surprised by Riddles’ reaction to the upset after the fact, although he didn’t completely agree with his opponent’s behavior.
“[Riddles’ reaction was] completely [unwarranted] in any kind of big competition. It’s easy to see that,” Leon said. “Throwing your own controller to [release] frustration isn’t the best move, but it concerns only him and himself. As long as he respects his opponents (which was the case with me), there is nothing very disgusting [about what he did]. I would be sad and frustrated to get out of the tournament that early, too.”
Not everyone is dragging Riddles for the way he popped off at Genesis 9. Multiple top players, from former competitor Yonni to big-name player Justin Wong to Moist Esports’ Aaron Wilhite, defended Riddles’ actions. It’s kind of ironic when you think about it, as a few days before Genesis 9 kicked off, an Italian Smash player was banned from tournaments going forward after literally slapping his opponent during a livestream. Riddles, on the other hand, took his frustration out on an inanimate object and announced he would take a long break in his Discord. I’m not entirely sure what the community wants from Riddles, or top players in general, but asking that they be robots and show no emotion just ain’t it. I mean, I still occasionally throw my controllers because video games make me angry. It’s human nature, right? At least Riddles didn’t take it out on his competitor.
