The time has finally come. The Ice Climbers are finally re-emerging as a threat in the Super Smash Bros. meta. The ICs have always been dangerous- in Melee and Brawl, they were a character that could land an infinite combo off of basically any grab.
But despite their incredibly powerful grabs and Smash attacks, the ICs are a specialist character. Very few people play them, and even fewer play them at a high level. Believe it or not, in over twenty years of competitive play, the Melee ICs have only one major win: Pound 2, where ChuDat defeated Mew2King. The Brawl ICs had more success, but it came towards the end of the game when players discovered them as a hard counter to Metaknight.
The ICs skipped Smash 4 all together due to the technical limitations of the 3DS, and meanwhile in Melee, the great ICs players all retired. There were years where the ICs went unrepresented at the highest level of play.
That drought seems to be over. Slug has now made top 8 at multiple majors, and defeated opponents like Mang0, Leffen and other top players. And with the ICs returning to Ultimate, BigD has shown that the Ultimate version of the Ice Climbers can compete at the highest levels as well. As an ICs main, I’m super excited to see my character doing well again. My next post will analyze exactly what makes the ICs so scary, and why it took me so long to realize it/.
