How does a silly frog become a symbol of the resilience of a competitive community thriving for two decades—despite everything?

The story starts in two places. Jas "Fizzi" Laferriere, a software developer, had created a Super Smash Bros. Melee modding package called Project Slippi. Named after Slippy, a frog from the Star Fox series, Slippi was at first primarily a technical tool that was relevant to tournament organizers.

At EndGameTV, we were the first North American group to use Slippi at a Melee event in February 2019. Slippi powered the ability to have saved replays of every tournament match, no matter where it was played in the venue, and the technology to present the main stream in high definition resolution.

This is when Fizzi reached out to Eirik at EndGameTV. He'd been using the Twemoji frog as a stand-in logo and finally wanted something more fit for purpose. Since it would be the icon for a computer program, we both recognized it would need to be legible at small sizes and that some level of geometric abstraction would be useful. The original concept, along with some throwaway wordmarks, came together in just two days—since the original design, several other designers have expanded the brand and website with additional assets built around this brand.

The logo already had legs in 2019—to help support Slippi development financially, high-end Smash clothing retailer jisu.gg created a limited collection of apparel with the frog—but it was in May 2020, when Slippi brought rollback netcode to a scene threatening to wither on the vine during COVID-19, that it became a household name. (Slippi usage also created a very high-profile dispute between Nintendo and The Big House, which was reported on in the general gaming media!) Slippi hats have been sold at two Smash Summit shops, and the logo is now among my most recognized and ubiquitous in the community.

If you asked "does it jack-o-lantern?", oh yes.