Figured I wait until I post in here considering that the mood in here seems rather down, way more then I thought honestly.
While I am a little disappointed Crash did not make it in as I was hoping considering E3 was a big deal, to say that the fighter who got revealed was not hyped? It was actually pretty hype (It's freaking Tekken man!) and something I was not expecting, considering the leak that happened within the mere hours that said that Master Chief was going to be next (from Vergeben) for Smash, so to see that happen and then get Kazuya right afterwards was some Stop 'N' Swap **** that was pretty funny to see.
As far as Crash is concerned, I still have legitimate hope that he'll make it into the game. At this point I refuse to abandon such this far down the rabbit hole so I might as well finish it and while yes we have one slot left, I think the point of "they are gonna end it with a first party like they did with the base roster and FP1" is actually a point I don't really agree with. We're comparing those circumstances when it was clear that Nintendo/Sakurai was gonna add more DLC into the game to a point in time (right now) where this is pretty much the LAST DLC slot to be added into Smash (with maybe 1 Bonus slot??) for a very long time, I don't think they are gonna settle for a 1st party imo, I highly believe that they want to capitalize on the end of the Smash Ultimate DLC here on a high note, so what better way to do that then to add two hype characters (Kazuya and whoever is next on the hype tree) to the game and then close the book on the game for a very long time.
While this E3 was Crash's best shot, it is NOT over by any means and there is still that possibility that they intended (assuming he is next) to have reveal him as CP11 instead, and if the idea is that CP11 gets revealed in September? His 25th anniversary date would be September 9th and considering how Activision have said in their statement when Crash 4 got their ports to the Switch/PC/etc: "Fans should also be on the lookout for tons of furtastic festivities from Activision Blizzard, Inc aimed to engage Crash Bandicoot fans throughout the year." And while there hasn't been much for that since the aforementioned ports (unless you count the social media posts from Crash's twitter and a lot of the 25th anniversary posts of him doing various things and the hashtag #Crash25before25 they've been doing) I do honestly believe that based on the 25th anniversary posts from Crash's twitter (and the hashtag) and how all of that has been posted and implying? We're gonna get something for him that'll be good this year, maybe before the end of the month since June is a Crash month (in a way) but I also realize that they are probably laying eggs for September.
Keep the hope guys! It might be tough right now, but regardless if he gets into Smash or not, we should all be extremely grateful for how he has came back since E3 2016 with it being a massive success! Super happy that he's back into the main fray of things, but yeah! Keep the hope guys! <3
EDIT: So I decided to calculate the representation numbers as far as genres are concerned that are relevant for Smash and here's what I came up with:
JRPGS: 5 (Joker, Hero, Byleth, Sephiroth, and Pyra/Mythra)
Fighting game reps: 3 (Terry, Min-Min, and Kazuya)
Sandbox reps: 1 (Steve, and he will be the ONLY one for this one)
Platformer reps: 1 (Banjo-Kazooie)
So based on the numbers here, only ONE platformer rep from the two Fighters Pass so far (I'm aware its higher from the base roster, but that's not the point for rn) so whose to say that they wouldn't think of adding in another one for the last slot, and Crash is the STRONGEST one that's left from the platformer pool that is viable for Smash. Will it happen?
We'll see.