UPDATE: Adam Apicella says that "Anaheim will be smashing good time. I hope to see all of you there; Scrambling to get all details for all games together for Wednesday."
Major League Gaming, the longest running eSports organization in North America, is expected to announce the inclusion of Super Smash Brothers Melee at their Anaheim tournament this June 20-22, 2014. Adam Apicella, EVP of MLG Properties, tweeted several times last week hinting at the news. MLG has been supporting the Smash scene on-and-off for nearly a decade. From 2004-2006, Smash Melee was often featured at their tournaments. In 2007, the league supported 4 grassroots tournaments, and in 2010, they featured Smash Brawl on their Pro Circuit. That year, Brawl players saw guaranteed prize pools of $7,500 at regular events and over $35,000 at the National Championship in Dallas, TX. The allure of these potential gigantic prize pools separates MLG from other tournaments, like EVO, that typically only contribute what competitors put into prizes.
Early on Friday, June 7th, Apicella let Smashers know they were interested in adding Melee at the Anaheim tournament.
Major League Gaming, along with EVO, have publicly been stating that their organizations have been in talks with Nintendo about adding Smash to their events. After Super Smash Brothers incredible 2013, including briefly holding the record for most watching fighting game stream of all time, eSports organizations have been more interested than ever in the series. Just this past weekend, Revival of Melee 7 reached over 20,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch during the finals between Mango and Mew2King. The news of a potential breakthrough came late on Friday from Apicella.
While an official announcement from Major League Gaming is likely still days away as they finalize all the details, this series of tweets essentially points to all-but-officially-confirmed details about Smashes inclusion in the Anaheim tournament. Major League Gaming is looking to shatter the 696 attendance record that was set by EVO 2013, and if the details for their tournament are confirmed before EVO 2014, they may have a chance as players will need to choose between MLG Anaheim, CEO 2014, and EVO 2014. Still unknown are how a series of grassroots qualifiers, already underway, will play into the series. So far there are several announced MLG grassroots qualifiers:
Other questions also remain - will only Super Smash Brothers Melee be featured? Brawl? Both? Does Project M have any hope of inclusion at the tournament? ...Will they find 50 CRT TVs?
Major League Gaming, the longest running eSports organization in North America, is expected to announce the inclusion of Super Smash Brothers Melee at their Anaheim tournament this June 20-22, 2014. Adam Apicella, EVP of MLG Properties, tweeted several times last week hinting at the news. MLG has been supporting the Smash scene on-and-off for nearly a decade. From 2004-2006, Smash Melee was often featured at their tournaments. In 2007, the league supported 4 grassroots tournaments, and in 2010, they featured Smash Brawl on their Pro Circuit. That year, Brawl players saw guaranteed prize pools of $7,500 at regular events and over $35,000 at the National Championship in Dallas, TX. The allure of these potential gigantic prize pools separates MLG from other tournaments, like EVO, that typically only contribute what competitors put into prizes.
Early on Friday, June 7th, Apicella let Smashers know they were interested in adding Melee at the Anaheim tournament.
Major League Gaming, along with EVO, have publicly been stating that their organizations have been in talks with Nintendo about adding Smash to their events. After Super Smash Brothers incredible 2013, including briefly holding the record for most watching fighting game stream of all time, eSports organizations have been more interested than ever in the series. Just this past weekend, Revival of Melee 7 reached over 20,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch during the finals between Mango and Mew2King. The news of a potential breakthrough came late on Friday from Apicella.
- Shuffle V (Columbus, OH) - February 22-23
- Fire Temple (Los Angeles, CA) - April 12
- Whobo (Houston, TX) - May 3
- SKTAR 3 (Somerset, NJ) - May 31
Other questions also remain - will only Super Smash Brothers Melee be featured? Brawl? Both? Does Project M have any hope of inclusion at the tournament? ...Will they find 50 CRT TVs?
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