The Ultimate Iceberg | Beginnings
A simple introduction: This is the Ultimate Iceberg. A team of people who write articles/stories on players, tournaments, and regions for the game Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.
The inspirations for creating the Ultimate Iceberg came from a generic twitter argument on August 31st 2022. Many were complaining about the lack of European coverage made by the functioning (at the time) PGStats team and that strong North American bias was present. Although the valid point was made that the PGStats team was primarily a lot of freelancing and that they already had their hands full, it made us think, “Everybody deserves to have the spotlight”. For a game as international as Smash Ultimate, it is unfortunately impossible to cover every detail, location, and player. Paired with social media, talk about Smash Ultimate has been notoriously North America centric. This is where where we got the idea to publish and write stories about regions, players, and tournaments which deserve more publicity.
Unfortunately since then Panda, the company which ran PGStats, became scattered and fell apart due to many issues with management. This is leaving a hole in an area we care about: who will be the ones who fills PGStats niche? Many teams have started to make content similar to that, Smash Journal notably has much of the previous PGStats team. They’re also plenty of talented creators who already made similar content such as Orion Stats/Rank, Raccoon Stats, hippo, and many more. We believe that their isn’t ever enough of this content though, which is why we are launching the Ultimate Iceberg, an article/story writing project.
Ultimate Iceberg: Derived from the expression and chart format of showing significance or publicity, the Ultimate Iceberg will be covering any type of topic which we feel has gone under the radar. This project wants to aid the idea that any region or player can be great. Originally it was undecided whether this would be either a video-creating or article writing project, but while observing others, it came to us that they excel at their respective areas. Not saying we couldn’t catch up, but ultimately it was decided that this is the most concise and effective way to present our projects. Currently the team is only one person, Swidd, but there is the possibility of branching out! Started as a passion project, it is planned to stay that way. Note that even though this focuses on non-North American topics, we will cover them if they are deemed underrated as well.
Regional Breakdowns: Likely to be the rarest of the formats, mostly due to how audacious it is to approach, we hope to shed light on any region which deserves more spotlight than recognized. We hope to highlights hidden bosses, notable tournaments, breakouts, and factors as to why they are underrated.
Tournament Overviews: On paper the most simple of the formats, we will not be doing any majors (unless there is a notable exception like Wave#2). Instead, we will look at those tournaments which had crazy situations, big upsets, a rising community, and other factors which deserves to have recognition.
Player Highlights: To become our signature format, this will be our main focus and will be used to highlight one specific player who achieved greatness, yet doesn’t get talked about enough. Whether it was because of their consistency, upsets, character pick, or even other exotic factors, we will look at any player which may deserve more spotlight. Doesn’t necessarily mean under-ranked (looking at you Hero).
We showcase gratitude that you even sat down and listened or read this post. We hope to have the first story (about a certain Japanese Samus player) by next week!
And a personal message from Swidd (the current sole member of the team). I have always wanted to get more into writing about this game and a truly think I found a way where I can express it. Although a lot of things might be shaky at first, I really want to make this something special and informational. Thank you for your time.
