Nintendo Announced as an Official Sponsor for Evo 2014

[ybj]

Nice writeup, Joe

 

[Daftatt]

This... This means Project M will never get a legitimate chance...

P:M is the new underground smash game. Like melee 2 years ago. It's a role that needs filled.

 

[Sqa$]

Glad to see that Nintendo made the switch from shutting down Melee at tournaments to backing the tournaments with Melee at them. While the people in the mainstream smash community were probably already going to purchase, or at least play around with, the new smash game, Nintendo is now getting a lot of publicity by backing tournament things. More people are going to see the name and people are going to buy the new game in the future, as well as we'll probably see Smash 4 at future tournaments with Nintendo endorsements.

I'm all for it personally. I think that it's huge to get the major company of your game to back the tournaments that your game is playing at. I know we already see XBOX up there, but to see the name Nintendo is really new and something I'm excited about, and I have no doubt that we will see it more in the near future of large scale tournaments.

Also, with Nintendo backing these tournaments, they are getting a closer look at how things work and seeing how things run. Maybe the next invitational will be better structured or maybe they will take balancing into account with updates for Smash 4 or new ideas for Smash 5.

...Also Reggie will kick ass and take names now that Nintendo is officially sponsoring.

 

[Mitochondria-Eve]

Well, this is awesome news. Glad to hear it.

 

[synesthe-sia]

It means Smash 5 will be Melee HD and Sakurai will have tears in his eyes when announcing this, along with Ridley, K Rool, Krystal, Mewtwo and the return of the #based Falcon Knee. The internet will promptly be in flames for about a week and 4chan will say "WOW MAN. TOO BIGLEY. THANKS KOJIMA." And when it comes out everyone will go, "haha yeah it's pretty cool but I think I like Melee better." Then I'll take a nice trip to Brazil and partake in the worst of activities and come back to become the greatest Smash 5 player the world has ever seen, then disappear into the mountains and become a legend. I'll come back 6 years later and have a really mediocre run that will leave everyone disappointed and disappear into the mountains again, where I'll work on becoming the greatest Clay Fighter player ever. Thank you, Nintendo. This is going to change my life.

 

[ミスティック Speed]

Mewtwo.....CONFIRMED?!

 

[---]

Am not a Melee fan but this is amazing news. Hopefully this keeps up for future tournaments.

Of course, the icing on the cake would be a Smash 4 related announcement, and at the very least giving people more time with the demo.

 

[<π]

It means Smash 5 will be Melee HD and Sakurai will have tears in his eyes when announcing this, along with Ridley, K Rool, Krystal, Mewtwo and the return of the #based Falcon Knee. The internet will promptly be in flames for about a week and 4chan will say "WOW MAN. TOO BIGLEY. THANKS KOJIMA." And when it comes out everyone will go, "haha yeah it's pretty cool but I think I like Melee better." Then I'll take a nice trip to Brazil and partake in the worst of activities and come back to become the greatest Smash 5 player the world has ever seen, then disappear into the mountains and become a legend. I'll come back 6 years later and have a really mediocre run that will leave everyone disappointed and disappear into the mountains again, where I'll work on becoming the greatest Clay Fighter player ever. Thank you, Nintendo. This is going to change my life.

I wish my tag was "TooBigley" now instead of <3...

 

[Zebkeet]

MY SIGNATURE.

 

[Nintendrone]

The way Smash is getting handled makes me picture NoA fighting Sakurai for the wheel of a car.

NoA: "Yay, tournaments are awesome! Let's do some more!"
Sakurai: "I'm driving this car, and Smash is a party game!"

 

[SSBBDaisy]

Hoooooray!!! I wonder how Nintendo is going to sponsor this? Pot prize bonus or smash 4 demos as well? WHO KNOWS!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[Brickbuild101]

They're sponsoring the same event that's also showcasing Killer Instinct on Xbox One. I wonder if any Rare reps will be staring over at the Melee booth all "I miss Nintendo."...

 

[synesthe-sia]

They're sponsoring the same event that's also showcasing Killer Instinct on Xbox One. I wonder if any Rare reps will be staring over at the Melee booth all "I miss Nintendo."...

Rare is dead. I imagine their office is filled with cobwebs and framed photos of Banjo & Kazooie, Joanna Dark and Conker along with Windows 2000 with Battletoads screensavers. The only thing that isn't surrounded by spiders in that office is an Xbox One. All the Rare workers fear the sun. They only come out at night when Jontron isn't around to go up to them on the streets and go, "WASN'T DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2 GREAT? ISN'T K ROOL OWNED BY MICROSOFT?" They also survive off of the tears of Rare fans. That's why Microsoft did what they did to Conker at E3 this year. They send them down the pipeline to Rare and they say, "wow..." and look at Nuts & Bolts then cry themselves to sleeps for another year until Microsoft wakes them up to make another Kinect game.

 

[TOGOpuff]

Fantastic!! EVO2014 couldn't get any better ! I hope to be there next year !

 

[DakotaBonez]

Whoah I didn't realize so many big game companies sponsored evo. Damn I forgot the nintendo logo turned grey. I wish that their logo was the N64 symbol, y'know the big colorful 3D N.

I don't think Nintendo was ever against EVO. I think that their lawyers in america just jumped the gun by mistake, I mean they immediately revoked their ban like an hour later. Now nintendo's sponsoring it to regain people's favor because most people held a grudge I guess?

 

[The Original Robot boy]

For those who are new to the fighting game community, Evo (Evolution Championship Series) is the largest fighting game tournament in the world featuring players from across the globe. It is a tournament that is also set to break attendance records for Super Smash Brothers Melee with 970 people pre-registered for the event.

It comes as no surprise to see Smash back at the Evo stage after the massive success it found last year--breaking viewership and attendance records at the time. What does come as a surprise however, is the announcement that Nintendo is officially sponsoring Evo 2014. With the E3 Smash invitational showcasing the competitive community to the world and positively highlighting the potential of their tournaments to Nintendo, this may be the next big step towards Nintendo embracing the tournament scene.

Here is the offiicial sponsorship deck released on the Evo website:

Although it is still unclear as to what involvement Nintendo will have in the event, this is massive progress for the competitive Smash Bros. community to see the Big N on board with Melee's biggest event of all time.
​

What do you think this means for the future of competitive Super Smash Bros.?

--

Toronto Joe is an eSports lover and FGC competitor/content creator + more. He likes traveling, gaming, and also you. You can find him on twitter @TorontoJoeSSB

Skullgirrrrrls this gonna be one awsome evo

 

[AirFair]

This is awesome!

 

[Airboysteel]

WOW this is awesome seeing Nintendo finally respecting the smash community.

 

[Chukkaque]

All aboard the hype train!

 

[Chris Sifniotis]

Really? That strikes me as a big surprise; Nintendo sponsoring a major gaming event now as opposed to years ago, in the case of Smash with the rise of Melee and the origin of the competitive scene.
Still, it's fantastic news and if nothing else Nintendo is making a positive gesture to the competitive community.
A quick question since I'm on this end of the globe; how is the Australian competition compared to the rest of the world? Are we any good?

 

[Zenmaioh]

After a long day at work and getting home today after midnight with no food, I can say for sure that hearing this news has made me so happy I don't think anything can kill my good mood now!

 

[SuperSalamence]

I don't know how I feel about this. Obviously this is great news by itself, but looking at the Brawl-esque nature of Smash 4 and the invitational at E3, it sort of seems like Nintendo is simply trying appeal to the Smash community by throwing money and large events at us instead of actually talking with the community and seeing what we want.

Granted, they did exactly that with the Best Buy thing they had going on and apparently employees even took down some notes. It is possible Nintendo is just sponsoring Evo in order to be able to pressure them into running Smash 4 instead of Melee next year, though. Maybe I'm just being overly pessimistic.

Pfffft, I saw all of that, but really, I'm pretty damn happy about all of this.

Brawl like gameplay isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as there aren't any broken characters that the metagame is centralized around(metaknight), the game should be fine. I honestly think Brawl gets too much hate.

 

[metaXzero]

This is nice and all, but its clear this will ultimately be for promoting Smash 4. If Nintendo makes this a re-occuring thing, I doubt they will want Melee at EVO next year over Smash 4. And right now, I'm really skeptical of Smash 4. Not just because of the unfinished demos we've gotten that may or may not change by the final game, but because of Sakurai seemingly being the same man he was when he made Brawl. It's fine that Nintendo wants to make nicies with us, but it won't matter if Sakurai still believes malarkey like Melee being too hard for casuals or continued subtractive design will keep everyone happy while designing the next game.

Nintendo could strong arm Sakurai, but then would he make a quality product when forced? Whatever the case, I'm not going to celebrate on this yet.

Brawl like gameplay isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as there aren't any broken characters that the metagame is centralized around(metaknight), the game should be fine. I honestly think Brawl gets too much hate.

Brawl like gameplay in Smash 4 will keep people playing Melee/Project M and keep this community divided. Worst case scenario, we get to relive the Melee vs. Brawl days of 5-6 years ago when it became clear that Brawl will never be anything resembling Melee, leading to drama everywhere and maybe even Nintendo, MLG, and EVO cutting ties with us again when the fragmented community can't get behind one game.

Thus bringing us right back full circle. again.

 

[DaDavid]

I'm happy about his to be sure, but I'm not super certain what huge change people are anticipating, or at least, I don't get why people are excited beyond simply saying "cool." Supporting the competitive play of Melee does not mean they are going to suddenly pull a 180 with the way they develop future games or anything.

I mean I hate to sound like a downer, I just know some people are going to end up upset if they don't see changes beyond this, which just upsets me because no promises are being made and yet people will yell at Nintendo once they fail to deliver on those imaginations.

 

[NeffJeff95]

Is this the real life?

 

[Element of Smash]

Unfortunately Project M never had a legitimate chance due to legal issues.

Counterstrike made it. PM will always have a chance.

From what Prog said, Nintendo has no "official stance" on P:M, so the line is blurry at best. Unofficially, he says they love it. So there's always a chance.

On my own note, any one else thinking Smash 4 side event? Not saying it'll be better than Divekick...but it would totally be better than Divekick.

Yeah I said it. I hated that game. Add THAT to Element.zip.

 

[Richtea007]

Great news!

 

[SurPr15e]

You know what this means....It means Reggie can finally have his money match with Hungrybox on the big stage of EVO. Reggie has had time after the invitational to train himself up. I want Reggie to win.

 

[byebye]

Brawl like gameplay in Smash 4 will keep people playing Melee/Project M and keep this community divided. Worst case scenario, we get to relive the Melee vs. Brawl days of 5-6 years ago when it became clear that Brawl will never be anything resembling Melee, leading to drama everywhere and maybe even Nintendo, MLG, and EVO cutting ties with us again when the fragmented community can't get behind one game.

Thus bringing us right back full circle. again.

Just as SuperSalamence said, Brawl's gameplay is broken because of the tripping and metaknight. as long as there's a good number of viable characters, I don't think it'll go down like Brawl did. And based on the feedback, smash4 is completely different than Melee and Brawl.

Reality is, as long as Smash the franchise sells, a new Smash will come every few years. And the new smash game is heavily influenced by what made it sell (not by what made it competitive). Those new Smash games could have the potential to either divide the community or bring aboard the whole community into the new game.

And that is true to all other competitive games. That's what every competitive community will have to face. It is the communities' say if they move on to the new game, or divide themselves. Let's all just wait and see how all of this unfolds.

 

[Mighty_Guy100]

Captain Falcon Anouncement!!!

most-likely no

 

[Vigilante]

Realize that this most likely means that Evo will def have smash 4 next year over melee unless they have both games.

It may be their way of creeping it, trying to kill the Melee community so that Smash 4 can take over.

Mind you, the ideal solution would be for Smash 4 to be competitively fun, but currently, that is not the case.

 

[bar0n]

bout time!

 

[D-idara]

Whoah I didn't realize so many big game companies sponsored evo. Damn I forgot the nintendo logo turned grey. I wish that their logo was the N64 symbol, y'know the big colorful 3D N.

I don't think Nintendo was ever against EVO. I think that their lawyers in america just jumped the gun by mistake, I mean they immediately revoked their ban like an hour later. Now nintendo's sponsoring it to regain people's favor because most people held a grudge I guess?

A grudge's an understatement, most people didn't even look up the facts to see that it wasn't the company's mistake, it was their lawyers acting on their own.

 

[Tristan_win]

It may be their way of creeping it, trying to kill the Melee community so that Smash 4 can take over.

Mind you, the ideal solution would be for Smash 4 to be competitively fun, but currently, that is not the case.

Not only does that paint Nintendo in a bad light but it meaninglessly does it. What exactly would Nintendo lose if the Melee scene continue to live on and it's sequel isn't the main focus of it's small competitive scene?

 

[Vigilante]

Not only does that paint Nintendo in a bad light but it meaninglessly does it. What exactly would Nintendo lose if the Melee scene continue to live on and it's sequel isn't the main focus of it's small competitive scene?

The divide in this community is trouble they may not want to be dealing with. Instead of making the effort to create a decent competitive game, I'm sadly expecting them to try and creep into tournament scenes and creating their own tournaments that involve items, free for all. and banned stages like in the invitational. Basically, if you can't break the competitive scene, you outnumber them with a "new" so-called competitive scene. However, this time around, they will control how people play.

It's a pretty scary thought to be honest.

 

[Wyntir]

Now Nintendo needs to fix the miiverse. I'm banned for 2 weeks for mentioning Project M. How silly is that?

 

[DrizzyDrew]

Welcome Nintendo to competitive smash, we hope you stay!

 

[AceMan]

We've come so far... :D
HYPE!!!!!

 

[metaXzero]

Just as SuperSalamence said, Brawl's gameplay is broken because of the tripping and metaknight. as long as there's a good number of viable characters, I don't think it'll go down like Brawl did. And based on the feedback, smash4 is completely different than Melee and Brawl.

Reality is, as long as Smash the franchise sells, a new Smash will come every few years. And the new smash game is heavily influenced by what made it sell (not by what made it competitive). Those new Smash games could have the potential to either divide the community or bring aboard the whole community into the new game.

And that is true to all other competitive games. That's what every competitive community will have to face. It is the communities' say if they move on to the new game, or divide themselves. Let's all just wait and see how all of this unfolds.

No. The Melee community didn't stick with Melee just because of Meta Knight and tripping. It was because of the slow and defensive metagame that developed. Part of the reason why Meta Knight is so popular besides being the best character is also because he is the closest thing to a Melee top tier character in the game. Brawl could've been better balance, but Melee would still be holding strong with that gameplay we know Brawl for.

Based on the feedback I saw, the game while being different than Brawl was still a game where defense >> offense. A game of excessively long landing lag and a game where throws barely kill and don't lead to combos.That Zero vs. Hbox grand finals going to time didn't help matters. Though again, it's an old an out of date build. Brawl changed massively from the E for All demo to the final game. This game might too. But with Sakurai as he is now at the helm, I have my doubts of it getting better.

It's one Smash game every console generation. And Smash sells on just being a Nintendo All-star bashfest and its simple control scheme. Not on what makes it competitive, but not on what makes them anti-competitive either. Brawl would not have sold worse if it resembled Melee or Project M. The casual fans don't care about any of that. They just want a fun game where you can grab summon legendary Pokemon and beat Pikachu with a baseball bat. Sakurai thinks way too hard on catering to them. Which is why I worry about Smash 4.

Other competitive communities don't have to worry about the head of development going out of their way to spite them. They will always be assured that the game will consider them. What they have to worry about is the developers just knowing what they are doing with the design. Cause if they don't, they get games like SNK vs. Capcom or Street Fighter X Tekken which frustrates everyone into ignoring the game and sticking with the older game. All we can do is wait, but again, I'm really skeptical with modern Sakurai at the helm.

 

[Gladiator]

This will also get some good publicity for Evo Melee, and maybe we can even surpass last years 135k livestream viewers!