Central Smackdown
Central Smackdown is an online ARMS tournament series organized by a multitude of ARMS Central staff members including Dartremix, Serp, Asqew, Era, and LOSER among others. The series began in June of 2018, with the first installment being held for ARMS' first anniversary, and has had various iterations in subsequent years.
Format
Each iteration of Central Smackdown featured a double elimination bracket. In the initial three-tournament run, set communication occurred on start.gg as the site featured player-to-player communication. The ARMS Central Discord was utilized for general questions regarding the event. In the second iteration of the series however, the server was used for all set communications. This was due to the tournaments being run on Challonge, a site that lacked direct chat functionality. Specifically for Central Smackdown, a multitude of arena channels were created in ARMS Central to make tournament communication smoother there. The series consistently utilized a modified NA Backroom ruleset regardless of the tournament’s region of choice. When applicable, this included ARM restrictions to only permit Defaults.
Due to its size, the first event featured four pools that led into the top 8, where sets were best-of-five instead of best-of-three. Each event after the first was not large enough to warrant having a pools phase, although the second tournament did feature a best-of-five top 4. All other Central Smackdown events only had their Finals sets as best-of-five.
Original Run
Central Smackdown was created as a way to celebrate the first anniversary of ARMS and to hold a tournament directly in ARMS Central. The series was conceived by Dartremix with later assistance from other server staff including, but not necessarily limited to, 6tennis, Asqew, Serp, Dendy, Era, Linkable, Docshado, and KJam. It was originally intended to continue as a monthly event although that plan was abandoned.
| Central Smackdown | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | 2018-06-14 |
| Participants | 49 |
| Location | Online |
| Prize Pool | $65 total in Nintendo eShop cards |
| Winner | Twinedfive0 |
| Website | start.gg |
Central Smackdown
The first Central Smackdown was held on June 14th, 2018 and was open to all regions. It had two streams: one by Redingard with Mileve as his co-caster and another on the official ARMS Central Twitch channel casted by RiDEL and PoppyJr.
Results
| Placement | Player | Fighter(s) used |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Twinedfive0 | 
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| 2nd | nobi | 
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| 3rd | PineappleFreak | 
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| 4th | ailo | 
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| 5th | SirRosalina |
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| 5th | Dastardly | 
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| 7th | SlosherWailord | 
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| 7th | Linkable | 
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Central Smackdown 2 and 3
Following Asqew becoming the owner of ARMS Central in late February of 2019, discussions went underway to hold another Central Smackdown. Unlike the first event helmed by Dartremix, this one was primarily organized by Serp and Asqew while Dart maintained a background role assisting with the start.gg pages. Dendy and Era, both who later became ARMS Central owners, were fairly involved in the organization of these events too. Ocrim was brought onto the Central Smackdown team for the third event to help TO the EU Customs bracket.
The second and third Central Smackdown events were held throughout the Spring and Summer of 2019 and featured brackets divided by region (North America and Europe) and ARM restriction (Defaults and Customs). The EU-only Defaults bracket only occurred in the second installment due to the EU scene’s lack of interest in the format. Both of these Central Smackdowns were streamed exclusively on ARMS Central’s Twitch by a variety of casters including Mileve, Kholdstare, Jean Marc, Hamma, Tamashii Kanjou, Pawl S. Lax, and Stylo Ren.
Results
| Bracket | Date | Winner | Character(s) used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Smackdown 2 EU Defaults | April 26, 2019 | Raffa |
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| Central Smackdown 2 NA Defaults | April 26, 2019 | Twinedfive0 |
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| Central Smackdown 2 EU Customs | April 27, 2019 | Raffa |
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| Central Smackdown 2 NA Customs | April 27, 2019 | Asqew | 
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| Central Smackdown 3 NA Defaults | June 28, 2019 | Asqew |
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| Central Smackdown 3 EU Customs | June 29, 2019 | Yam |
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| Central Smackdown 3 NA Customs | June 29, 2019 | Asqew |
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Second Incarnation
In May of 2021, Era decided to stop running Temple Tantrum, due to entrant numbers being low, and debuted a new variation of Central Smackdown in its place.[1] Unlike the previous incarnation, Era chose to run the series as a biweekly. This new run was restricted to players in North America in order to maintain eligibility for the ARMS NA Online Power Ranking. Era streamed all of the Central Smackdowns that she organized aside from the fourth and sixth. The former was streamed by Gryffical while the latter had no stream at all. Era stopped running Central Smackdown events, alongside her other series, due to her retirement from ARMS in the Fall of 2021.
Results
| Bracket | Date | Winner | Character(s) used |
|---|---|---|---|
| NA Central Smackdown | May 28, 2021 | Twinedfive0 |
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| Central Smackdown 2 | June 11, 2021 | AstroNinja |
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| Central Smackdown 3 | July 9, 2021 | Woomy | 
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| Central Smackdown 4 | July 23, 2021 | Twinedfive0 |
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| Central Smackdown 5 | September 3, 2021 | Pringles |
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| Central Smackdown 6 | September 17, 2021 | Beamer | 
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Third Incarnation
During April 2025 discussions for festivities relating to ARMS' 8th anniversary, it was proposed to hold an event directly in ARMS Central’s Discord due to its role as a community hub. LOSER recounted the previous installments of Central Smackdown and immediately started work on a potential new one. Akin to other events overseen by him, Frosty would also assist with the tournament despite not being a member of ARMS Central’s staff. Realizing that all prior events enumerated to nine, this new Central Smackdown was denoted as 'X': the Roman numeral for ten.
| Central Smackdown X | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | 2025-06-21 |
| Participants | 16 |
| Location | Online |
| Prize Pool | $103 |
| Winner | AstroNinja |
| Website | Challonge |
Central Smackdown X
Central Smackdown X was held on June 21st, 2025 as part of the ARMS 8th Anniversary Triad.[2] Similarly to the first incarnation of the series, X returned to having the event open to all regions. It was originally planned to be streamed by Mileve, although those plans fell through. LOSER and Frosty ended up recording, albeit not streaming, the tournament’s Finals sets.
Results
| Placement | Player | Fighter(s) used |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | AstroNinja |
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| 2nd | Glyph |
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| 3rd | Pringles |
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| 4th | Roo |
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| 5th | Pr1nc3 | 
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| 5th | MrTable |
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| Central Smackdown X | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | 2026-06-19 |
| Participants | 16 |
| Location | Online |
| Prize Pool | N/A |
| Winner | AstroNinja |
| Website | Challonge |
Central Smackdown XI
Central Smackdown XI was held on June 19th, 2026 in celebration of the 9th anniversary of ARMS. Its ruleset was identical to X’s, including being open to all regions. The event was streamed by Virxz who commentated alongside AyaDarling.
Results
| Placement | Player | Fighter(s) used |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | AstroNinja | 
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| 2nd | Foxster |
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| 3rd | Yam |
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| 4th | SNG |
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| 5th | MrTable |
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| 5th | ALUMOX |
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Trivia
- With four wins, Twinedfive0 has the most Central Smackdown wins out of all eight unique victors.
- The original graphics for Central Smackdown were created by Neru and Serp.
- The logos for the second and third incarnation of the series were made by LOSER.
Gameplay Videos
Central Smackdown VOD playlist
