Nintendo will NEVER sponsor Smash events (outside of providing set ups), no matter how logical a proposal you put forward, for two very simple reasons and neither are going to change any time soon;1) Gambling is illegal in Japan, extremely frowned upon socially and don't even think about trying to host an event where minors are betting real money.2) Nintendo doesn't stand to make any additional money from sponsoring tournaments, in fact it might be a net loss.---1) is a big deal and people need to grasp this. Smash is aimed at kids, the primary demographic is <18 years old. There is no chance in hell family friendly Nintendo is going to put money into what is seen as a gambling event for kids. People like to get caught up in semantics "Its not gambling, its a test of skill!" NO. Japan doesn't care, if something involves different outcomes where money can be won or lost, its considered gambling. It makes no difference whether its a competitor or a spectator doing it, its illegal full stop do not argue this point. Yes there are a few exceptions but its typically on large-field events like racing, never 1-on-1 whether its MMA, card games or anything."But Capcom is Japanese and they pour money into competitions?"Yes, and their games are not only not aimed at kids, the money they pour into it is exclusively in western events. There is nothing illegal about companies putting money into gaming events no matter what country they are in, but it reflects poorly on the companies image when kids are involved. Capcom doesn't care if people go "oh my god look at that bad company sponsoring gambling!" because the sentence continues "... among >18 year olds... in other countries". Nintendo is not in the business of advertising gambling to kids full stop, they will NEVER be in this business, accept it and move on.But if you still think they should...2) Nintendo has one obligation to society; make money. "evil capitalism boohoo" shriek the children of the west who are all far too young to remember what happens when gaming companies don't make money, they become Sega. Is that what you all want, Nintendo to go under and then there's no more new smash for anyone, ever? Once you have accepted that truth, now deal with the fact that Nintendo has absolutely no reason to engage in any advertising whatsoever unless there is a demonstrated return on investment.See there's this thing about smash... The people who buy it, didn't need advertising to convince them. It's just one of those titles that doesn't need one single second of advertising to hold a spot in the top sellers of all time on any given console. And what is the point of sponsoring? Its advertising, nothing more. Nintendo has no obligation to transfer one single yen to any player who has bought a copy of the game, unless that player has demonstrated an ability to sell additional copies of the game that would not have sold otherwise. So now zoom out a bit.Imagine you are Nintendo looking at Evo 2019. That sure is a lot of viewers watching your game. Of those viewers, how many do you think don't own smash, but are considering buying it to get into it? Maybe 20,000? Seems like a fair guess. Now tell me of those 20,000, how many were not going to buy it, but because Nintendo kicked in $20k pot bonus, now they will take the plunge and buy it? Given the game costs $50 or so, we are going to need to find 400 people who were only convinced to buy the game because of the pot bonus.That simply is not going to happen. The idea that people are sitting on the fence about buying smash and only took the plunge because of pot bonuses is a complete fantasy. Smash isn't that sort of game, the people that want to buy it will buy it regardless of anything. Those that don't like it, aren't going to be convinced by EVO.So now we go back to Capcom, or any other game company for that matter that puts in insane pot bonuses into their games, bonuses that they couldn't possibly recoup in additional sales, why do they do it? It's simple; because they can, its their philosophy and they budgeted for it. Capcom releases street fighter at a price point with the appropriate profit margin to allow them to do this because its part of the allure. Same with Valve. Nintendo however budgets everything from a different standpoint; using the additional money to grow the company. Every $ that could be used to 'hype up' smash to them, is $ better spent internally developing other games. This is Nintendo's philosophy, and always will be.