It’s only three months into 2020 and Smash already has what will likely be the biggest news of the entire year: the formation of the Smash World Tour.

In short, the Smash World Tour is a VGBC-led initiative to create a circuit of competitive events in Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate. The circuit would be akin to what we see with IEM in CS:GO or the Capcom Tour in Street Fighter or the World Tour in Dragon Ball FighterZ. It assigns certain point values to different events and the points lead to selecting a pool of 31 players who compete in a big tournament for a prize pool of $250,000 – the largest in Smash history.

The Smash World Tour reasonably sparked an insane amount of hype. The Smash community – whether it be the competitors, the audience, the TOs, or the teams – wanted to see something like this happen for years. While there is so much to be hype about all of this, there are also reasons to worry.

In the hype camp: Smash World Tour represents one of Smash’s best esports events ever, something more ambitious than MLG or the 2GG saga. The Smash World Tour finally creates something that the community could feasibly unify around and build on top of. It’s also run by a voice that has lived and thrived within the community for years and comes with a generally agreeable ruleset and premise.

In the worry camp: the Smash World Tour may have already shut out and hurt other events in the Smash world. This tour isn’t sponsored by Nintendo either, creating the worry that Nintendo may quietly interfere and hinder it. The Smash World Tour still has time to fail as well and hasn’t succeeded simply by merit of its creation. That failure could create reverberations and reputation damage that holds Smash back.

Do you think the Smash World Tour is good for the competitive Smash scene? Yes, this will only help the scene grow 96%, 45 votes 45 votes 96% 45 votes - 96% of all votes

No, I think Nintendo will shut it down 4%, 2 votes 2 votes 4% 2 votes - 4% of all votes

No, I think it will interfere with a lot of events and divide the community 0%, 0 votes 0 votes 0 votes - 0% of all votes Total Votes: 47 Voting is closed Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

What we know (and don’t know) about the Smash World Tour

Yo! Every event on the Smash World Tour Circuit for Melee has wobbling banned and a ledge grab limit pic.twitter.com/oC4yaPxu25 — Premeditated Hooliganism (@Pandarianssb) March 1, 2020

The Smash World Tour debuted suddenly on March 1st with a fully built website, a nice YouTube video, a social media push, and what seemed to me to be a clearly coordinated react video strike from a few prominent names in Smash. It came out with enough information to answer a lot of questions – especially on the consumer/viewer end – but not all of them.

The SWT ruleset let the community know that wobbling will be banned and Melee mods that make the game more competitively viable like NTSC and PAL (the mod many European tournaments use). However, it hasn’t made it clear if wobbling will need to be banned for tournaments to opt-in. What about future modding, like a frozen Pokemon Stadium? These deeper meta and ruleset questions aren’t as clear.

Speaking of opt-ins, the SWT’s current list of tournaments is pretty impressive, but doesn’t include a number of notable events such as Full Bloom, Genesis, and Summit. This might be the most political part of the SWT and one a lot of viewers don’t see right away. VGBC, the entity streaming and running the SWT, has a direct competitor in Beyond The Summit – BTS for short. Will BTS be able to integrate and negotiate with the SWT or will it need to create a separate circuit? Is there room enough for two tours in Smash?

The biggest question mark of all is Nintendo. The SWT has a small note in their FAQ clarifying that they are not working with Nintendo but would be open to it. No surprises there. The question isn’t as much whether or not Nintendo will get involved. Games like Magic: The Gathering survive without developer support or Leagues. Games like CS:GO do most of the work on their own or with third parties.

The question is more how the SWT currently approaches the question of sponsorship and legitimacy in the esports world. Are the SWT currently negotiating with sponsors? Do they have a lineup of sponsors already? Just where is this $250,000 prize pot coming from? And could Nintendo interfere with the money if they don’t like how the SWT builds itself up?

The Nintendo question

The obvious way Nintendo could interfere is simply with the rights, refusing to let the SWT stream or display events – a cease and desist. This is unlikely. The heat Nintendo took when Melee stormed back into EVO off the back of a massive donation drive proved that directly trying to shut down competitive Smash carries too much negative PR.



However, Nintendo could reach out to sponsors and even TOs in private to request they not work with the SWT. That could hurt the SWT enough to potentially destroy it. Melee players like Hugo “HugS” Gonzales have spoken about how Nintendo has moved behind the scenes to create problems for competitive Smash, too.

VGBC, myself, and probably the entire Smash community doesn’t want to see Nintendo as a villain. If Nintendo were the villain in Smash’s competitive story than the entire process of becoming a capital E – Esport becomes a lot more difficult. Outside of the difficulty, we all have a lot of love for Nintendo because of how much the company has done for gaming and how pure the company can be. Nintendo has such a uniquely simple model of creating good, finished-product games based off of artistically distinct ideas that it’s hard not to outright like them.

A loving and supportive Nintendo would be the best result. The ideal case – the case to get hyped for – is that the SWT is a proof of concept for Nintendo and the company steps in, agrees to most of the community’s competitive terms, and fills a Capcom-esque role for Smash. This ideal case could actually happen. It may not be likely but it isn’t impossible and that alone is exciting!

An indifferent Nintendo would be okay. too. If Nintendo simply washed hands of the events or offered some token help and let the competitive scene be, the SWT could still find the sponsors, money, and attention to succeed. Smash has the views and ecosystem to attract sponsors and run an extended tour. Given no interference, the SWT could succeed on its own.

An oppositional Nintendo could be a hurdle too high to jump. How will Nintendo react? Only time can answer that question. We have evidence for the oppositional Nintendo but we also have evidence for the supportive and the indifferent Nintendo. I’ve written about all of that already but you can hear more experienced and knowledgeable voices like the Arian “TheCrimsonBlur” Fathieh discuss it, too.

The first step or just a one-off

The raw fact that the SWT is viable enough to announce and create for a year means a lot for Smash. Smash hasn’t seen something like this since the 2GG Championship Series – and if it works as intended the SWT will exceed what 2GG did.

For anyone who missed it, the 2GG Championship Series was a Smash 4 tournament circuit consisting of 12 tournaments culminating in a championship that worked on a similar point system as you see in lots of fighting games. They had a prize pot of $50,000 total (the winner got $20,000) and created a lot of excitement for Smash 4 in 2017. However, the circuit only lasted for that year.

Earlier on, MLG – Major League Gaming – also ran events for Smash. MLG’s involvement saw Smash come up with other big titles like the Halo games and nurtured Smash’s earliest talents like Ken, Azen, PC Chris, Korean DJ, and Mew2King. MLG also left Smash eventually putting a lot of hurt on the young esport.

The SWT has a chance to be a first step into something big but it could be another one-off. So long as nothing seriously bad happens, like missed payouts, money troubles, or the collapse of the circuit before its end, a one-off wouldn’t be that bad. Top competitors would get a nice, fat check for their efforts and viewers get to see tournaments with higher stakes. Those higher stakes in turn push players to try harder and raise the level of competition.

I always wondered how difficult smash tourneys would be if there was more on the line.



Lookin forward to the circuit 🙂 — Justin McGrath (@PG_Plup) March 1, 2020

However a one-off could frighten off a lot of sponsors and organizers and slow down Smash’s financial growth. Like after the MLG days, the lack of staying power might convince others that it simply isn’t Smash time yet. More damagingly, it could convince others that it will never be Smash’s time, but even in the absolutely worst case scenario the Smash scene would probably live on as it has before.

The real hype is that the SWT becomes the first step. The real hope most of us have is that this all works out well enough to continue on another year and another and another until it becomes a staple. We all want to see this grow until we can reach even bigger prize pots, sponsors, and an entire ecosystem.



We have reason to believe in the SWT and doubt it. On the one hand, 2GG’s circuit ended after a year and MLG ended after a while too. On the other hand, we could easily see VGBC learn from past experiences and create something bigger with that knowledge. We’re also seeing a bigger bet and a larger collaborative goal from VGBC. While VGBC hasn’t brought all parties in and its current list of approved tournaments isn’t that large, it has a wider reach than 2GG and (arguably) MLG did. With more on the line and a wider net, VGBC could turn its first step into a second just by walking a wider stride.

There is a chance that VGBC splits the community with its opt-in process. After all, if certain tournaments don’t opt-in, they may become gradually less relevant and fade away. This could be particularly damaging if these are BTS tournaments, which are some of Smash’s strongest and most interesting events. No one wants Smash to lose the Summit series. Everyone wants to see Plup wear more jorts and Leffen wash more dogs.

On the other hand, there’s no reason this has to be the case. In the case of CS:GO, there are several different leagues and circuits with their own qualifiers. On top of ESL, IEM, and Valve’s own Major system, CS now has Flashpoint too. Multiple circuits take years to build but if the SWT works then it may be the first step in that process.

Might as well try

WHEN NINTENDO DOESN’T DO IT WE DO IT OURSELVES



SMASH WORLD TOUR!!



$250,000!!!!!!



Thank you @VGBC_GimR @SuperSmashCon



🔥 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 — hungrybox (@LiquidHbox) March 1, 2020

And can you imagine a Smash with CS:GO-esque circuits? Could you imagine a Summit-led circuit that competes with a VGBC one? Could you imagine one holistic circuit which includes both and works up to a million dollar prize pot? After so many years, it feels hard to imagine. It feels like a long shot, but at some point, the Smash community has to take it.

All indications show that Nintendo has no intention of creating this system themselves. It does not align with their business model or their company culture and they have no obligation too. Smash is alive as much due to its huge casual player base as its dedicated competitive one. So the community might as well try on their own.

I have my worries about the Smash World Tour. I even have my disagreements (like on wobbling). You’re not cynical enough if you’re not at least a little critical and cautious about the Smash World Tour but you’re too cynical if you’re not at least a little excited for what could come.

This is big. This could be a moment for Smash. It could also be another flash in the pan but at a point Smash’s biggest players – like VGBC – have to go for it. At a point, they might as well try. And this is the boldest try yet.