An incredibly unlucky Super Smash Bros. Melee player has lost a tournament, and a prize pot of over $2000 to boot, by succumbing to an incredibly badly timed glitch in the final round…of the final match. No, this is not a movie.
As seen over on YouTube (thank you, VGC), the deciding match of the ‘Full House 2025’ tournament in Pennsylvania, USA, ended up being all kinds of unexpectedly exciting when Canadian player Moky decided to get a little bit too tricksy for his own good whilst 2-0 down to America’s Cody Schwab on the game’s Pokémon Stadium stage.
With a deficit to make up (the rules are first to three), Moky decided to employ a pro strategy in Smash Bros. Melee known as ‘Wavedashing’, a high-level technique/physics engine exploit performed by air-dodging diagonally down into the ground.
All good. However, as Moky takes to a tree on the left of the arena (as shown in pro Smash player Hungrybox’s time-stamped video above) and begins to employ Wavedash, he vanishes through the tree and out of the stage to his doom, handing the winning point — and a delicious pile of dollars — to a very surprised-looking Schwab.
The glitch that occurred is actually a well-known one related to the Pokémon Stadium arena, and these pro players know all too well about it, which of course has led some on Reddit to accuse Moky of having done it on purpose at 2-0 down, which Moky denies. (Language warning on that link!)
Whatever the case, and judging by the video itself, the incident certainly surprised his opponent, and gathered onlookers, and we can’t help feel a little bad watching Moky’s expression change as he realises all of that sweet moolah is sailing away on the good ship ‘Never Get Fancy When It’s Business Time’ (not a real boat). Unless he did mean it.
Of course, Super Smash Bros Melee has a whole bunch of weird glitches and bugs that players know about at this stage, some 24 years since its first release. There’s the likes of the ‘Ice Climbers Wobbling Glitch’, which has been banned in tournaments. There’s also the much darker sounding ‘Black Hole Glitch’, which…well…it makes a black hole in the stage you’re on, if you shoot the Super Scope in a certain coordinated way with other players.
How on earth do people find this stuff out?
Can you remember seeing any recent gaming footage that showed an incident this unlucky? Do you reckon Moky did it on purpose? Make sure to let us know!
