Any online tournament discussion right can only be based off the dojo. Even then we're dealing only in speculation. Some of the biggest things to take into account are the following:
"One of the primary reasons that this game was even created was because Nintendo staff said that when taking the console online, probably the best title to do so would be Super Smash Bros. Because of that, we're going to try very hard to do that. But, at the same time, I think it would be a lot of work for us ... to try and find out whose number one." - Mr. Sakurai
Translation: Brawl is one of the best multiplayer games coming out for the Wii. We made the game online. We want players to expand their area of players, but there won't be a ranking system.
"But because this form of communication is greatly affected by the distance between you and your opponent, your brawls may not run smoothly if you’re really far apart—like, for instance, if you’re connecting between Japan and America." - Mr Sakurai
Translation:You can still connect with lots of people at hopefully a good internet speed. Whether or not you can play with the same luxury of a live match is a concern.
So what does this mean? It means we can still try to organize online tournaments and ladders, but it's going to depend completely on third party systems such as forums, programs, and external links.
Clearly, we don't have to change much with the PROCEDURE of live tournaments. The transition from Melee to Brawl needs to take into account maximum time limit, stock of match, items/smash balls and standard tournament quality stages.
Online Tournaments need to figure these out as well. Whether or not they go in the exact same direction is also open for question.
Online competitions also need too develop a fresh new system.
Friend codes, time zones, lag concerns, tournament size, tournament length of time, site(s) of registration and more are necessary for proper planning and execution. The beauty of this though is that once a system works well, very little upkeep is required and most people will only be dealing with the final product.
Online play has strengths. It is easy to find new players or reconnect with old friends at the convenience of playing your own Wii. With proper planning you have unlimited "tvs" to play your matches on so the amount of time to play an online tournament could drastically be cut down. You are not limited by the number of tvs on your site or the consoles that people brought.
The biggest con right now is what comes with anything related to the internet. Spamming and lack of truth. The whole point of friend codes is to just play your friends. The game was not intended to involve massive online collaborations. How do we keep people honest? Disconnects... falsifying results, these are possibly the large obstacles that any organized online Brawl event may face.
All we can do right now is making plans based off speculation. Those that are really interested have already started. We can then act accordingly as we play Brawl in general and use its online features to develop any online competitive system.
