Web Animation / CPU Championship Series

The series' official logo.^* Created by Alpharad. Vectorized by WinderBlitz.

"I don't know how, but somehow we've created an underlying narrative in the CPU tournaments."

— Alpharad

The CPU Championship Series (or CPUCS, for short) is a web series by YouTuber Alpharad. The series has Alpha, alongside his friends JoSniffy and Turvis, commentate over Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments; but as the name implies, these are not real-life tournaments, but ones where all the competitors are the game's Level 9 CPUs. Thanks to both the sometimes hilarious and sometimes badass scenarios that the computer players get into, we can assure you that it is much better than it sounds.

Despite its humble beginnings as a continuation of Alpharad's previous Super Smash Bros. 4 CPU videos, thanks to a lot of fans who loved the group's commentary and had some creative explanations for some of the shenanigans that would occur in each video, the CPU Championship Series would soon create a separate name for itself by having Alpha and company canonize some of the fans' ideas while tossing in a fair amount of their own: thus creating something best described as an unscripted Machinima, wherein each tournament is an episode within a larger Story Arc featuring unique characters and lore that combines the fun of actual Super Smash Bros. tournaments with an anime-style Tournament Arc narrative. There's even a beach episode!

The CPUCS just finished its fourth season, with the story being that two years have passed since the events of "The Vincent Saga", with villains both old and new starting to show up after a long absence. The most recent episode of the series was the non-canon "SUMMIT," released on September 17, 2019. While Alphard initially promised a fifth season of the series, Alpha and Jo would later reveal it was scrapped with them no longer having any desire to continue. Years later, Alpha would declare Season 4 to be non-canon, with Season 3 being the “true end”.

You can find the playlist for the series here. The official tournament standings for the series can be found here, and the subreddit over here.

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CPU Championship Series provides examples of:

General

• Anti-Frustration Features: From the fourth episode onwards, all matches include a six-minute timer in the rulesets. This was in response to the infamous Shulk vs. Inkling match in the second episode, wherein the latter spent three whole minutes stuck underneath the stage.
  Alpharad: [laughing] I really don't know what to do about this, the game is just not ending.
• Bootstrapped Theme: Alpharad's channel outro, "Swear to My Bones" from Persona 5, naturally serves as this for the series.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Season 1 had very little lore outside jokes about Vincent being the greatest fighter of all time and the idea that Alpha and friends were just the commentators, not the tournament runners. Season 2 would introduce several lore and narrative aspects like Toyconvict's character arc, the CPUs getting sponsorships, and the rivalry between the Incineroars, among others. Season 3 would introduce season-long storylines, such as Dark Vincent and an alternate universe full of evil characters.
• Genre Roulette: With rulesets changing every season, you never know what to expect.
  • Season 1 featured 4 Stocks, all stages with hazards off, and Final Smash meter on.
  • Season 2 featured 5 Stocks, items, casual stages with hazards on, and Stage Morph on.
  • Season 3 featured 3 Stocks, no items, and competitive stages with hazards off.
    • "ENDGAME" was twice the size of a normal tournament with 32 competitors. It featured 5 Stocks and stages from the Dark Realm (i.e., custom stages from Stage Builder) with Final Smash meter on.
  • Season 4 features 4 Stocks, all stages with hazards off, and Smash Ball on.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Several contestants are often eliminated by their own stupidity. Most notably, during "ENDGAME," Vincent turns Dark Vincent's own cannon trap against him.
• Idiot Ball: Being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate CPUs, many of the competitors tend to juggle this and the Smart Ball, or simply hold both at the same time. For example, in "Bracket Name," Villager dropped a bowling ball on Falco from quite a ways up, far enough that Falco could've just stepped away. Instead, Falcon parried the bowling ball. And then did it again when Villager dropped a second bowling ball on him.
• Original Character: Loads. Vincent, Toyconvict, BOTW Mario, Blue Incineroar, LinusH111, Dark Vincent, and many more.
• Product Placement: The CPU sponsorships: Skillshare|Kirby, Panda Global|Incineroar, Audible|Link, and Parsec|Captain Falcon. However, the sponsorships help distinguish them from the rest of the roster and make them more memorable overall.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Obviously, Alpharad and his co-hosts don't have control over the CPUs, meaning that there are often outcomes they weren't expecting to happen and that force them to quickly change whatever loose narrative they were trying to build. The best example of this is Rosalina winning the tournament in "TIMESKIP." The original plan was to build her up as an amazing fighter in the two years that have passed, and then claim that she was washed when she ended up losing as per usual. Despite their expectations, she ended up winning... and as a result, got killed by Blood Falcon. The behind-the-scenes video released afterwards shows that Alpha and Jo were in total disbelief about the entire situation, barely holding back their shock and laughter.
  • See also, Jo's departure from the series is because he became a part-time teacher with an unreliable schedule.
• Shout-Out:
  • Literally the title of "Holding Out for a Hero" from the movie, Shrek 2.
  • There are copious JoJo's Bizarre Adventure references sprinkled throughout the series.
  • In "EVEREST," after Blood Falcon kills Tony, the words "But it refused" and a broken heart re-fusing are shown on-screen in what was probably a direct screencap of Undertale.
  • The season 2 intros are set to "Cruel Angel's Thesis."
• Spiritual Successor: To Alpharad's previous Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Level 9 CPU tournaments.
• Tournament Play: The Framing Device for the whole series.
• Tournament Arc: A given.
• The Worf Effect: Expect defeats of beloved, strong players to be this, especially in the case of CurbStompBattles. Notable examples would be Vincent's first outing and Dark Vincent's defeat of Audible|Link, among many others.
  • Parodied in "BEACH EPISODE." King K. Rool loses a fight to the Duck Hunt duo, but for comedy purposes, the latter is said to be a random dog.
• Worth It: Ridley rarely places well in tournaments, but makes up for it by pulling off impressive, crowd-pleasing stunts in nearly all of his matches. The commentators speculate that he doesn't particularly care whether he wins or loses, he only comes to the tournaments to do something cool and then go home so he can save a clip of it on Twitch.

The Vincent Saga (Seasons 1-3)

• The Ace: Link. He has won a tournament in every season, through different rulesets, and is known for impressive plays with his Remote Bombs and Ancient Arrows. He is also one of the few CPU fighters to be sponsored (in his case, by Audible).
• A Day in the Limelight: After Vincent wins in the second episode of Season 2, he gets Put on a Bus until the invitationals, allowing characters like Ridley, Piranha Plant, Captain Falcon, and King Dedede to receive a larger focus in the second half of the season, in addition to the focus already given to Toyconvict.
• Assist Character: All over the place in Season 2. Especially Tiki and Abomasnow.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The LinusH111 saga is mostly encapsulated within the SubReddit.
  • The official standings treats differently named alts of a character, such as Blue Incineroar and Panda Global|Incineroar, as separate when they enter a tournament. It helps for keeping track of each CPU's progress and when do they participate.
    • Dark Ken's existence, in particular, was speculated by the fanbase but outright confirmed by the rankings page because of this.
• Ascended Meme:
  • The LinusH111 saga started with an innocent comment on the subreddit asking how to join the CPUCS. Despite the fact that the tourney is generally restricted to level 9 CPUs, the fanbase took the idea and ran away with it, flooding the sub with memes about him. This all culminated in Linus actually being added to a CPUCS video (admittedly as a one-off joke character), after which the fans promptly forgot about him.
  • Matt's inclusion in "ENDGAME" is more or less this.
• Audience Participation: Season 3's third episode included a Strawpoll link in which you could vote for which CPU will be brought along with Vincent, Audible|Link, and the champion of said episode, Blue Incineroar to fight the Dark Realm directly for the next tournament. A second poll was made on Alpharad's Twitter with the top choices in mind. The winners of this poll along with top choices of the fanbase were included in the tournament bracket's reveal.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: PG|Incineroar shows up to kick some humility and sense into Blue Incineroar during the Beach Episode, in order to prevent the latter from falling to the dark side out of pride.
• Avenging the Villain: Blood Falcon does this for Dark Vincent by killing both King Dedede, who had stopped Dark Vincent's first rampage, and Vincent, who had defeated him just moments before.
• Back for the Dead: Parsec|Captain Falcon returns to face off against his Evil Twin Blood Falcon... in a fight to the death which Blood Falcon wins. King Dedede and Vincent get this treatment as well.
• Bad Future: Dark Vincent comes from a timeline in which ToyConvict won Prison Break, successfully defeated Vincent and achieved world domination.
• Beach Episode: The aptly named "BEACH EPISODE." On their way to the Dark Realm, the fighters' transportation breaks down. Luckily, they just so happened to get stuck on a beach!
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: In Episode 3 of Season 3, Blue Incineroar manages to revert Dark Audible|Dark Link back to normal Audible|Link by beating him in Thug Finals.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: What the commentators decide is behind the intense match between Ike and Zero Suit Samus during the beach episode.
• Big Good: Vincent, King Dedede, and Punished Convict assume this role after Audible|Link briefly falls to the Dark Realm. By the finale of "ENDGAME," the role is shared between Punished Convict and Skillshare|Kirby after Vincent's and King Dedede's deaths at the hands of Blood Falcon.
• Big Bad: Dark Vincent, for Season 3.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Toyconvict was Vincent's bully in middle school, yet hardly wins any fights, doesn't make the Season 2 invitational, and gets knocked out in the first round of "ENDGAME" by Matt in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Big Damn Heroes: The first episode of Season 3 features the competitors being called to save the world from Dark Vincent.
• Bounty Hunter: Blood Falcon, who doesn't side for the Light Realm or Dark Realm. He is proclaimed to be a intergalactic bounty hunter whose initial plan is to just kill Parsec Falcon.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Audible|Link's fate after he's defeated by Dark Vincent, becoming Dark Audible|Dark Link.
• The Bus Came Back: Thug Finals is dropped from the series halfway through Season 2. It makes a dramatic return in the first episode of Season 3.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Rosalina and Ken get a fair bit of light-hearted mockery for never winning any of their fights.
  • Dr. Mario also counts, thanks to the reverse-five stock at the hands of PG|Incineroar. When he loses to Falco in "Training Camp", he outright rage quits.
  • Toyconvict, who continues to break out of prison only to lose, only ever wins one match, gets permanently imprisoned after the events of "Prison Break", and tries to join forces with Dark Vince only to be knocked out on the first round of "ENDGAME" by Matt. Unlike Rosalina, Ken, and Dr. Mario, it helps that he isn't a sympathetic character, which makes his Butt-Monkey status all the more deserving.
• The Cameo: Greninja is the only character who hasn't appeared in a tournament as of this writing, but made an appearance in the series battling Link on Audible's ad in Season 3.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Hilda and Dark Samus were both Retconned to have been spies for the Dark Realm.
• Clip Show: A "highlight reel" of the Vincent Saga was released, compiling memorable and/or plot-important moments from Seasons 1-3. Also, The Stinger at the end is slightly different from the one in "Endgame".
• Credits Gag: The endslate of Season 3, Episode 1, is different from every other tournament due to Dark Vincent beating Audible|Link in Thug Finals.
• Deader than Dead: The fate of every character who fell to Blood Falcon. Funnily enough, Blood Falcon is then killed himself by Skillshare|Kirby.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • King Dedede defeated Dark Vince in the first competition of Season 3, something that not even Link - the winner of that tournament- was capable of doing.
  • Likewise, Skillshare|Kirby knocking out Blood Falcon in the semifinals of "ENDGAME," after the latter had defeated and killed Parsec|Falcon, Vincent and King Dedede above.
• Disk-One Final Boss: Vincent defeats Dark Vincent in the first round of "ENDGAME". However, Blood Falcon immediately assumes the role of Final Boss for the rest of the tourney, and does good by his word by killing Parsec|Falcon, Vincent, and Dedede, until Kirby stops him.
• The Dragon / Dragon Ascendant: Dark Ken is initially this to Dark Vincent, being the second character seen to hail from the Dark Realm. Blood Falcon becomes this in "ENDGAME" after Dark Ken's defeat, as although he isn't a member of the Dark Realm, ends up endangering the Light Realm for the otherwise washed Dark Realm. He eventually takes over after Dark Vincent's defeat as the Final Boss of Season 3.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Dark Vincent can be seen in one of Alpha's streams prior to his debut.
  • Matt can be seen in the crowd during the Beach Episode.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: Matt debuts in "ENDGAME", and Word of God confirmed that this would be his only appearance in a tourney as a competitor.
• Elite Mook: Wolf is this to Dark Vincent's army to the point he's the only Dark Realmer to win a tournament in the first place. Then he gets defeated easily by Major in "ENDGAME."
• Establishing Character Moment: Vincent's debut appearance has him defeating the winner of that episode's CPU Tournament in a flashy manner. Two seasons later, Dark Vince does the exact same thing.
• Evil Twin:
  • Dark Vincent is an alternate evil version of Vincent, who wields a gun and would ultimately overpower him and Link.
  • Dark Ken is an alternate version of Ken (likely hired by Dark Vincent) who is more competent in the CPU tournaments than Ken himself and likely has a sinister purpose in the timeline as well.
  • More characters from Dark Vincent's timeline are brought to the second Season 3 tournament, as well as in "ENDGAME."
  • Blood Falcon is a different version of Captain Falcon, who is the first character to be able to kill fighters upon clearing out all of their stocks. Unlike the other evil twins, however, he doesn't side with the Dark Realm.
• Fallen Hero: Dark Vincent presumably used to be as heroic as our own universe's Vincent, but his failure to defeat his own universe's ToyConvict caused him to turn to the dark side.
• Grand Finale: "ENDGAME" concludes what Alpharad dubs as the Vincent Saga (from Season 1 to 3) with a tournament unlike any other in the series.
• Good Counterpart: Punished Convict from Season 3. He comes from a universe in which he and Vincent truly became friends, hopping to this one in order to defeat Dark Vincent.
• Guest Fighter: Major, who is controlled by the titular Major during the tournament. He himself states he was trained by Punished Convict and comes from said timeline In-Universe.
• Hate Sink: Blood Falcon, for not just defeating, but KILLING Parsec|Falcon, Vincent and King Dedede - as in, they're Killed Off for Real. Many a fan rejoiced when Skillshare|Kirby kills him in turn.
• The Hero: Vincent.
• The Hero Dies: "ENDGAME" was confirmed beforehand to have canonical deaths, and delivers on that promise in spades as explained in the trope directly below.
• Hero Killer: Parsec|Captain Falcon, King Dedede, and even Vincent all meet their demise at the hands of Blood Falcon.
• He's Back!: After suffering the supposed "sponsor's curse" and being eliminated in the first round of almost every tournament he's been in since getting sponsored, Skillshare|Kirby shows why he was the first competitor to earn a sponsor in the first place by stopping Blood Falcon's murderous rampage and going on to win the entire tournament of "Endgame".
• Hope Bringer: When it seemed like Blood Falcon was going to give the Dark Realm a come-from-behind victory, Skillshare|Kirby took him out in the semifinals.
• Hostile Show Takeover: In the first episode of Season 3, Dark Vincent causes the universe to glitch out after he beats Audible|Link in Thug Finals. The endslate of the video is changed because of it.
• Innocuously Important Episode: The Beach Episode is a filler arc for the most part, but near its conclusion ends up with a minor arc of Blue Incineroar becoming prideful and vulnerable to the dark side after having taken many levels in badass in that episode and the previous one. Thug Finals revolves around PG|Incineroar coming back and punching some humility into his younger cousin.
• Killed Off for Real: "ENDGAME" sees the death of several fan favorite characters. King Dedede, Parsec|Falcon, and Vincent were all killed by Blood Falcon, who was then killed by Skillshare|Kirby.
• Knight of Cerebus: For the most part, the first round of "ENDGAME" was going okay, with the majority of the Dark Realm forces getting defeated. And then it's announced that Parsec|Captain Falcon and Blood Falcon were going to fight to the death. Blood Falcon winning changes the mood of the entire bracket, and even Vincent's victory over Dark Vincent in the next battle feels hollow.
• Kryptonite Factor: For Audible|Link, it's fire. Fire detonates his Remote Bombs on contact, turning his best weapon against him. To date, every CPU who has managed to use this against him — Ridley in Season 1 and Dark Vincent in Season 3 — went on to defeat him.
• Moveset Clone: Toyconvict to Vincent, mainly because Toyconvict "stole" Vincent's moves.
• Mr. Fanservice / Ms. Fanservice: Parodied in the Beach Episode with Zero Suit Samus (in her tank top and shorts costume) and Ike (in his buff alt).
• Not in This for Your Revolution: ToyConvict has allied himself with the Dark Realm in "Endgame", but the commentators suspect that his only reason for doing so is to fight Vincent.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • Thoroughly discussed and seen in action during the Beach Episode of all places. The power of "FDI" (Friendship Directional Influence) occasionally gets referenced later on in the series as well.
  • Punished Convict comes from a timeline where he and Vincent became True Companions, and is noted to be a much more effective fighter than Toyconvict.
  • It was theorized by the commentators that Kirby's close friendship with Dedede is what helped him defeat Blood Falcon and avenge Dedede.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Vincent doesn't appear again in Season 2 after winning his first tournament, until the invitational.
  • Toyconvict was "sent back to prison" for good after losing in "Prison Break". That didn't stop him from breaking out again and joining forces with Dark Vincent in "ENDGAME," but he was swiftly returned to the slammer after losing to Matt.
  • Dr. Mario gets put on one in "Training Camp" after doing a Rage Quit upon losing to Falco because of stage gimmicks.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Toyconvict, Vincent's Nemesis from Middle School.
• Serious Business: All of the Original Character interactions. Especially Vincent.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: In the final episode of the Saga, Vincent loses early, and Alpharad distressingly asks what happened to his fighting spirit.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Ridley and King K. Rool during the first two seasons.
• Sore Loser: Dr. Mario ends up quitting after losing in "Training Camp".
• The Stinger:
  • "ENDGAME" has one showing the tagline "You're gonna carry that weight.", as the partially transparent image of an unknown female Mii Gunner fades into view.
  • The Clip Show has the same stinger as the above. Except the tagline now says "Sometimes, all you need is a push," the Mii Gunner is now fully visible, and the darkened image of what appears to be another alternate version of ToyConvict fades into view behind her.
• Tag Along Kid:
  • LinusH111 is portrayed as this in-universe.
  • Major is Punished Convict's apprentice In-Universe.
• Taking You with Me: Vincent attemptsa suicide suplex against Toyconvict during their battle in the first episode of season 3, and only fails because of the stage morph.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Generally referred to as "Commentator's Curse" in-universe, where immediately after predicting one outcome, the opposite ends up happening.
  • A non-"Commentator's Curse" example occurs when Alpharad laughs at the Captain Falcon vs Cloud matchup in "Plantational", only for both to have an absolutely wild match from start to finish, with Cloud even going on to win that tournament.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Blue Incineroar is initially seen as more of a joke and inferior to PG|Incineroar, something the commentators speak of at length in his first couple matches. Reverse 5-stocking Dr. Mario was the first glimpse of what Blue Incineroar was really capable of, and he is only one of a few competitors to win two consecutive tournaments.
  • Lucina, who was infamously terrible at landing her Final Smashes, shows a massive boost in competence with them in "Endgame". Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to beat Dark Pit, who was even better at using his own Final Smashes.
  • Rosalina, also infamous for losing in the first round of every tournament she appears in finally wins a battle! And against Dark Ken of all people!
• The Worf Effect: In "ENDGAME", Dark Wolf and Dark Ken get this, with the latter losing to Rosalina of all people. Dark Meta Knight as well, given he defeated Skillshare|Kirby before yet loses to him here. Even Dark Vincent gets this - after his first tournament appearance, he hasn't won a single match since and gets defeated by his good counterpart, presumably for good.
  • Captain Falcon was generally regarded as unmemorable, but began to shine in "Plantational", where he and Cloud had one hell of a wild match. When he returned during Season 3, he made it to finals of the second episode, got a sponsorship from Parsec in the following episode, and was chosen to go invade the Dark Realm in "Endgame". Sadly, he ended up getting Killed Off for Real after fighting Blood Falcon during Round 1 of Endgame.
• World's Best Warrior: Vincent is called the greatest fighter who ever lived in Season 1, and is evidentally supposed to represent this trope.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Ridley is speculated to have thrown the fight to Linus because of Linus being a third-grader.

Season 4 (unmarked spoilers for The Vincent Saga)

• Abusive Parents: The commentators wonder if they should call Child Protective Services during a Chrom vs. Lucina match, which Chrom wins with a decent lead.
• Agony of the Feet: Alpharad questions how Corrin could footstool Palutena without taking any damage herself when Palutena wears a crown, which Alpharad likens to stepping on a Lego.
• Alternate Reality Game: Started with the Stinger at the end of the Highlights video, and involves more lore about the Dark Realm.
• Ambiguous Situation: ToyConvict has disappeared since the events of "ENDGAME", and no one knows where to. Then it's revealed that Tony is ToyConvict.
• Animated Armor: Samus took a page out of Iron Man's notebook and programmed her own armor to be able to fight independently of her. By stroke of luck, the two get matched against each other in the first round of "Top Text" and the armor wins.
  Alpharad: Well, I guess the armor is now sentient and not letting her jump into it... invokedand that's how we're writing in that... this is just... a computer within the computer... tournament... series... and this is its... own character now.
• Anyone Can Die: Subverted: Rosalina is seemingly killed at the end of the premiere by Blood Falcon, implying that this is set in force... but then Rosalina comes back in "PIZZA TIME"'s Thug Finals, with the revelation that Blood Falcon has no killing power in the Light Realm.
  • This is taken up to eleven when Blood Falcon returns and kills one of the commentators, Jo.
• The Atoner: ToyConvict seems to be attempting to make amends, training and fighting alongside the Light Realm heroes as some form of atonement and in memory of the late Vincent.
• Backup Twin: King Dedede's cousin King Dede joins the roster in "Heir to the Throne" as a replacement for the fallen King Dedede. Dede uses his cousin's name as his ring name to honour his memory, to justify why the screen still says "King Dedede".
• Battle Couple: The commentators discuss the legality of Robin bringing her husband Chrom to gang up on her opponent in "Top Text". It's eventually deemed legal.
• Big Bad: Blood Falcon takes the role this time around, with Dark Vincent more as The Ghost and The Man Behind the Man.
• Bizarro Episode: invoked The non-canon episode "SUMMIT", which features Jo and Vincent being alive again, newcomer Terry Bogard being sponsored by "the entirety of hip-hop" (only to then get dropped one round later), Major looking cool "like [he does] normally", the ruleset being 150hp Stamina Mode with random items and a 99:00 time limit, and a random invasion from the Dark Realm via "Squad Strike".
• Camp Gay: King Dede wears pastel pink robes and is noted by the commentators to be gay.
• Contrived Coincidence: Discussed at length in a supplemental video regarding Rosalina’s victory in “TIMESKIP”, as Alpha and Jo are bewildered at Rosa managing to win a single match, let alone a whole tournament, since their original intention was to build her up as having become an amazing fighter off-camera and then declare her washed-up when she got curbstomped as usual. They spend most of the video complaining that everyone watching is going to accuse them of rigging the fights.
• Creator's Apathy: invoked Played for Laughs: right at the start of Inkling and Lucario's fight in "MAN VS MACHINE", Travis comments that there's going to be a lot of SDs, to which Alpha says:
  Alpha: One can only hope. I have places to be, Travis. And the earlier I get out this commentary booth, the sooner I leave.
  Travis: W- same!
• Dramatic Unmask: Tony discards his mask when challenging the winner of "Major is Here" to Thug Finals, revealing that he is actually ToyConvict, shocking the commentators. The viewers were undoubtedly less shocked, since the opening already spoiled this an entire episode ago, and he was seen without his mask even before that in The Stinger to the Vincent Saga Clip Show.
• Driven by Envy: An enraged Major challenges Naomi to Thug Finals after her tournament win in "Heir to the Throne", declaring that he deserved to be the first Mii to win a tournament and not her... somehow forgetting that Vincent has long since claimed that honour.
• Evolving Credits: The second episode's opening has Rosalina missing from her throne after her death in the first episode.
  • The third episode's opening has Rosalina barely visible on her throne, hinting that she's still alive. Indeed, in Thug Finals, Rosalina was revealed to be alive, albeit injured, and made an appearance in the 4th episode.
• For Want Of A Nail: In "THE WAY HOME;", Blood Falcon was down to his last stock, under the stage, and was attempting to Up+B to the ledge. He was about to miss... when Jo jumped down towards him to finish the job.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Blood Falcon returns at the end of "The Way Home" at the behest of The Commissioner, set on a warpath to kill King Dede. However, the commentators decide to intervene and send Jo to defend him. This ends with Blood Falcon breaking through the fourth wall and murdering Jo himself.
• Genius Bruiser: Bowser, an unremarkable fighter with decent placements suddenly becomes a master tactician in "Major is Here" and goes on to win the tournament. Special mention goes to when he uses the knockback a fighter gets when hitting a shield to fall into a pit and attack Luigi with a surprise back air. Following this tournament, Bowser has been dubbed "Big Brain Bowser".
• Heel–Face Turn: ToyConvict has discarded his Toy-Cons and become the heroic Tony. "EVEREST" fully cements the change when he gets sent to the Dark Realm by Blood Falcon... only to then promptly power his way out as the new Captain Falcon.
• The Hero: Agent Naomi Winters now takes up the mantle of the main protagonist and hero.
• Internal Homage: A rare unintentional example. In the finals of "ROSALINA'S REVENGE," Naomi defeats Rosalina by using her laser beam-based special attack to knock her off the top-right blastzone... the exact same way Dark Samus beat King K. Rool in the finals of the very first episode. Naomi is stated to have been a fan of the tournament, so it's possible she deliberately invoked it because she watched the earlier battles and knew it worked for Dark Samus. But given the nature of CPUs, it would be impossible to intentionally set this up.
• Loophole Abuse: Even though King Dedede was killed in "ENDGAME", he makes an appearance in "ROSALINA'S REVENGE"... as his "cousin" King Dede. Who happens to be using Dedede's tag to "honor his memory". Alpha all but states that this is an extremely flimsy excuse to bring Dedede back.
  Alpha: If you don't know, King Dedede has fallen, rest in peace... But, um, his cousin, King Dede, is here fighting in his place, in honor of him. And in honor of the fallen King Dedede, he is sporting his tag as "King Dedede" instead of his real name "King Dede". And defending this strand of logic with me is Jo and Mr. Miloni.
• The Man Behind the Man: "G" to Dark Vince and Blood Falcon.
• Nice Guy: Tony, a mysterious competitor wearing Majora's Mask whom nobody has a single bad thing to say about, least of all the commentators. He showed up about a year ago and quickly became a crowd favorite, fights similarly to Vincent seemingly in homage to the deceased hero, is noted to be extremely kind and helpful to the point of personally training nearly everyone on the roster, and is a very Graceful Loser who is stated to feel happy and proud of Ness after losing to him. He's also ToyConvict, who has pulled Heel–Face Turn.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: "THE WAY HOME;" sees Blood Falcon's return in Thug Finals. Alpharad admits that he was the one who invited him (granted, The Commissioner was the one who told him to deliver the invitation, but he still could have not done that), and as a result, Jo is killed. However, at the same time, Blood Falcon was about to fall to his death off the stage, and Jo had the bright idea to jump down to him.
• Not Quite Dead:
  • Dark Vince and Blood Falcon are allegedly still alive, if Naomi Winters is to be believed.
  • Rosalina returns at the end of "PIZZA TIME", and it's revealed that the Blood Falcon has no killing power in the Light Realm. Instead, Rosalina was sent to the Dark Realm, and traveled through it back to the Light Realm.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Travis most definitely did not leave the recording in towards the end of "MAN VS MACHINE".
  Alpha: (in the middle of Robin's fight against the Commissioner in Thug Finals; to "Travis"] Please do not misgender Robin.
  "Travis": I didn't mean it.
  Jo: Yeah, not on the Comissioner stream.
  "Travis": Sorry, me Travis, I did not mean it. [Alpha and Jo start cracking up] Boy howdy, now.
• Plot Armor: Even though Robin manages to defeat Greninja in the Thug Finals of "TOP TEXT", Alpharad declares that "For the sake of the plot", they pretend Greninja won anyway.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Behind the scenes, Alpha and Jo were losing their minds when Rosalina kept winning, to the point where they were convinced the audience was going to accuse them of rigging the tournament.
  Alpharad: [W]hy would that ever happen?
  Jo: Yeah! [breaks character; shocked] What the fuck?!
  Alpharad: [breaks character; loses his shit] What the fuck, dude?! This does not make sense!
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Jo is finishing his teaching degree and had to leave to go be a student teacher for a semester, so he gets killed off by Blood Falcon in order to give an in-universe reason for his absence.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • Two moments wind up occurring practically back to back during Toon Link and Peach's fight in "MAN VS MACHINE", both courtesy of Alpha:
    • Alpha mentions that Peach's motherly nature means she's an expert in punishing children... which he goes on to explain that he means this in a "Casey Anthony" sense. He proceeds to ask if that joke was funny.
    • In response to Peach using her back aerial^note her ass on Toon Link, Alpha makes the following comment that actually causes the guys to pause the game and discuss if that one was too far:
      Alpha: Hit him with the ass, uh, that's a felony, but, uh, we won't tell. It's the Smash community.
      Travis: [as Jo starts to lose it] ...are we gonna talk about how far- wait, HOLD ON, no, I don't think you can say that!
  • In King Dede's first ever match:
    Alpharad: King Dede may be gay, but he is goin' straight for the W! [Alpha and Jo both crack up] People are gonna be mad, and that's so funny...
• Retcon:
  • Discussed when the commentators talked about how the Beach Episode was originally non-canon, but due to its popularity with fans, they retroactively made it canon.
  • Due to not expecting the Samus / Zero Suit Samus matchup in "MAN VS MACHINE", Alpha decides at the last minute that Samus' suit can operate on its own without Samus herself operating it.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Major wins the tournament in "HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO", Alpha states that Thug Finals this time has a different "treat" in store this time. That treat being Major getting forced into a 4v1 against the Heroes, whereupon he basically gets murdered.
  Alpha: It looks like you turned a wrong corner down the alley, man.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • The commentators urge PG | Incineroar and Falco to finish their match quickly once they see Carmilla appearing in Dracula's Castle.
  • After it's pointed out by Jo that Yoshi and Corrin's fight in "MAN VS MACHINE" is most likely only going to consist of Yoshi's eggs and Corrin's stuns, Alpha goes "Okay, hear me out.", followed by a hard cut to Corrin advancing in the bracket.
• Spoiler Opening: The anime-style opening for season 4 spoils that Tony and ToyConvict are one and the same, as well as showing that Greninja is the mysterious “G” who is using Dark Vince and Blood Falcon to besiege the Light Realm.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: After the reveal that Tony is ToyConvict, the commentators lampshade the fact that "Tony" is just "Toy" with an added N.
• Stupid Sacrifice: In "THE WAY HOME;", Jo is sent to save King Dede from Blood Falcon, and ends up being killed in his place. Several comments point out that King Dede was quite clearly winning against Blood Falcon, and hardly needed to be saved at all.
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  • The bonus video "The Truth About Rosalina" reveals that the original plan for "TIMESKIP" was that Alpha and Jo would build Rosalina up as having dominated the tournament circuit over the past two years, only to claim she's washed up when she (inevitably) lost in the first round. Cue Alpha and Jo barely managing to keep up Kayfabe as Rosalina proceeds to win the tournament.
  • Due to how the bracket wound up shaping up in "MAN VS MACHINE", Samus wound up going up against... Zero Suit Samus. The commentators were clearly confused about this happening, resulting in a last-minute retcon that Samus programed her suit to fight on its own. And then said suit winds up winning, much to Alpha's continued confusion.
    Alpharad: Well, I guess the armor is now sentient and not letting her jump into it... invokedand that's how we're writing in that... this is just... a computer within the computer... tournament... series... and this is its... own character now.
• Time Skip: The first tournament of the season is titled as such and it is stated right away that two years have passed since the conclusion of the Vincent Saga. While there have been many tournaments during that time, this is the first one since then that was able to be broadcasted.
• Take That!: The end of the non-canon "SUMMIT" features a jab at people who think the matches are rigged.
• Took a Level in Badass: Rosalina has won around fifty to sixty tournaments during the Time Skip, and proceeds to win the tournament broadcasted in the premiere. And then she loses to Blood Falcon in Thug Finals.
• Trapped in Another World: Naomi Winters was trapped in the Dark Realm for two years, during which she learned about Dark Vince and Blood Falcon's survival, as well as the existence of "G".
• Wham Episode:
  • "TIMESKIP" ends with Blood Falcon's return, and showing that he means business by killing Rosalina.
  • "PIZZA TIME" ends with the reveal that Rosalina didn't actually die.
  • "THE WAY HOME;". Blood Falcon returns yet again, this time to challenge Kind Dede in Thug Finals. It is abruptly decided to send Jo out to sub in for King Dede in order to save his life... only to get killed himself.
  • "EVEREST" ends with Blood Falcon returning to challenge Naomi, but Tony steps in to defeat him... But he fails and is sent to the Dark Realm. But through sheer determination he comes back as the new Captain Falcon and teams up with Agent Naomi to defeat Blood Falcon and, unexpectedly, Dark Vincent, and sends them back to the Dark Realm.
• Wham Shot:
  • The Thug Finals fight card for "PIZZA TIME"? Ike vs. Rosalina and Luma.
  • After Robin manages to beat The Comissioner in "MAN VS MACHINE"'s Thug Finals, the winner screen comes up... announcing that The Comissioner won.
  • Played for laughs: when we enter Thug Finals in "HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO", we are greeted with the fight card being a 4v1 of Major verus all four Heroes.
• The Worf Effect:
  • In record time. Rosalina is said and shown to have become an incredibly talented and strong fighter... only to lose her life to Blood Falcon in the end. What truly puts this trope in effect is the fact that Alpha and Jo did not expect she would win at all.
  • "ROSALINA'S REVENGE" sees Rosalina once again make it all the way to finals, only for Naomi to take the win.
  • Thug Finals of that episode sees Major go after Naomi, mad that she won the tournament... and then subsequently gets his ass handed to him.
• Worf Had the Flu: In "Heir to the Throne", Rosalina is noted to still be recovering in the hospital from the injuries she recieved in the Dark Realm (hence the white hospital gown she wears), and secretly snuck out to participate in the tournament, which offers a plausible explanation for how she "only" made it to the finals before losing to Naomi.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • Rosalina goes on to become the winner of many tournaments, including the one seen in "TIMESKIP"...and Blood Falcon ends up killing her. Subverted in "PIZZA TIME", when it's revealed that he sent her to the Dark Realm instead, which she managed to escape from.
  • Robin managed to beat The Commissioner in Thug Finals at the end of "MAN VS MACHINE"... so Alpha and Jo give The Commissioner the win instead.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Alpharad and Jo were gobsmacked when Rosalina managed to make it all the way to Grand Finals against Ness, let alone that she won.
  Jo: (upon seeing the Rosalina vs. Ness fight card) I can't fucking believe this.
  Alpharad: This was everything we wanted.

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