Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest (often acronymized to PNW) is a Smash region in the United States. The PNW generally refers to the states of Oregon, Washington (which is typically further split into Eastern Washington and Western Washington due to the difficulty of travelling across the state) and the province of British Columbia (BC). Additional regions like Alberta, Idaho and Montana may occasionally be grouped in, but in most cases the region is exclusively the coastal states and provinces.
The Pacific Northwest harbors one of the most active Super Smash Bros. Ultimate scenes in the United States, as well as one of the most active P+ scenes. The scene is most populous in Western Washington. Historically, the region has struggled to obtain mainstream relevancy on the same level as other regions due to a number of factors, from geographic isolation to other regions scheduling larger events over the PNW's own, but has been gaining traction since 2021 and is currently the North American region with the most LumiRank tournaments. Very strong players for all Smash games have come out of the region, including , , , , , , , and .
The Pacific Northwest has also received a significant amount of direct support and events from Nintendo, as the Nintendo of America headquarters is located in . Examples include attending the annual conventions Emerald City Comic Con and 's PAX West with dedicated booths. While not officially affiliated, PAX also has its PAX Arena tournament, which usually features at least one Smash game. Seattle, Washington was also chosen as the location for Nintendo Live 2023, which featured two Smash tournaments. Nintendo also has a traveling booth that they fill with games and events and bring to local festivals like Seafair and the Seattle Street Food Festival. More minor examples include Nintendo sponsoring technology based institutes like Digipen Institute of Technology, but direct support of local competitive tournaments has remained sparse.
==History==
===2018-2019===
As expected, the Ultimate scene was initially comprised of many Smash 4 veterans, as well as dozens of new players. The Pacific Northwest was one of the first battlegrounds for an Ultimate major, as was held only a week after the game's release. would be the highest-placing Pacific Northwest player at 3rd, with , , and joining him in Top 8.
The Pacific Northwest continued a largely quiet existence separated from the rest of the national scene, with occasional trips to majors made by the scene's most prominent players at the time, namely , , and , all of which would eventually earn a PGRU spot. and were the largest events held in the northwest since DPG, reaching over 400 entrants each. 2019 also saw an anticpated rise from those who joined the scene after the release of Ultimate, including and .
===2020===
With the Smash World Tour marking as a Gold-tier event and Emerald City 9 looking to pull more national talent from out of region including the likes of and , the Pacific Northwest was projected to have a greater spotlight on it compared to previous years. However, the COVID-19 Pandemic quickly halted any offline activity on the global scale, forcing Emerald City 9 to cancel only a few days before the event, and relegating all Smash competition to online events.
The Pacific Northwest was unique among other regions participating in the WiFi-era, the biggest difference being that players largely participated in tournaments region-locked to the PNW region rather than nationwide events like , or , causing the scene to become more isolated than ever. Additionally, numerous power-ranked players rarely or entirely refused to participate in wifi tournaments, opening the door for quickly improving players like , and to gain lots of tournament experience over quarantine.
===2021===
The first half of 2021 largely continued on the same path as 2020 had ended. The initial seeding for the came under scrutiny for the local playerbase as the seeding team weren't aware of the PNW's habit of only participating in region-locked wifi events, leading to questionable seeding. With the help of local wifi TOs including , this problem was quickly resolved, and the tournament is noteworthy for being among the least upset-prone major Ultimate events ever.
Local tournaments began to resurface around the summer. Within only a few tournaments, players dedicated to online play began to perform exceptionally well, with JDV winning the first Western Washington tournament back, Ouch winning & dominating the British Columbian scene, and securing the #1 spot in Oregon.
Due to US/Canada land border complications, Canadian participation in American tournaments has plummeted dramatically - and vice versa, with the only player regularly crossing the border being . This also led to numerous BC players being unable to attend , the Pacific Northwest's first truly undisputed major for Ultimate with over 600 entrants.
===2022===
2022 saw more activity, both in tournaments and in player performance. After travel restrictions loosened for Canada, would emerge from as a top level threat, following it up with a top 8 finish at and 3rd at . Ouch!? broke out at 3rd place during , defeating several top players and remaining a consistent threat at majors. From Oregon, would place 5th at and become Oregon's best player. placed Top 8 at , becoming Washington and the Pacific Northwest's first player to do so at the tournament series since Port Priority 4.
Western Washington experienced multiple shifts near the end of 2022, including several high level players moving or having extended leaves. and would travel to Japan and Europe respectively for several months, while and would move for school. In the power vacuum, would emerge as Seattle's best player.
===2023===
2023 started off strong, with 6 players placing in the top 64 of and 6 more finishing at 65th.In top 64: Ouch!?, Big D, Justice, moxi, JDV, jaredisking1. At 65th: JoJoDaHoBo, FireThePyro, SPARKLE, Pacstreet, Major, H4.
 emerged as one of 2023's strongest and most important Ultimate tournaments, named a P-tier by LumiRank. and reached major and supermajor status, respectively, giving all three primary regions a major in the same year.
==Smashers==
:See also: :Category:British Columbia smashers, :Category:Oregon smashers, :Category:Washington smashers
The following players are currently or were previously ranked. Their highest placement is listed.
===Globally ranked players===
Tag 	Character(s)	Best placement 	Notes
(Oregon) 	 	SSBMRank 2024: 33rd 	
(Washington) 	 	PMRank 2018: 28th 	
(British Columbia)	 	SSBMRank 2022: 2nd 	Originally from , but resided in British Columbia between mid-2022 and mid-2023.
(British Columbia)	 	OrionRank 2017: 125th UltRank 2022: 19th	
(Washington) 	 	SSBMRank 2014: 33rd 	
(British Columbia)	 	SSBMRank 2013: 67th 	
(Washington) 	 	PGR v1: 46th 	
(British Columbia)	 	PGR v5 36th Spring 2019 PGRU: 50th 	
(Washington) 	 	SSBMRank 2023: 84th 	Originally from Mexico.
(Washington) 	 	PMRank 2017: 29th 	
(Oregon) 	 	SSBMRank 2013: 74th 	
(Oregon) 	 	MPGR 2019: 39th 	
(Oregon) 	 	OrionRank Mid-Year 2022: 126th 	Went to university in in 2023.
(Washington) 	 	SSBMRank 2017: 93rd 	
(Oregon) 	 	UltRank 2022: 51st 	
(Washington) 	 	LumiRank 2023: 131st 	
(Oregon) 	 	LumiRank 2024.1: 115th 	
(Washington) 	 	OrionRank 2022: 143rd 	Resides in South Carolina since 2023. Currently banned.
(Washington) 	 	RetroSSBMRank 2008: 9th 	
(Washington) 	 	PGR v4: 30th 	
(British Columbia)	 	OrionRank Mid-Year 2022: 144th 	
(British Columbia)	 	PGR v3: 22nd 	
(Washington) 	 	OrionRank 2019: 30th 	Known as Pandarian in Smash 4 and early Ultimate. Moved to Georgia in 2022.
(British Columbia)	 	UltRank 2022: 43rd 	
(Washington) 	 	MPGR 2019: 97th 	Originally from Florida, but resided in Washington in 2019 and 2020.
(Washington) 	 	PMRank 2019: 8th 	
(Oregon) 	 	SSBMRank 2023: 5th 	Originally from Florida, and moved to Oregon in 2021.
(Washington) 	 	PMRank 2022: 44th 	
(Washington) 	 	PMRank 2022: 45th 	
(Washington) 	 	RetroSSBMRank 2004: 8th 	
(Washington) 	 	SSBMRank 2015: 11th 	
(British Columbia)	 	SSBMRank 2013: 85th 	
(Washington) 	 	SSBMRank 2023: 83rd 	
(Washington) 	 	2024 SSBBRank: 16th 	
(Washington) 	 	SSBMRank 2013: 84th 	Prominent Melee commentator.
===Nationally ranked players===
Tag 	Character(s)	Best placement 	Notes
(Washington) 	 	OrionRank 2022 North America: 179th 	
(Washington) 	 	OrionRank North America Top 200: 109th	
(Washington) 	 	LumiRank 2023 North America: 157th 	
(Washington) 	 	OrionRank 2022 North America: 197th 	
(Washington) 	 	LumiRank 2023 North America: 157th 	
(British Columbia)	 	LumiRank 2023 North America: 172nd 	
(Washington) 	 	OrionRank North America Top 200: 151st	
(British Columbia)	 	OrionRank 2022 North America: 168th 	
(Oregon) 	 	LumiRank 2024.2: 130th 	
(British Columbia)	 	OrionRank 2022 North America: 114th 	
(Washington) 	 	OrionRank North America Top 200: 176th	
===Other notable players===
Tag 	Character(s)	Notes
(British Columbia)	 	Tournament organizer for 's events.
(British Columbia)	 	Prominent tournament organizer in the British Columbia scene, including being the head organizer of series.
(British Columbia)	 	CEO of and head organizer of .
(British Columbia)	 	One of the best-known Smash YouTubers known for his ranking videos and videos regarding Smash history.
(British Columbia)	 	Former tournament organizer and manager for and was previously responsible for organizing the 's Ultimate events.
==Tournaments==
:See also: :Category:British Columbia tournaments, :Category:Oregon tournaments, :Category:Washington tournaments
===Notable tournament series===
Tournament series that have achieved recognition outside their local region. 
Tournament 	Games	Type 	Status
(Oregon) 	 	Unscheduled	
(British Columbia)	 	Annual 	Ongoing
(Oregon) 	 	Annual 	Ongoing
(Washington) 	 	Annual 	Ongoing
(Oregon) 	 	Annual 	Ongoing
(Washington) 	 	 	
(British Columbia)	 	Bimonthly 	Discontinued
(Oregon) 	 	Unscheduled	Ongoing
(Washington) 	 	Annual 	Discontinued
(Washington) 	 	Biweekly 	Discontinued
(British Columbia)	 	Annual 	Discontinued
(Washington) 	 	Annual 	On hiatus
(British Columbia)	 	 	
===Notable tournaments===
Tournaments that featured at least one game at a superregional level. 
Tournament 	Date 	Entrants	Supermajor	Major 	Superregional	Other
(Washington) 	September 10th-11th, 2005 	??? 	— 	—	 	—
(Washington) 	April 24th-26th, 2015 	>150 	— 	—	 	
(Washington) 	August 28th-30th, 2015 	482 	— 	—	 	—
(Washington) 	December 17th-18th, 2016 	996 	— 	—	 	—
(British Columbia)	June 3rd-4th, 2017 	675 	— 	—	 	—
(Washington) 	September 1st-4th, 2017 	12 	— 	 	— 	—
(Washington) 	May 5th, 2018 	220 	— 	—	 	—
(Washington) 	December 15th-16th, 2018 	958 	— 	—	 	—
(British Columbia)	March 30th-31st, 2019 	620 	— 	—	 	—
(Washington) 	September 7th-8th, 2019 	455 	— 	—	 	—
(British Columbia)	November 30th-December 1st, 2019	312 	— 	—	 	
(Washington) 	October 30th-31st, 2021 	647 	— 	 	— 	—
(Oregon) 	March 5th, 2022 	249 	— 	—	 	—
(Oregon) 	May 14th, 2022 	262 	— 	—	 	—
(British Columbia)	June 10th-12th, 2022 	656 	— 	 	— 	—
(Oregon) 	October 15th, 2022 	261 	— 	—	 	—
(Washington) 	November 12th-13th, 2022 	613 	— 	 	— 	—
(British Columbia)	January 15th, 2023 	129 	— 	—	 	—
(British Columbia)	March 5th, 2023 	135 	— 	—	 	—
(Washington) 	March 18th-19th, 2023 	359 	— 	—	 	
(Oregon) 	April 1st-2nd, 2023 	883 	— 	 	— 	—
(British Columbia)	May 19th-21st, 2023 	1,014 	 	—	— 	—
(Washington) 	November 11th-12th, 2023 	722 	 	—	— 	—
(British Columbia)	March 29th-31st, 2024 	867 	 	 	— 	—
(British Columbia)	June 30th, 2024 	147 	— 	—	 	—
(British Columbia)	August 29th-September 1st, 2024 	20 	 	—	— 	—
(Washington) 	November 16th-17th, 2024 	1,227 	 	 	— 	—
===Largest singles events===
Rank	Tournament	Date 	Game	Attendance	Winner	Character(s)
1 	 	November 16th-17th, 2024	 	888 	 	
2 	 	November 11th-12th, 2023	 	710 	 	
3 	 	May 19th-21st, 2023 	 	652 	 	
4 	 	December 17th-18th, 2016	 	640 	 	
4 	 	October 30th-31st, 2021 	 	640 	 	
6 	 	November 12th-13th, 2022	 	600 	 	
7 	 	December 15th-16th, 2018	 	581 	 	
8 	 	December 15th-16th, 2018	 	546 	 	
9 	 	April 1st-2nd, 2023 	 	512 	 	
10 	 	March 29th-31st, 2024 	 	494 	 	
==Instances of overlapping major events with other regions/organizations==
Pacific Northwest events have been prone to being scheduled over by other larger organizations or events, creating conflicts for players and often splitting or crushing viewership for the affected PNW events.
PNW Event 	Overlapped by 	Date(s) 	Game(s) affected	Notes
 	 	December 16th-18th, 2016	Smash 4 	ZeRo Saga was announced well after DPG. Due to the higher stakes, many high level players cancelled on DPG, reducing the relevance of the Smash 4 bracket.
 	 	May 27th, 2017 	Smash 4 	
 	 	November 11th, 2017 	Smash 4 	IBP Masters was announced 2 weeks before Port Priority 2's event date, causing a few prominent out of region players to cancel. The $10,000 pot bonus and short notice sparked heated discourse on social media.
 	 	September 9th, 2017 	Smash 4 	2GG offered spots on the compendium to Oregon/Washington players after complaints that a tournament called "West Side Saga" did not consider all west coast states.
 	 	December 15th, 2018 	Ultimate 	Sky Williams donated $2,500 to the prize pool of DPG18 as compensation for scheduling conflicts.
 	 	May 25th, 2019 	Ultimate 	
Don't Park on the Grass 2020	Smash World Tour 2020 Finals	December 17th-20th, 2020	Melee, Ultimate 	Although both events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, SWT was announced well after the announcement for DPG20, making it the third time in DPG's history that a larger event was scheduled over it well after its announcement.
 	 	November 11th-13th, 2022	Ultimate 	Ultimate Fighting Arena (UFA) announced an Ultimate event with a 10,000€ prize pool without placing itself on the Smash Calendar in advance, which Port Priority did in October of 2021. While not detrimental to attendance and likely not detrimental to viewership, it did reserve the weekends of multiple top players Port Priority was seeking, diminishing its prestige.
 	 	December 2nd, 2023 	Ultimate, Melee 	A miscommunication on the Smash Calendar had both events occurring on the same day, resulting in multiple previously-confirmed notable players cancelling to go to California.
==See also==
*British Columbia Power Rankings
*Oregon Power Rankings
*Washington Power Rankings
==References==
Category:American regions
Category:Canadian regions