In September of 2021, the Riptide tournament series debuted as the first open-bracket Super Smash Bros. major in the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic had brought offline competition to a halt in March of 2020.
This weekend, the series will return to Sandusky, Ohio, for its second iteration. Even without contributing to the Smash World Tour or the Panda Cup, this spiritual successor to the Smash ‘N’ Splash series has still attracted a number of high-level competitors in several games. Here’s everything viewers need to know about Riptide 2022.
Smash players to watch
Salvatore “Zomba” DeSena has had it rough the past few weeks. He recently placed third at both Rise ‘N Grind and Shine 2022, failing to qualify for Smash Ultimate Summit 5 by one placement at both tournaments. However, as the No. 1 seed for Ultimate Singles, Zomba will aim to bounce back with a win at Riptide 2022.
The biggest threat to Zomba will likely be the No. 2 seed, Luis “Lui$” Oceguera Ramos. While Zomba eked out a Game 5 win against him at Rise ‘N Grind, Lui$ had won their previous two sets. That said, Zomba also beat Lui$ 2-1 at the first Riptide and could very well repeat that win at the second iteration.
https://twitter.com/SalvatoreZomba/status/1564025354968305664
Even with more than 300 fewer entrants, the Melee Singles bracket at Riptide 2022 will be more stacked than its Ultimate counterpart. As the No. 1 seed, Shine 2022 champion Zain “Zain” Naghmi will look to earn back-to-back major victories for the second time this year.
Meanwhile, Justin “Plup” McGrath could be poised to win a major for the first time this year. Though he has been relatively inactive recently, his Riptide bracket is quite favorable. His projected path to grand finals requires beating Arjun “lloD” Malhotra, Zain and Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma; he has a combined 5-1 record against those three players at offline tournaments this year.
How to watch Riptide 2022
Riptide 2022’s tournament organizers have not yet announced this year’s broadcast line-up, although last year’s Smash brackets were streamed on Beyond the Summit’s Twitch channels. The tournament will begin at 10 a.m. ET on Friday with Doubles pools for Ultimate and Rivals of Aether.
The first open-bracket Splatoon 3 LAN will kick off with pools at noon on Friday, and Rivals Doubles top eight will take place at the same time. Then, pools for Rivals of Aether Workshop Doubles, Melee Doubles and Ultimate Squad Strike will start at 2 p.m., along with top 24 of Ultimate Doubles. The final stretch of Day 1 will begin at 6 p.m., with Ultimate Squad Strike top 48, Melee Doubles top 16, Splatoon 3 finals and Rivals Workshop Doubles top eight all happening at this time.
On Saturday, Splatoon 2 pools and Rivals Singles pools will start at 10 a.m., followed by Ultimate and Melee Singles pools at noon. Phase two pools for Ultimate and Melee will begin at 2 p.m. and the Splatoon 2 redemption brackets will kick off at 4 p.m. Finally, Rivals top 32 will happen starting at 6 p.m.
Championship Sunday will kick off with Melee top 32 and Splatoon 2 Bronze Swiss pools at 10 a.m. Then, Ultimate top 48 will begin at 11 a.m. The top eight schedule for each of the main events is as follows:
- Splatoon 2: 12:40-7:20 p.m.
- Rivals of Aether: 2-5 p.m.
- Melee: 5-9 p.m.
- Ultimate: 6-10 p.m.
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