On Thursday, November 18th, the Smash community was treated to some news that many thought would never happen.
Nintendo of America will be officially involved in a Smash circuit. They will be partnering up with Panda Global, a widely known and respected eSports organization that has heavily committed to smash for years.
Now, why is this huge? Well, other fighting games have developer support. This can mean anything from a pot bonus at tournaments to hosting the tournaments themselves. In the case of the Smash community, it’s seemed that Nintendo has actively tried to suppress the community. For years the community has been grassroots. The most interaction the community has had with Nintendo has been hostile. This was most notable when Nintendo tried to stop EVO 2013 from streaming their Melee tournament. Nintendo actually backed down and let the event be streamed, but this is the type of relationship they’ve had with the Smash community.
So with Nintendo on board and working with an organization that has shown they understand the community, this is really exciting. Panda Global has been a top-tier sponsor in the FGC. They also created the global rankings for both Melee and Ultimate. The Panda Global stats team is highly respected and their list of the top 50 players every season is treated as official by the community.
With all the excitement, there are some doubters. Nintendo has dipped its toes in Smash tournaments before, but their events are usually indistinguishable from the grassroots community. They usually have funky rules and don’t attract the same crowd. The grassroots community has developed its own rules that have become standard for the community. They make the game as barebones as it can be to limit the number of outside factors that would determine a match’s outcome. Nintendo’s rule sets would have crazy stages and items, and who can blame them. The grassroots community loves smash, but they don’t use a majority of the game. They play on around 9 stages in most rulesets and turn items off. That’s utilizing such a small amount of the game, but they love it. Hopefully, Panda is providing the ruleset and Nintendo is providing the resources.
This is a huge step in the right direction for the smash community. It would be awesome for Nintendo to embrace the grassroots community that’s existed for years despite the neglect they’ve given them before. Nintendo seeing value in the community would open up so many more opportunities for the community and its participants. Smash has been known for not having a lot of money in the community, so having Nintendo involved in an official capacity and the money that comes with them is going to help so many who have dedicated their careers to smash.
I’m excited to see where this collaboration goes and hope it’s the start of a better relationship between Nintendo and the Smash community.
Bernard Lamar Rice 