The writing has been on the wall for Beyond the Summit since the production company’s leadership announced it would be shutting its doors after 11 years in the esports space. But the Super Smash Bros. community sent BTS off with a bang as acola completed a legendary run to win Ultimate Summit 6.
Throughout the four-day event, the community came together to celebrate the greatest Ultimate players and the world and everything that made BTS tournaments such a special thing. From skits to side tournaments and all the way down to late-night Mafia games, Ultimate Summit 6 was a perfect end to the legacy series.
The main bracket lived up to the hype too, as the biggest storyline coming in was seeing who amongst MkLeo, Sparg0, Tweek, and acola would take the next step toward the title of best Ultimate player.
In a rare showing, both Leo and Sparg0 started the finals bracket on the loser’s side and would not make deep runs, bowing out at ninth and 13th respectively. For Sparg0, that loss was to a struggling VoiD who bounced back from a poor pools performance and advanced, but Leo’s loss was a bit more interesting.
With a rare move that hasn’t happened much since Smash 4, Leo busted out his Meta Knight to take out NaetorU’s Pichu but ran into acola’s Steve. That round would be the first of several major wins for the Japanese phenom as he built up his immovable wall of blocks to 3-0 Leo.
From there, acola went on to sweep Glutonny, defeat the reigning Summit Champion and fellow Japanese star ProtoBanham, and put up a block Kurama’s Mario couldn’t break before taking a 3-0 revenge sweep over Big D’s Ice Climbers.
In the grand finals against Tweek, acola finally broke a longstanding stalemate between the two top players, as prior to that initial set, every clash between the pair had lasted a full five games. Acola would go on to force a bracket reset with a game five win and then take the title 3-1 and break that streak.
Not only did acola’s win keep the Summit title for Japan, but it also poetically ended one of Smash’s most prolific tournament series with Minecraft Steve coming out on top—for better or worse.
Following that win, acola took the trophy and proclaimed that he was the best player in the world and that Japan is the strongest region in Smash Ultimate.
And, while the hype of a new champion was great, the reality of the end soon brought the mood back down to a somber feel as the commentators, players, and fans began to say their farewells to BTS on the broadcast and through social media. This included one final statement and an emotional farewell from BTS co-founder LD.
“I think the Smash Summits for both Melee and Ultimate are the best memories. If you add it all up, there is just no better community,” LD said.
“Thank you all for all of your support over the years. Not to me personally, not to BTS, but for everything [the community] has done for Smash. You made it all special.”
With the end of Ultimate Summit 6, so too ends the current work of BTS as the production staff scatters to begin work elsewhere due to the company’s decision to shut down. There is currently no news on if or how the brand will remain within esports at all post-closure, but it was one hell of a final ride.
