Competitive Smash is a weird scene, huh? Here you have this party game that dedicated players took and grew into a thriving esport, with one of the biggest and most robust communities out there. But while these players have helped turn the game into the juggernaut that it is today, Nintendo seemingly doesn’t care much about the pro scene.
That’s why it didn’t really come as a shock when Smash Bros. was stricken from the EVO online roster this year. Players have complained since launch about the game’s spotty netcode, which makes online play pretty untenable at higher levels, and Nintendo has done very little to address it. It stood to reason that EVO would strike it from line-up, as FGC members everywhere enjoyed the massive L that Nintendo was taking. “Smash’s netcode is too bad for EVO” was a bit of a gag for a few days there.
Now, however, there’s a weird wrinkle to the whole story - one that makes us think that wasn’t the only reason Smash would be MIA this year.
Yesterday, Nintendo unveiled plans for its own online tournament. Using the Battlefy platform, players will be broken into regions and pitted against each other at certain times. Registration is open, so if you’re feeling lucky, you might want to hop in and test your mettle.
It’s a weird turn of events, honestly. Did Nintendo throw this together after the EVO news broke, or did they pull out of the proceedings to hock their own tournament? We’ll probably never know, but at any rate, this is an interesting move for a company historically uninterested in professional esports.
We’ll have to wait and see in the coming weeks if this tournament is Nintendo is trying to take control over their own competitive scene, or if it’s a giant bust.
