Despite a long and storied history, platform fighters have sometimes felt like the black sheep of the FGC. Super Smash Bros. Melee, for example, spent years having to fight for a spot in tournament lineups and, though it seems inconceivable now, was on the brink of disappearing completely. Though these struggles have become a thing of the past, platform fighters have found that with acceptance comes a whole new host of challenges.

For the last few years, it has seemed as though the platform fighting scene has been stuck in the adolescence of their development. There are more passionate fans and players–look no further for evidence than the infamous Wombo Combo–but that has sometimes been a detriment rather than a boon, with controversy of one sort or the other dogging the scene with distressing regularity. Whether it’s VIP rooms, floating through pools or–ahem, Project M–the platform fighting scene has offered up plenty of mud to sling.

But it seems, with the recent announcement of the Brawlhalla Circuit, along with 2GGaming’s 2GG Circuit and the Rivals of Aether Tournament Circuit, that platform fighters are finally shaking off their adolescence and are taking their first tentative steps into a becoming a rather more grown-up scene.

But why is having a circuit important?

One of Street Fighter’s biggest success stories last year was the sudden emergence of Liquid|Du “Nuckledu” Dang as the best player in the world. He sealed this at the Capcom Cup in December–the grand finale of Street Fighter V’s Circuit, which played host to 32 of the best players in the world. Nuckledu won that tournament and, in doing so, ended a narrative that had been woven throughout the year by proving that he is stronger than all comers.

Narratives are important in a competitive scene. They’re what keeps you coming back for more, week after week, to find out whether this is the time that a Captain Falcon player finally beats Mew2King. Sometimes Mew2King demolishes the Falcon, but sometimes n0ne shocks everyone–and then does it again for good measure. If you didn’t know that Mew2King hadn’t lost to a Captain Falcon in years, and that n0ne was ranked 58 in the world while M2K ranked fifth, that win would lose a lot of its magic.

Having a circuit of events that builds to a grand finale helps build that narrative, and does so while offering up a reason to care. The first event of 2GGaming Circuit, 2GGC: Genesis Saga, will accomplish more than allow players the chance for top-level practice before one of the biggest majors of the year; it will be building the framework for narrative that will develop over the course of the next twelve months.

It will also have provided those who take part an easy way to measure their improvement. Because there is a 2GGC event every month, it becomes simple to look at results from say, Genesis Saga, and compare them to your results at 2GGC: Civil War, and clearly understand the level of improvement.

And when you finally improve enough to claim first place at one of the events on whichever circuit you choose to engage in, you can be sure that you will be rewarded for it. Thanks to the support of the developers of both Rivals of Aether and Brawlhalla, their circuits have significantly bolstered prize pools, with the 2GG Circuit offering similarly inflated prizes.

This isn’t exactly a new idea

There’s plenty of evidence of how beneficial a circuit can be to the health of a community, and you need look no further than the black sheep of the platform fighters, Project M, for proof. Though development of the game has officially ceased, and support for the title at major events at an all-time low, 2016 was perhaps the strongest year yet for PM’s competitive community.

Much of this success is down to the Project M circuit, established by TO’s who worked together to revitalize tournament play. Junebug, already arguably the strongest player in the world, eventually won the circuit with a series of consistently high placements, but it was another player who won the hearts of the scene. ThundeRzReiGN, playing Donkey Kong–long considered one of the weaker characters in Project M–exploded in 2016, winning a whole host of tournaments, including Olympus, the final circuit event of the year.

In fact, it’s not even the first time that Brawlhalla is holding a circuit-style event. In 2016, the development team put together a series of events that offered a tempting prize: a place at the Brawlhalla World Championships, which took place in November 2016. This is likely the framework that the circuit will be built upon, and the Brawlhalla team will be looking to make the circuit this year a more visible and extensive experience.

And who knows? Perhaps in a year or two we’ll be seeing Brawlhalla and Rivals of Aether on ESPN, along with the likes of Street Fighter and Marvel, which have already had appearances on the mainstream channel. That’s the dream for their developers, and these announcements are the first steps towards making that a reality.

Super Smash Bros. Melee, or why you don’t need a circuit to succeed

Now it goes without saying that you can be successful without an established tournament circuit. The elephant in the room proves that: Melee has spent the last fifteen years becoming one of the biggest and most vibrant scenes in the FGC, and has done so without any of the benefits of a circuit.

But it should also go without saying that Melee is a beast all of its own, even in the platform fighter scene. Melee doesn’t need an incentive to hold regular tournaments; they’re running out of weekends as it is. Melee doesn’t need to build storylines and continuity in their scene; they’ve got plenty of that already. Melee doesn’t need bigger prize pots, though they would be nice.

This is mostly due to the unparalleled history Melee has in comparison to most current FGC titles. They have spent the last fifteen years playing their game and establishing all the things that a tournament circuit offers. You could argue that they’ve done it the hard way, but you can’t argue that they haven’t done it. You could also make the argument that they’ve built something of an unofficial circuit–just look at the Melee It On Me Top 100. The tournaments included in those graphics are the events that most top Melee players fight to attend–the likes of Genesis, Evo and the Big House have become staples for the scene.

You’ll notice however, that the idea of an exclusive event to which you must be invited in order to attend isn’t particularly alien to Melee. Just ask the creators of the Summit, which is just that, and has quickly become a fixture in the Melee calendar.

These announcements matter

Imagine being able to claim that you were, completely and definitively, the best Brawlhalla player in the world. The greatest Rivals of Aether player on the face of the Earth. By taking part in the circuit, you’ll be able to do just that. The stories that circuits create go farther than that however; over the course of a year players build rivalries, relationships and results that tell tales all their own.

It’s tough, for example, to argue that TSM|ZeRo’s insane winning streak at the start of Smash 4’s tournament life didn’t make everyone more invested in the results they were seeing. And when he finally fell, even just a notch, it was not just noteworthy, but actively exciting. A local TO actually interrupted his tournament to announce that ZeRo lost to Seagull Joe.

The example of ZeRo is particularly relevant, as it helps illustrate just how difficult it can be for smaller platform fighters like Rivals of Aether and Brawlhalla to escape the shadow of Smash, which is long indeed. ZeRo is one of the best known players in the Smash scene, and his fame is beginning to spread further. Many Street Fighter fans could probably tell you who ZeRo is, or Mango. It’s unlikely that they could tell you who the best Rivals player is. These circuits will go a long way towards changing that.

Beyond simply proving that there is room for more than just the titanic presence of Smash in the scene, these announcements suggest that, like the other FGC titles that have their own tournament circuits, these games are taking themselves seriously as competitive communities. This year, it seems that platform fighters are taking an active step towards growing up.