Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tourney at USG featured live orchestra

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community has been in awe ever since a full orchestra performed during a tournament over the weekend.

The Uzes Symphonic Gaming Festival in France took place from May 31st to June 1st, 2025. During the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Top 6, a live orchestra played a variety of songs inspired by the soundtrack of the fighting game. Shared clips from the Top 6 showed the music reflecting the stages being competed on.

The live orchestra at the USG Top 6 was a hit with the Smash community, with many feeling it raised the bar for Smash tournaments. It increased the intensity of the matches and made it feel all the more special.

Without Nintendo’s support, the Smash esports scene often feels somewhat neglected compared to other FGC titles that have been gaining traction in recent years. Even new title Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves announced a championship with $2.5m (~£1.8m) on the line. Meanwhile, the largely grassroots Smash scene is relying on prominent members like Ludwig Ahgren to increase the prize pool and pay for competitors to fly out to Supernova 2025 this summer.

While the orchestra made USG’s Top 6 intense, it would have been even without the extra help. The top players from all around the world flew to France to compete at USG, an A-tier tourney with a €8,000 (~$9,000) prize pool. The Top 6 featured Miya Honshu, one of the best players in the world and the best Mr. Game & Watch, Takuma ‘Tea’ Hirooka, who returned to Pac-Man for some incredibly high IQ matches, France’s own Gluttony playing Wario and Link, prodigy Edgar ‘Sparg0’ Valdez playing Piranha Plant and his usual Pyra & Mythra and Cloud combo and former top player Leonardo ‘MkLeo’ Perez back on Joker.

The Top 6 ended up being:

ShinyMark had an impressive showing with Pikachu, a top-tier fighter that’s difficult to master. Unfortunately, it was tough to keep up with his highly ranked opponents and he fell to Sparg0, who he’s had difficulty against in the past.

The highlight of the tournament, however, was the Grand Finals against two Japanese fighters Miya and Tea, who were both playing complex and high IQ characters. Watching them pull off wild, complicated moves that required a lot of setup and calculations made for a highly entertaining fight that showcased why these two players are some of the best in the world.

It was a tough battle for Tea, however, who was coming from the Losers side. He would have had to win two back-to-back best-of-fives to beat Miya — a tall order. The first Bo5 was extremely close, exchanging lives as Tea won two in a row, followed by Miya winning two to even the score.

Miya started playing even more aggressively at this point, chasing Tea down all over the stage. While Tea continued to set up complex traps for Miya, he wasn’t able to keep up and Miya took the victory.

This Top 6 showcased the incredible variety of viable fighters and strategies in top level Ultimate, keeping the hype alive. With no Steve in sight, it was a refreshing return to form for the exciting Smash scene.