The following is an archived post from the Amiibo Dojo. It has been uploaded to the Exion Vault for referential purposes and retains its original publication date; some of the post’s links may not function currently or exist at all.
Hey guys! Clash of Champions has concluded, and I’m here with a tournament analysis. As you may very well know, I won this tournament with my Ness amiibo – not only is that my fourth tournament win, but that’s the second time I’ve won with Ness. I have a lot to talk about today, so sit back, grab some popcorn, and let’s get going!
Training a Champion
One year ago to the day (at the time of writing), my Ness amiibo arrived in the mail. I had pre-ordered it from GameStop a few months earlier – you know, when all of their servers were overloaded due to Wave 4 demand. Heh, good times… but anyway, when I did get him, I knew exactly what I’d name him – Super NES. I assigned him the nickname and proceeded to work almost exclusively on him for around 6 months.
Originally, he had no equipment and was trained to be aggressive and aerial. I didn’t know any better back then. But one of the things I did do right was give him experience against every character, on every stage – 5 minutes per character, and 6 minutes per stage. Yeah, it took a long time, but in the end, it was worth it – Ness was able to adapt to opponents very well as a result of this training.
Eventually, I decided to give him equipment and train him to be grounded. It turned out great, and to this day, Super NES has not only won two amiibo tournaments, but he’s also the logo of the Amiibo Dojo, if you haven’t noticed. While we’re talking about equipment, by the way, here are the tourney-winning stats and bonuses:
This is a very standard build – the Rock-Paper-Scissors setup. I talk about this bonus combination in literally all of my character guides, and that’s because it’s really good. Each bonus improves one aspect of your amiibo’s play, and, in the end, Super NES’ mastery of the set was a key factor in his double victory.
Tournament Trends, Entrants, & Notable Placements
The most notable “trend” (or at least, in my opinion, it was) was how similar this tournament was to Amiibo World Tournament 3. If you weren’t aware, that was the first tournament Ness ever won. Both AWT3 and CoC1 had exactly 42 entrants, and the grand finals were between Super NES and a Ganondorf (with the old man costume A.K.A. the palette swap with gray hair) on Midgar each time. Okay, so that isn’t really a “trend”, per se, but it’s still something else.
So, before we get started with actual tournament trends, there are two things I’d like you to see. First, I’ve created a spreadsheet that lists all of the characters entered into the tourney, and the stats and bonuses given to them by their trainers. You can find that here – just make sure to scroll down to the section that says Clash of Champions I (Ver. 1.1.6). Second, you can check out the full bracket by clicking right here.
Trends
So, tournament trends. We had four Mario, four Mewtwo, three Lucario, and three Captain Falcon. All of these characters are really good, but not quite top-tier. I was surprised and happy to see people choose to enter them. We also had plenty of underrepresented characters, such as Wii Fit Trainer, Zelda, Yoshi, and Mr. Game & Watch.
Clash of Champions I continues the “running gag” of people entering Roy (there were 2 this time around) and none of them getting any notable results. Hopefully that changes soon, but who knows, maybe he’s just a tough cookie to train. Furthermore, no Ness amiibo were entered except for mine – he’s really been on the decline lately as far as tournament entries go. Almost nobody enters him anymore! The same goes for Bowser – we didn’t get a single one in CoC0 or CoC1, which really surprised me. It’s also worth noting that almost every amiibo had the Rock-Paper-Scissors setup (with a few exceptions). It’s obvious that this is the go-to setup for many trainers, which is totally fine.
Notable Placements
Besides me placing first, there were quite a few interesting tournament placements. First and foremost, a Mr. Game & Watch got 3rd place, which is quite good for such an underrepresented character. This amiibo was submitted by a trainer named Jigglypuff. They did a really good job, because Mr. Game & Watch was able to defeat every single one of his opponents except for a Marth and later, a Ganondorf.
A Lucas amiibo also got 5th place, which is the best I think one has ever done. This one was trained by Zeno G, who emailed me out of nowhere one day and told me their amiibo was going to win and rise up the tier list. Well, they were right about the tier list part – Lucas is definitely going to move up in the next update. But still, 5th place is very good for a C-Rank amiibo. Or, at least, he’s C-Rank at the time of writing.
A Wii Fit Trainer amiibo got 7th place, which is really something else. She’s currently D Rank on the amiibo tier list, and 7th is literally the highest a Wii Fit Trainer has placed in any tournament to date. Her trainer, whose online handle is Unoriginal Username, has a knack for training underrepresented characters. He had a Luigi who placed 7th in CoC0, and won an Amiibomania (which is a series of tournaments held by someone else).
Let’s not forget about Noah, though. He’s my cousin, and the youngest person to ever enter an online amiibo tournament…at least, I think he is. When I saw him in real life one day, I asked him if he wanted to compete in the tournament, and he gave me his Level 23 Mario amiibo to submit. I accepted, knowing he’d lose, but he actually ended up defeating a Greninja amiibo. The Mario proceeded to lose to a Zelda and then a Toon Link, but that’s still a really good run for someone whose amiibo was not only Level 23, but had no influence from me at all.
In both of the Clash of Champions tourneys we’ve had so far, two trainers, namelesssseleman and Havok, both submitted Lucario amiibo and got Top 10. That in of itself is a pretty good placement, but to do that two tourneys in a row is pretty cool in my opinion.
So, if you don’t feel like looking at the bracket I linked earlier (or, if you don’t want to scroll up, click here), I have put together a quick list of the top 10 amiibo in the tournament.
- 1st: Amiibo Dojo (Ness)
- 2nd: Jesus McSwizzle (Ganondorf)
- 3rd: Jigglypuff (Mr. Game & Watch)
- 4th: MachineGunPriest (Marth)
- 5th: CrimsonZEXAL (Lucina)
- 5th: Zeno G (Lucas)
- 7th: Bysshe (Marth)
- 7th: Wii Fit Trainer (Unoriginal Username)
- 9th: Havok (Lucario)
- 9th: Antiness (Lucas)
- 9th: BlitzTachaano (Zelda)
- 9th: namelesssseleman (Lucario)
That’s more than 10, I know. And I’m also aware that two amiibo got 5th and 7th place, and that four got 9th. Due to the way the tournament is set up, these characters ended up tying for that spot, so this is a rough “top 10” list that contains 12 amiibo. Pretty confusing, huh?
The amiibo tier list, for the most part, was quite accurate here. Ness, Ganondorf, Marth, and Lucina are all ranked very favorably on it, and their performance in this tournament cements their placements. The surprisingly high placements of Mr. Game & Watch, Lucas, and Wii Fit Trainer will cause them to rise in the next update, which should be rolling out pretty soon.
The Grand Finale: Amiibo Dojo (Ness) vs. Jesus McSwizzle (Ganondorf)
Here’s what you’ve probably been waiting for: replays! Now, I don’t have streaming equipment, unfortunately. I just do not have the money for it. I used to have a Patreon and PayPal available to donate to, but I took them down due to technical difficulties, so I’m not sure when or if streaming tournaments will ever be a thing. But I did upload replays of the Grand Finals between Super NES and Jesus McSwizzle’s Ganondorf. Here’s Game 1 of 3:
This game was, quite frankly, a curbstomp. Super NES opened with a great combo – forward smash to PK Fire to side tilt to down smash. I don’t really teach my amiibo combos, this was just a natural thing that Super NES did himself. Ness did end up getting hurt a few times, but got the first KO with a well-timed Explosive perfect shield. After Ganondorf respawned, Ness proceeded to rack up the damage in a cool, collected manner, just like he always does. He ends up winning the game with another well-timed Explosive perfect shield. After this game, I thought I had this set in the bag.
But Ganondorf wasn’t having any of it. He brought his A game and completely demolished Super NES. Ganondorf attacked at just the right times, and it got to Ness really bad. He was killed by the king’s up smash, and then was one-hit KO’d by a powerful forward smash. This is when I began to lose hope a little bit – Super NES had literally never lost a tournament match ever prior to this set, which surprised me a lot.
The set ended with an intense Game 3. Both amiibo went all-out – they played defense, delivered heavy hits, and took turns blocking with explosive shields. Near the end of the match, the two both had well over 100%. Just when it looked like Super NES was about to lose, he knocked Ganondorf into the air, walked under him, and delivered a tournament-winning up smash.
Needless to say, while the end of Game 3 was clutch, that just made it that much more hype. I’m very satisfied with the results, and this tournament win has further cemented the methods I talk about here. I hope that, by reading this, a desire to train your amiibo is fueled, and you enter the next Clash of Champions on July 1st.
And hey, don’t forget about Kirby Week! From June 6th to June 10th, I’m going to be releasing Kirby-themed amiibo guides every day! Want more information? If so, head to this post right here. Until next time, guys! Train on!
