Amidst all of the drama, we finally made it to the event! As a quick reminder, Smash Summit is a 4-day, 16 man invitational featuring 10 invited players and 6 players who were voted in by fans. On the first 2 days, there will be tons of exhibitions, challenges, and also a game of Mafia. The last 2 days will have the actual singles and doubles tournaments. Not only will there be an all star cast of players, but revered commentators such as Scar, Toph, HMW, Phil, and Wife will be on the couch. Here’s some basic scheduling:

Stream: www.twitch.tv/BeyondTheSummit

Note: All PST
Thursday – 12 PM – 11 PM
Friday – 12 PM – 9 PM
Saturday – 11 AM – 10 PM
Sunday – 12 PM – 8 PM

Full Details are here

Now here’s what I’m interested in

1.) PPMD vs Armada vs Mango

The last time that any of them have played in a match together was during the summer. It’ll be interesting to see how PPMD fares against the likes of Armada and Mango. PPMD recently won a Foundry against SFAT and Frootloop and Canada Cup against Duck. In his last encounters with the big 6, PPMD lost to Hungrybox and Armada in 3-0 sets. The biggest question on people’s minds is how he will do against the world’s best. Surprisingly, Mango got the last laugh on Armada at WTFox, defeating him in a close 3-2 set, but Mango hasn’t been able to reach Armada in bracket due to poor performances at both The Big House 5 and Evo 2015. Armada has proven to be mostly invincible in 2015 and seems to be the front runner as best player of the year, but let’s see if the American heroes can leave a dent.

2.) All-Star Matches

Even among the Top 15 level players, we haven’t seen too many interactions between them in bracket. How will PewPewU do against Plup? What about s2j against Zhu’s new Sheik? Even players like Kage and Alex19 could make some noise at the event. Kage has previously won sets against Mango, Axe, Westballz,  and SFAT. Alex19, although an underdog, has taken multiple sets over players such as s2j and Lucky. Swedish Delight has been on a low-key rise in the past year. It may be an invite-only event, but the audience will be treated to top-notch rivalries.

3.) Challenges

Speaking of which, it’ll be interesting to see who challenges who. Will Shroomed challenge Kage after what happened in Big House 5 Crews? Will Mango spitefully put all of his money on the line against Armada? Who does the sagely PPMD challenge? What rules will be implemented? Will we see Mario dittos between Mango and PPMD? The possibilities are endless.

4.) Mafia

More importantly, we get to see the more human side of the top players. Mafia pits everyone together in a highly interactive scenario. It’ll be funny who makes natural alliances with each other. How will individuals determine who the mafia is? Will Mango just troll and convince the townspeople to vote against Mew2King every game? Will Kage use his warrior-shenanigans? I’m sure twitch chat will have a blast with this.

5.) The Fan Votes

Shameless plug, but check out the fan vote here. Also check out the match histories of the players here. It’s interesting to see how people’s perceptions are. For example, 62% of the voters believe that Armada will beat Mango if they play in bracket and 58% of voters believe that Armada will defeat PPMD if they play. Overall, lots of interesting insight.