Fighting games are quickly climbing the ranks within the esports industry. Esports organizations like Echo Fox continue to expand their fighting game rosters. This year, Dragon Ball FighterZ had the most successful launch of a fighting game in history. Street Fighter , TEKKEN 7, and Injustice 2 all have developer-supported professional circuits.

Despite all of the growth and commitment by teams and publishers, the Super Smash Bros. series still remains an exception, lacking any official esports initiatives by its developer, Nintendo. With Smash’s immense popularity and commercial success—Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has sold 5.34M copies as of March 2018—the lack of an official esports program is a missed opportunity both for the developer and the competitive community.

Now, an independent studio is looking to capitalize on the hole left by Nintendo’s absence. Wavedash Games is currently developing a game in the style of Super Smash Bros. called Icons: Combat Arena. The studio raised $6M in funding, and aims to create an “esports-ready” platform fighter for the modern esports industry. If successful, the game could quickly become one of the biggest esports fighting games.

Smash History Lesson



In order to understand the potential of Icons, it is important to understand the Smash esports scene. Currently, two titles in the Smash franchise have active esports communities with players signed by major organizations—Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (also known as Smash 4). In most fighting games, all pro players simply switch to the newest iteration. Smash is the only franchise with two thriving esports scenes, and it is largely Nintendo’s fault.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]When Melee launched on the Nintendo Gamecube, it quickly became the most technically demanding fighting game in history. [/perfectpullquote]

When Melee launched on the Nintendo Gamecube, it quickly became the most technically demanding fighting game in history. Competing at the highest level requires a staggering number of inputs per second. Its competitive community grew, with players driving across the United States to compete in tournaments. When Super Smash Bros. Brawl was announced for the Wii, Melee players were ready to push their scene further by adopting a modern version with more characters and updated graphics. Unfortunately, Brawl removed every mechanic that made Melee fast-paced and technically demanding. The game had modern graphics and a larger roster of characters, but for many players it was not the Melee update they had been expecting.

While Brawl did find a competitive audience, experienced Melee players could not find satisfaction in the slower gameplay, and rebelled against convention. Instead of moving on to the latest version of their franchise, the Melee community returned to the older game. 15 years after its launch, Melee is still a popular esport, with major tournaments consistently drawing more than 70K viewers on Twitch . While many games have tried to compete with Smash in the platform fighter genre, only a small pixel-art indie game called Rivals of Aether has come close to matching Melee’s speed and technicality.

Modern Melee



Wavedash Games intends for Icons to be the modern version of Melee that fans never got a chance to play. While the company is careful to avoid direct comparisons to Nintendo’s titanic franchise, the game is clearly heavily inspired by Melee. The speed of play is similar, and the studio has incorporated many of the mechanics that make Melee such an exciting game to watch.

What separates Icons from Melee is the developer’s commitment to esports. Wavedash Games CEO Matt Fairchild told The Esports Observer that the game is being developed with esports in mind.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]What separates Icons

from Melee is the developer’s commitment to esports.[/perfectpullquote]

“We see esports happening in four different places—you have to make a game for every screen, street, stream, and stadium. So, it has to be great to play on your couch at home, it has to be watchable by people that have never picked up a controller, has to be great in the giant stadium, but it also needs to support those small local events that I owe my spot in the games industry to.”

For Fairchild, building an “esports-ready” game means more than just incorporating mechanics from a popular competitive game—it’s about cultivating a community. He said that Wavedash is working with esports organizations to gather feedback, “and asking what would they like in supporting a fighting game and a platform fighter in particular.”

Related Article: An Introduction to Watching Fighting Games as Esports

Wavedash Games wants to support every facet of its esports scene. “We will consider ourselves successful when the entire ecosystem is successful,” said Fairchild. “So, that is building tools that allow streamers to tell a better story at these tournaments, or helping content creators put out their videos and be able to draw more traffic to their site, or helping tournament hosts even with just marketing and promotion.”

Doing What Ninten-don’t



Fairchild’s philosophy is a refreshing, hopeful outlook for Smash fans who are used to a much more volatile relationship with their developer. In the past, Nintendo actively tried to dismantle the Smash esports scene.

Jake Kulinski was a producer for Major League Gaming, which at one time hosted circuits for Melee and Brawl. “Back in 2010,” said Kulinski, “Nintendo denied MLG the rights to broadcast Super Smash Bros: Brawl, as they viewed their game as a party game not an esport. As a result, Smash was dropped from MLG, and the Brawl scene took a big hit.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Nintendo has stopped trying to destroy the Smash esports scene, but it still hasn’t fully jumped on board. [/perfectpullquote]

In 2013, Nintendo tried the same tactic when Melee earned a spot at the Evolution World Championship (Evo)—the biggest fighting game tournament of the year. The publisher denied Evo permission to broadcast Melee, but this time Smash fans fought back. The public outcry was so loud that Nintendo reversed its decision, and Melee has been broadcast at every Evo since then.

These days, Nintendo has stopped trying to destroy the Smash esports scene, but it still hasn’t fully jumped on board. Many fighting game publishers like Capcom provide prize money for major independent tournaments like Evo. No Smash game has ever received similar support from Nintendo.

That being said, it is somewhat understandable for Nintendo to ignore Melee now. The game is 15 years old and played on an outdated system. That fact combined with Nintendo’s general attitude towards esports makes it highly likely we will never see an official esports initiative for Melee.

Taking the Spotlight



Icons has the opportunity to capitalize on Nintendo’s apathy. With no Melee remake for the Switch on the horizon, the game is still one of the least accessible esports. The game can only be played using outdated controllers. Playing online requires third party software. Icons, on the other hand, will be free to play through Steam, and supports every modern controller option. The game plans to have a robust online matchmaking system and an ever-expanding roster of new characters.

As a modern esports title, Icons intends to also open doors to more sustainability for content creators and pro players. Eric “ESAM” Lew is a professional Smash player for Panda Global who has competed in Melee, Brawl, and Wii U. In addition to his competitive career, Lew supports himself through his Twitch stream and YouTube channel.

“A brand new platform fighter always gives a ton of content.” said Lew, “because the game is so new and everything is important, which is…exciting because there’s more things to make content about, as opposed to Smash 4 right now which has a lot less informative content you can make, and even more so for Melee, because the games have been out a while.”

Melee has not received a balance patch or content update in 15 years, and likely never will, so to Lew’s point, content creators are limited in their options for regular updates. Icons is expected to function like League of Legends , where new characters are added over time and the roster is continually tweaked through balance patches and content updates.

It will be difficult for Icons to completely replace Melee upon release, as its fans have chosen to remain stuck in the past for more than a decade. However, if the game can offer the same satisfying gameplay with modern features and true developer support, Icons could leverage a massive, passionate fanbase to become one of the biggest fighting game esports.