Wombo Combo: A term we hear a lot in Dota 2 and League of Legends matches. A term used to describe a team stomping the hell out of a single opponent with zero hope of escape.
The term made it into popular gaming culture and is usually accompanied by "Where you at?", "Happy feet!", "That ain't Falco" and "Get yo' ass whooped". But what’s the story behind it? Let’s delve into the glorious past of esports casting.
Wombo Combo: The origins
The Date is December 6th, 2008. On a chilly morning in San Bernardino, California SCSA West Coast Circuit #1 tournament was taking place. It featured singles and doubles events for Melee and Brawl.
That is when the first “Wombo Combo” of the world took place. At least the version that we now know of. Now under normal circumstances, The term "Wombo Combo" originally referred to either a combo of Fox's Shine into upsmash, or any other impressive team combo.
But after what took place between SilentSpectre, Tang and Zhu the phrase's sense shifted to an impressive team combo that includes Fox's Shine into upsmash.
Wombo Combo is also a type of pizza that’s served at the tournaments. The plot thickens right?
Now onto the real Wombo Combo: Wombo Combo was a combo done during a Doubles game at a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament. It featured two teams: SilentSpectre and Tang against Zhu and Lucky.
It was an epic moment for its time; SilentSpectre eliminated Lucky and then with Tang they proceeded to pull off an epic combo that seems like it’s almost choreographed. But it wasn’t.
The official narrative:
Now watch this epic moment from melee and esports history:
The official description of events took place like this, according to video footage and trusted eyewitnesses:
SilentSpectre hits him, then throws him down, while Tang upsmashes Zhu back into the Captain Falcon's grasp. He goes to a shine to upsmash combo. Zhu manages to DI, but his character dies after SilentSpectre's final Knee.
Just before the combo the commentators start saying "poor Zhu", "Happy Feet?" and "that ain't Falco!" as a reference to Zhu's Falco combo videos on youtube: Happy Feet.
They then start yelling as the combo unfolds, with HomeMadeWaffles shouting "Where you at?" several times into the mic.
Why is this so important?
Well considering this scene almost didn’t happen: Zhu in an interview with him after so many years confessed that he was about to press the start button on his controller and rage quit the game. Effectively conceding defeat and in his words: “f**** up their combo”. We may have lived on an alternative timeline with no popular terms for a superb team combo.
Just like the Leeroy Jenkins incident of 2005 that identified with going full in without a plan against an opponent or an NPC, Wombo Combo now identifies with a superb team combo , the original video racked up 14 million views on Youtube.
So when you hear the term Wombo Combo being thrown about in an esports game it means that a team is smashing a single opponent to pieces in a fashionable manner.
Bonus ending
Now here’s a bonus short documentary to what happened to Zhu, the legendary melee player who was on the receiving end of the combo, and thankfully didn’t rage quit. Because it would’ve meant that he’d be the biggest rage quitter of all time. Period.
It was in the golden years -for me at least- of esports that casting was about shouting, cursing, swearing into the mic and watching tournaments meant watching 480p youtube clips of what happened whilst effectively damaging your eyesight.
It was such a chaotic and funny moment that feels more like a LAN party in your friend’s house instead of an esports event when we compare it to how professional the scene has become nowadays.
And that is the story of Wombo Combo ladies and gentlemen.
The heart of the Luckbox team beats for esports. If you are an avid esports fan like us and enjoy reading more about eports history, visit Luckbox for the latest esports news and encounters, watch your favourite teams and bet on them.
