Why is Japan so GOOD at Smash Ultimate?

I went to a Japan local while I was visiting and found out that they host locals and events on a daily basis sometimes. Public transit and low entry cost + densely populated region makes it easy for people to get to locals and to go often. Most locals in the states only host once a week and are hard to get to unless you drive and can pay tolls and stuff

You forgot one big factor Japan has that makes it easier to get better there. Public transit. Because transportation makes it both easy to get places and get places at a cheap price, so many more tournaments become nationals, majors and supermajors. Sumabato was a long running monthly tournament that got big enough to where several of the events actually reached national/major status.

Also poor Sparg0, it is really noteworthy how much the community is such an ass experience for top level talent.

Shoutout public transit !

They genuinely love and have passion for the game. In a country where prize pools for tournaments is prohibited, the fact that some of the most stacked supermajors are held in Japan goes to show the players commitment towards the game itself which is very respectable, just view any top Japanese players stream, they grind this game like nobody’s business.

One thing I'd like to add is that NA gatekeeps the fuck out of improving sometimes. Players only wanna grind with people of a certain skill or their fragile little egos won't let people practice because they think it'll lead to them losing in bracket. Japan seems to be the stronger region because they genuinely don't give a fuck about that. They genuinely care about the improvement of everyone and have fostered a great community around that.

I once had a pleasant experience with a japanese player. He played me over and over again in battle arenas even though i was pretty bad at the time. He played joker, and i was playing little mac (who is still my undisputed main) i played him at least 50 times and lost every game. We played until it was 4am for me. But the next day(same day obv)... other people became 'slower' and easier to anticipate. I havent seen that player since. But i really appreciate him. He basically trained me.

As a whole japan definitely has the highest skill floor but I think their top talent is pretty on par with the rest of the world's

The split between the two big competitive Smash games with their best region is interesting. In Melee there is only one top 20 player from Japan, Amsa who now lives Canada, where as in Ultimate half of the top 20 is japanese and big competitions are held in Japan when that isn’t the case with Melee.

I think another thing that should've have been mentioned briefly at least is that Japan has like plenty of character specialists or at least contenders for the best in certain character that aren't seen in NA and thus, it's easy to notice players struggling against mid and low tiers sometimes. You of course have Acola and Miya for Steve and Mr.G&W but there are also other players like Doramigi with Min Min, Toriguri with Banjo, Rarukun with Luigi, etc. There are also players who try the catchup game like Tama being in the Triforce of best Bayo, Yaura with Samus when discussing best against Sisqui, etc.

- Back in 2019 , it looks more even but slightly more favour towards NA - Around 2020 before COVID , Japan seems to be catching up to NA but still were a bit far away - Then during COVID and the restrictions , Japan was the very first region that cameback with offline touraments and have a head start - Not only that , during that time a lot of things happend , which is the "DLC PART 2" , were a lot of characters came - Notably , Steve is the one that got the most exposure , but many DLC characters push Japan to be very dominant. - The funny thing is that Acola did not even plan to come to NA to compete until he got "invited" , and then he show why he was "the real deal in Japan" - Acola this year has not competed on NA "yet" , but he dominates the "most dominant region".

Because they actually play the game instead of whining about it on twitter.

Funny how Sonix' gets unbelivable titlted, but we still say he is unfazed. But the main strength of Sonix is never giving up and when the chips are down he remembers that he can play like Wrath.

Something interesting to note on the perspective of Japanese players is when they compare themselves to Western players they think of us as wanting the hardcore challenges. Which is pretty interesting because if you wrre to ask any Western fan "Which country prefers difficulty and skill?" Most assume Japan since it's more or less the birthplace of modern gaming. But in reality Americans crave difficulty more than the game design in itself. That's why every International Version of the game's that came out of Japan during the PS2 era were much harder than the original versions of the game. Devil May Cry Hard Mode was the default Normal Mode now. Kingdom Hearts had several huge balance adjustments that spans across decades just to make it harder even adding more and superbosses to them. For them the "Knowledge Check" is all you need to be good. If you know the Elemental Weaknesses of the enemy that alone should get you the win. But the Western perception thinks it's all about "Reactions and Timing". You can see this shift in mindset through the souls games. They used to have a major focus of elemental weaknesses but as they went more and more towards Action the more the RPG elements fell to the side. It's why Bloodborne has practically no Magic both in lore and in-game mechanics. Elden Ring the weakness only seemed to matter for Miranda Flowers. They're much more strategical than they are reactionary. It's a subtle mindset difference that needs to be brought under a microscope. Like for example Justin Wong was hated back in the day for "Playing it lame". He'd just do the strategical thing but never the aggressive thing unless it was guaranteed like a chip kill with his super. Daigo beat him using his "Reactions and Timing" but also "Practice" to get the optimal combo. It's why Daigo talks about "The Beast" and letting it out to gain true flow state. Blending Skill and Experience into one.

LMAO the image at the end let's go Coach2king

I feel like for a video about how good Japan is, this video focuses a lot on NA players. I almost wish there was more in depth analysis on the Japanese players, and this video isn't the only one that does it, but I feel like so much of the take away from the Japanese players is... that they're Japanese.

The same problem I've had since Smash 4 concerning NA vs. Japan is the substantial difference in how often players travel from one superregion to the other for open bracket events. A decently sized quantity of top-level Japanese players have traveled to the same open bracket event in NA typically at a rate of a minimum one event per calendar season. On the other hand, the only times NA has been able to bring a similarly sized group of top-level talent to a Japanese open bracket event in Smash 4 and Ultimate were during very specific times such as during Golden Week. It'd be nice if Kanto or Kansai Smash would fly out NAs / Europeans to one of their open bracket events about as often as NA has flown out Japanese players to the U.S. and Canada. I know donation incentives aren't the most effective method over there because there's no prize pot available to donate to at Japanese events, but there should be other ways for Japan to raise funds to bring in NA and EU's top talent, right? I would like to see them bring in and expose more foreigners to the various Japanese Smash scenes more often.

17:42 best picture i've ever seen LMAO

Cause they dont whine that half the cast needs to be nerfed

16:51, sometimes it feels like sonix can choose if he wants the game to last 7 minutes or 1 minute