Smash Bros. Community Celebrates Nintendo Invitational
The last year or so has been a dramatic time for the Smash Bros. community. Between a massively successful donation drive, spearheading their entry into EVO as well as record-breaking viewership numbers, and Samox's universally acclaimed Smash Brothers documentary, the Melee side of the scene's been especially energetic. But in that context alone, that brief burst of activity might have been construed as a swan song for a community that's managed to survive for so long out of sheer determination, even in the face of wholly grassroots competitive support.
But that wasn't the end of it. Melee's return to the MLG circuit after a years-long hiatus was heralded as a "platinum age" for the scene – a homecoming of sorts. Then Smash 4 was announced, positioned by Nintendo as a midpoint between Brawl and Melee in design (what that actually constitutes has yet to be determined), with a competitive mode as a clear acknowledgement of the trends and expectations of the grassroots scene.
And now, to cap a seemingly miraculous year off, Nintendo is hosting an invitational tournament at E3, featuring some of the best known names of the community. Though, notably, not always the ones tournament-goers expect to see. Top-tier players like Mew2King and Mango are notably missing from the Smash Bros. 4 invitational lineup.
Commentator Wynton 'Progducto' Smith, also invited to the E3 event, isn't entirely surprised by their absence. "I think Nintendo wanted to get a good microcosm of the scene," said Smith. "There are more than just top players there. You have tournament organizers, content creators, streamers, people who are more concerned with the welfare of the scene than their own placings, not to mention people who just love Nintendo."
Notably, among the competitors invited are names that haven't officially been a part of the scene for a while. Melee players like teammates Daniel 'LiquidKDJ' Jung and Ken 'LiquidKen' Hoang were heavily spotlighted in Samox's Smash Brothers documentary, and are legends in their own right, but had retired from the scene some time ago. As was Lilian 'Milktea' Chen, a TED Talk designer and former competitor that made a splash with a post-documentary write-up on the challenges female gamers face in the heavily male-driven competitive culture. But none of them could stay away forever.
"Seeing the effects of our scene's leaders' efforts at improving the community roped me back in," said Chen. "The Smash community had its abundant share of sloppy moments, ones that made me no longer want to be affiliated with them. Most were not related with the issue of gender either. There was just a general air of immaturity that seemed to cling to the scene, whether it was in regards to lack of organization, social etiquette and so forth."
"I recall posting about the issue of the word 'rape' a few months back," she continued. "It was immediately dismissed and a few people even took the time to argue with me for hours as to why it was totally acceptable vernacular. At that point, I was on the brink of giving up on the community. But soon, to my surprise, I watched MIOM [Melee It On Me], Scar, Prog, D1 and many others step in to help curb these types of behaviors and vastly improve the maturity level of the competition as a whole. Now, when I tell people the competitive scene has earned this acknowledgment from Nintendo, I sincerely mean it. It is rather insane how far they have come in such a short amount of time."
Nintendo's acknowledgment goes to a level even more fundamental than hosting an invitational tournament. They've also announced adapter support for the old Gamecube controllers – the relevance of which hasn't gone unnoticed by the competitors.
"The adapter represents so much more than just acknowledgment from Nintendo. It shows that we, as a community, were not only heard but listened to. Think of it this way: GCN controller production stopped years ago, and despite this, there is still an adapter being released for them! Miracle status."
Along with the adapter, Nintendo's announced an accompanying Gamecube Controller bundle to be launched alongside the game.
But while everything seems to be looking up for the community, Smith hopes that the community will live up to its new era in turn. "I'm hoping the scene finally ends this rift with Melee and Brawl. I'm also hoping for a ton of new growth, as we've seen since 2013, to say the least. The tournaments will be there, but I hope more people are inspired to make a name for themselves, not just as players, but as ever element of the scene. This scene is more than just the top players: it is the people who watch streams, who do the streaming, who run events, who commentate, who make guides, who write about it, etc. We've seen a lot of growth, and yet apathy, and I hope we see more inspiration as time goes on."
Nintendo broadcasts the invitational this afternoon, at 4 PM PDT, over Twitch.tv.
