

We did it! ...Right?​

Old Man Nintendo



The Fils-a-Mech may be charming, but there's no promise that it (or Reggie) will back the competitive scene.​

Competitive Online Play

In case you haven't seen it, watch the Smash Brothers Direct here.

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Why am I being such a Debbie Downer?

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Not to be Debbie Downer, but just want to remind everyone: Nintendo sanctioning competitive Smash isn't an excuse to shirk responsibility. — James Chen #BlackLivesMatter (@jchensor) April 29, 2014 Stay in school, don't quit your jobs just yet. Still a long road ahead to see how this pans out. I see a lot of "dream come true" Tweets. — James Chen #BlackLivesMatter (@jchensor) April 29, 2014

Hey everyone, have you seen the news? The Smash Brothers Invitational? That's so cool! Nintendo? Hosting a Smash Brothers pre-release tournament? At E3 of all places? I'm sure some of us would have never imagined this would happen in a million years! The awesome documentary, the pro sponsorships, the FGC's acceptance of us - it's all coming together! Nintendo loves the competitive scene now!Alright, guys and gals. Take a deep breath... in through the nose, out through the mouth.Calm down.This could be a crucial moment in competitive history, so let's not jump the gun. It's time to take stock of what we're dealing with here.What we need to remember is that Nintendo is putting on this event. Most of us here can agree that they make amazing games - Nintendo brought us Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero and several more excellent series that have been relevant over multiple decades. While the Smash Brothers series is excellent in its own right, a significant part of the magic is being able to use all of these Nintendo characters we know and love to fight it out. Nintendo is known for creating games and hardware that stand the test of time, and are a blast to play.Nintendo, is not known, however, for its appreciation of competitive gaming.Have we forgotten about EVO 2013, where Nintendo nearly forbade the streaming of Super Smash Brothers Melee? Hell, while we're at it, have we already forgotten about EVO 2014? From the sound of it, tournament officials essentially had to convince Nintendo that it was a good idea to allow SSBM to be included in the. For any other gaming company on the planet that would be an absolute no-brainer.It's not that Nintendo means us harm, but they've hardly been supportive of competitive Smash Brothers until recently. The creator of the series himself, Masahiro Sakurai, envisioned the latest entry, Brawl, as "a game... that [had] been designed to be played with a smaller group of people -- be that a group of friends or within your house a group of family members -- competing in the small circles and not really worrying about winning and losing so much." Competition is something Nintendo has been actively afraid of for years. Outside of the Smash Brothers and Pokemon communities, what other Nintendo series can claim an established competitive scene? The only Nintendo console game that's even had a consistent online community is Mario Kart Wii.Which leads us to another thing Nintendo is not well known for.Competitive gaming and eSports live on the Internet. Nintendo, historically, has not. One could argue that Nintendo is still far behind the curve in online infrastructure. While Nintendo Network IDs do exist, they do very little. The lack of a consistent online persona, stat tracking, achievements and other features that have been around on competing networks for years are still missing on Nintendo consoles - nor are they likely to appear anytime soon. Recent Wii U outings such asandhave lacked online play in any capacity. Regardless of whether or not you personally care for online gaming, the distinct lack of compelling online functionality it is a notable weakness of the Nintendo brand.Remember the last time Smash was online? Brawl's online infrastructure was, to put it politely, lacking. Unless you had the friend code of an opponent, the only option available was two-minute free-for-all time battles with items. Entire websites such as AllisBrawl.com had to be made just so players could find other competitive opponents. And even if youhave a friend code, input lag was rampant - players could expect a quarter-second of lag or more, making fair battles and tight execution pipe dreams.Even the recent online announcements for SSB 4 have been somewhat foreboding. 'For Fun' and 'For Glory' modes are a great step in the right direction, but the devil is in the details. According to the Super Smash Brothers Direct that happened earlier this month, 'Relentless targeting of an individual' is. Why? Global Smash Power is also somewhat of a mystifying concept. Instead of ranking people in online battles, SSB 4 will rank people by their net single-player scores. This decision smacks of Nintendo's historic fear of direct competition.Now why am I saying this? Because this is a moment that we as a community may only have once. Smash has made great strides with Nintendo in recent history, being featured at EVO 2014 and MLG 2014 with Nintendo's blessing. The Invitational Tournament at E3 is huge as well.. Nintendo's decision to create this tournament is almost certainly larger than us, and we shouldn't assume that Nintendo now knows and loves every little thing about competitive Smash. I see Tweets saying 'Smash Bros. is officially eSports' and it makes me worry. Nintendo is dipping its toe in the proverbial shallow end, and what we show them may shape their opinion of us for years to come.Nintendo is the new kid on the competitive block. Let's bring them a housewarming gift, not bust down the front door and put our boots up on the couch. Prominent FGC figure and commentator James Chen said it best:As a community, we still have a lot of work to do if we're to bring Nintendo into the fold. So to everyone out there doing great things in the name of Smash: keep working at it, but be cautious. If we push too hard, we might not get a chance like this again.Thanks for reading. If you're on Twitter thank @NintendoAmerica with the #thankyounintendo hashtag! It never hurts to show a little love, but act like you've been there before.