Smash Players Smell

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Part of a series on Super Smash Brothers. [View Related Entries]

About

Smash Players Smell refers to the trope that those in the Super Smash Brothers competitive community notoriously smell bad at tournaments and competitive events.

Origin

The trope of Smash players smelling poorly has been around since at least the mid-2000s. Speaking to Kotaku,^[1] Smash.gg tournament organizer Bassem “Bear” Dahdouh said he "hasn't seen a month go by without somebody complaining about body odor at a local, regional or major Smash tournament" since the mid-2000s. On January 19th 2011, Ross O'Donovan of Game Grumps reported on Reddit that on a trip to America, he went to a major Smash tournament and "everyone there smelled so bad. Every day they rocked up to the tournament in the same clothes. In fact, the entire room just stank like hell. Going out to stand by the people smoking was like getting fresh air in comparrison."^[2]

Spread

On July 31st, 2011, California tournament organizer Sky implemented a rule wherein he could disqualify players if "it's clear that you are not keeping up with your hygiene."^[3] On June 4th, 2015, Twitter user @Jarvdawg^[4] tweeted a post from a Tallahassee, Florida Smash Facebook community group wherein organizers expressed concern that the smell of Smash players in tournaments jeopardized their lease with the establishment that hosted the events, and that staff of said establishment had labeled the tournament days, "Stinky Day."

Posts about the trend have appeared on Gamefaqs.^[5]^[6] Top player Leffen^[7] once joked "Damn, this anime con/smash tournament is in desperate need of a deodorant sponsor haha." In 2018, Kotaku^[1] wrote about the trend, and conceded that many Smash players felt the stereotype was "overblown." The article was reposted to /r/TIL^[8] where it gained over 74,000 points. Amino Apps user Dream Chasers wrote a list of reasons why it is competitively and personally viable to shower.^[9] Several image macros and memes have been made about the trend as well. For example, Redditor GuiltyCrowns made an Inkling Girl's Eye parody with a stick of deodorant photoshopped into her eye, dubbing it "Every Smash Player's Worst Nightmare," gaining over 2,000 points (shown below, left). Redditor Rizzanzi posted a Spongebob meme mocking the smell to /r/SmashBrosUltimate, gaining over 4,700 points (shown below, right).