The Japanese platform Smashmate, which hosts competitive Super Smash Bros. matches, will end its operations on October 25, 2026, after 12 years of operation. The decision was announced on Friday (23) by coco, the service's creator and administrator, who said he could no longer balance maintaining the site with his professional responsibilities and security requirements.
Created in 2014 as a personal project, Smashmate became an important space for the Japanese competitive community. The platform allows organizing matches, tracking rankings, and participating in ranked competitions, in which players compete for points across seasons. The service also offers tournaments, casual matches, and tools for interaction among users.
In the statement, coco explained that changes in his routine gradually reduced the time available to develop and administer the site. At the same time, the need to respond quickly to vulnerabilities made operating it alone more difficult.
The administrator specifically mentioned the PHP2SHELL vulnerability, which gained prominence on October 21. According to him, the issue had already been fixed in Smashmate, but new incidents could require an emergency response that he could not guarantee.
Given these conditions, he said he had concluded that it would not be possible to continue administering the service with the necessary responsibility. “I decided to end the service”, he wrote.
User data will become inaccessible after the shutdown
The 36th season of ranked matches ends on October 24 at 23:00, Japan time. The final shutdown will take place the following day, October 25 at 23:59, when all pages will no longer be published.
Starting October 26, users will no longer be able to access their histories and other information available on the site. The administrator recommends that each person save the data they wish to preserve before the shutdown.
Coco also clarified that other developers will be able to create similar platforms, as long as they do not use the Smashmate name or its visual identity, avoiding confusion about responsibility for the new service.
In his farewell, he thanked the community that allowed a project started as a hobby to remain active for more than a decade.
