The Smash Australian Summer Open has been announced by Nintendo, an event for one of the top fighting games. It comes after a turbulent few month for Super Smash Bros. The upcoming tournament roster looks lighter than ever, with both major circuits imploding thanks to Nintendo’s disastrous handling of its premier fighting game esport.
They now have a new event to add, with a prize pool that gives players the grand reward of a mug! The Smash Australian Summer Open is a new tournament on a smaller scale. Although, it isn’t coming at the best time.
The Smash Australian Summer Open
The Smash Australian Summer Open is going to be a tournament for players in Australia. It’s taking place on December 18th. It has no requirements for players registering. Anyone who wants to jump in can do so. You’re probably not going to find the top Smash players here though.
It’s a fun inclusion for casual players, but it’s no replacement for genuine competitive action. The prizes for the tournament show this. The top 10 players will get My Nintendo points, a t-shirt, a coin, and a mug. 40 more randomly selected players will also get a mug and My Nintendo points.
The tournament is being held using fairly competitive rules. It’s items off, only Battlefield and Omega stage forms, no hazards, and playing on 1-v-1 with 3 stock. Much better than some of Nintendo’s other online offerings.
This obviously isn’t a competitive level tournament. Smash Bros is famous for having huge passionate turnouts without having to being able to provide much of a prize. A mug is kind of pushing it though. So, is this the future of smash bros events?
Will Nintendo Ever offer anything more than Mugs for Tournaments?
The current situation for Smash Bros is a mess. In short, Nintendo shut down the Smash World Tour, which caused backlash at how their official tournament Panda Global Cup had been run. This led to the CEO of Panda stepping down, and the tournament getting postponed indefinitely once player after player stepped down.
Ludwig has once again stepped in. He’s holding a Scuffed World Tour finale. This will see the top players from the Smash World Tour invited and it’ll provide a bit of a finale to the year’s Smash events, even if it’s not what was originally expected.
Nintendo’s offerings have been insulting in comparison. The Smash Australian Summer Open is fun, but it’s a clear example of why Nintendo can’t be relied on to run this esports scene themselves. These events are fun for more amateur competitors, but no pros can earn a learning by winning mugs.
The mess of the Panda Global fiasco doesn’t fare much better, while a semi-serious tournament it turned out that Nintendo had trusted probably the worst person to organize the circuit, which led to the downfall of the entire year’s events.
Smash Bros competitive might be in a hole right now, but the tournament being put on by Ludwig is a great example of why fans should have hope about next year. The Smash competitive scene built something special, usually with Nintendo actively working against it. Even with their recent interferences, the community of players and organizers are going to bring things back. Although, it might take some time to get back to where we were.
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