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WARNING: LIKELY REAL, COMPLETE SMASH ROSTER LEAK AHEAD.
If you do not want spoilers, run now.
I will be posting the supposed leak in a Google Doc to avoid the preview showing up on Twitter, but the internet will have blown up by tomorrow anyways. You've been warned.
THREAD
LEAK REVIEW 23
It's 6 AM. I haven't slept. Sleep isn't top priority when we have a new Smash leak on our hands. Please bear with me as I try my best to competently write a review at this hour, and dig into why I think it's real. #SmashBroshttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1MwLzqJl0CUgpknn5Zg1g8hwi9kdo2_GhKMv_3b3j3Ng/edit?usp=sharing …
The origin of this leak is... strange. And it's what makes it so believable. It comes from a Snapchat story, of all things, showing us interal design documents from a company printing marketing materials/posters for retail.
It's laid out showing us a completed version of the "Everyone is Here" art, alongside instructions on how it is set up. With it are work papers, and... promotional art for The Grinch. The Smash art itself looks fine, nothing a faker couldn't do; but let's get into the details.
First of all, with the completed panorama art, it also comes with the empty background behind the fighters. To be faked, someone would not only have to draw the new characters and rearrange to fit them in; but completely recreate the background from scratch.
However, the new Smash art isn't all we see; we also see materials for The Grinch being printed out. And not just some movie posters, but actual new, unrevealed renders of the Grinch worked into Christmas-themed retail promos. You can't make this stuff up.
So already, we're talking about a leak containing new Smash art, new renders of the Grinch, and a complete grasp of what design documents used for retail promos look like; but here's where things get REALLY fun.
On the work papers, we see a scribbled out area. We now know that this is where the poster's name was... Because we can still read it.pic.twitter.com/0ZSdnTj020
Yeah. Eric Bricard miiiight want to lock his doors tonight, because, well. I don't think Nintendo's gonna be too happy with him. It didn't take long for a 4channer to find his LinkedIn page. It wasn't recently made as a fake, as it has real connections to others in his industry.pic.twitter.com/iyjUxywBLd
And oh boy, is a LinkedIn the worst possible page to have discovered after you just leaked NDA'd information. We also know where he works, now. ACP-PLV. And, what do you know. They're the guys who print out promotional material for a number of companies, including Bandai Namco.pic.twitter.com/aK8uwWNHgv
Of course, it's important to remember that this is the internet, and anything can be faked; but there's so many layers to this, that to me, it being faked simply isn't logical. Let's lay out everything this leak gives us: 1) Completely new/replicated art of Battlefield.
2) Art of several newcomers, with the roster rearranged seamlessly to fit them in. 3) New renders of The Grinch for promotional material, which would be released around the same time (late Nov., early Dec.). 4) Complete design documents and plans for promotional material.
5) A scribbled out, yet still readable (thanks technology!) name of a real person in this exact business, working at a company who makes prints for Bandai Namco. 6) All spread from a French Snapchat, which spread to a Discord server, then 4chan.
It's also worth noting that back in September, an apparently very angry "leaker" gave us a list of the very same characters. Take that as you will. https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/433406364/#433419980 …
With that aside, I think it's most likely that we can now remember as the night The Grinch Stole our Surprise, and revealed the entire Smash roster. Except instead of the Grinch, it's just some guy named Eric Bricard.
((A big thank you to @steveng86 for bringing this leak to my attention, the anonymous people on 4chan who were detectives before me, and my friends on Discord that helped me work through this. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go call in absent to my class and sleep.))
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