Smash Ultimate players in the west have taken notice of a ladder-style competitive mode — possibly called “Raging Battle” — that’s exclusive to Japan.
As reported by Dexerto, the mode features a series of qualifier matches, a leaderboard system, and a finals competition with the top-ten ranked players battling it out for ultimate bragging rights.
“Japan have [a ranked] mode?” said Samsora, a competitive Peach player from South Florida, in all caps.
“Nintendo does it again,” Swedish Smash pro Leffen remarked.
“It’s an online tournament sponsored by Nintendo,” said games historian and podcaster PushDustIn, “so there’s a chance we could see it in the U.S. someday.”
There’s an entire section of the Japanese SmashBros.com website devoted to the tournament mode, but it doesn’t appear that anybody’s managed to properly translate it yet.
Will the west ever get ranked play in online Smash? Only time will tell.