[SPOILERS]: The Smash 4 Leak thread.

What Happened:

—Roger tweeted first, late on Oct. 5, that he received "exciting Nintendo news." He later elaborated that the news was "an 8-9 on a hype scale," "would be coming in the next two weeks," and "we'd know when we see it." He does not mention Smash, but never says it is not Smash-related.

—Stealth tweets later the next morning, saying he knows the next Smash character, that it's coming "soon," clarified as "next two weeks" as well. He says this is a Nintendo newcomer that he doesn't think "won the ballot," but is "the character who makes a whole lot of sense for a whole lot of reasons." He elaborates that this character is "a big deal," is not "a clone or a disappointment" or "shocking." He refuses to comment on the character's gender.

—Stealth made tweets saying "If the character were Shantae, Shovel Knight or Wolf, I'd have hung myself by now," as well as that "the character would have eventually made it into Smash." He later deleted both comments.

—The same afternoon, The Real Zef comments that "Smash is about to make social media go insane" and to "get hype because everyone's about to be happy." He comments that "he hopes it doesn't leak so people can go insane," and that "Stealth isn't the only one who knows about this." He says that "he doesn't think this character won the ballot," but rather than because of the character's identity, he says it's because "otherwise they wouldn't be ready just two weeks after it closed."

—Before clamming up, Zef clarifies that "he doesn't think it can leak unless the person with the info decides to spill" and that all he can say on the matter is "connections with connections." Of note, another guy, Aversy_Tweets, says "he knows and knows Roger knows," but is confident the latter will keep quiet.

—Later still, Roger gets exasperated with fanatics harassing him on Twitter just because of him saying "Cool Nintendo news in two or so weeks," saying "It's cool news, mind you, but the hype drought has made people crazy."

—He makes a facetious post saying "OMG ROGER KNOWS ALL BALLOT WINNERS AND ISN'T TELLING," saying that if he did, that would be a 10/10 for hype. In the process, he favorites a bunch of stuff from Stealth and Zef, who are also laughing at the fan overreaction online.

—All the while, head Smashboards mod Warchamp is making posts to Roger and Stealth, making fun of the fanatics. His jokes are mostly Inkling-related..."HE SAID DROUGHT, DROUGHT = NO WATER, WATER = INKLINGS!"

The Participants:

—Roger worked at Nintendo years ago and runs the Japan Time podcast. He has had his roots in the gaming industry for a long time now, and has undoubtedly made a handful of connections along the way. I've only seen a few of his videos, but Roger is a big fan of Lanky Kong (passively supports "DK Rep" getting in the game), and people have been saying he's a big Inklings fan too (which I haven't heard a source for, but can buy).

—Stealth is a "Video Game Enthusiast" who has made legitimate statements before, about occurrences at a private Splatoon event he got to attend with other big game media names. I don't have the source in front of me, but apparently he spilled that there would be a surprise Nintendo Direct early last April, which there was despite no expectation of one. He has trolled Game FA Qs before under the name of RP Grinder, and has posted on Twitter that he voted for "K. Rool, Inklings, Isaac, Malo and Andy."

—I have no idea who this Zef guy is. He has tweeted that "he has never trolled about Smash before if it makes people feel better," but has no credibility to his name that I know of. No idea who he supports

—No idea about this Averys_Tweets guy.

—Warchamp was one of the first people to have access to the ESRB leaked videos before they went viral.

The Bull****:

—LOL ROGER SED IT WUZNT BOUT SMASH: False. He said nothing one way or the other, other than that "the news wasn't Skull Kid getting revealed for HW." Gullible people fell into the trap of Poe's Law in reading his tweet about the Smash fanatics who expect him to be omnipotent where the Smash ballot is concerned.

—LOL STEALTH PIGGIE BAKKED ROGER AND IZ JUST A RANDO TROLL: It is true that Stealth's tweets came after Roger's initial ones about having 8-9 hype-scale news. However, not only were Roger's tweets not some big thing to piggyback off of at the time (this only really blew up after I posted about it in here), but Roger and Stealth seem to be on friendly terms, openly talking about Japan Time and TV Shows on the social network, as well as favoriting each other's stuff. Whether you question his credibility, Stealth is not just some random guy.

—LOL STEALTH HATES K. ROOL SO NO CHANCE IS THIS HIM: False. Stealth said he voted for K. Rool, has defended his costume on Game FA Qs and has said that "K. Rool and Isaac are needed to save Smash DLC."

Other Stuff:

—I don't know whether he's trolling here or has changed his opinion since then, but in a thread asking if a list of 5 characters including K. Rool were Top 5 Most Wanted, he said no to all except Isaac. If he's serious, then K. Rool isn't ruled out in his mind by the "this character probably didn't win." None of the tweets I've found from him thus far clarify whether he feels K. Rool is a character who would "eventually get into Smash."

—Warchamp's joking about the Inklings makes me think...if he and all these guys have legitimate info and he's just casually throwing that name around, it's not them. If he were doing this and Inklings was the character, the Nintendo Ninjas would be on him like white on rice.

Will add onto this later if more stuff comes up. I think it's pretty comprehensive as it stands, and I hope it gives people the clarity they need to not run around making s*** up