VGBootCamp has announced the Smash World Tour, a competitive circuit for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate, in partnership with Smash.gg and Twitch.
The Smash World Tour (SWT) is an international league comprised of Super Smash Bros. events hosted by the league’s producer and independent tournament organisers.
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Over $250,000 (£195,662.50) in prize winnings will underline its inaugural year concluding in the Smash World Tour Championships over December 17th-21st at a location that’s still to be determined. The circuit is said to have over 25 stops across more than seven countries, with more to be announced.
Events operated internally by the league’s producer are known as ‘SWT tournaments’ while those run by independent organisers are defined as ‘sanctioned tournaments.’ At its sole discretion, the SWT will classify events as either platinum, gold, or silver, based on “location, size, rules, and prestige.” Each will award a fixed number of qualifying points counting towards the SWT Championships in December.
The 31 highest ranked players will receive an invitation and travel accommodations to compete in the SWT Championship, with an additional slot into the tournament made available through a last chance qualifier. Both the Melee and Ultimate Championship events will offer a $125,000 (£97,807.50) cash purse, with potential additional variables said to be announced later in time.
The SWT will kick off with CEO Dreamland on March 13th, followed by events such as Pound, Super Smash Con, and Get On My Level, scheduled for later in the year. The site also states independent Super Smash Bros. event organisers can ‘opt in’ to become a sanctioned tournament on the Tour via Smash.gg. At the time of writing, the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and Genesis are notably missing from the SWT’s playbill.
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Nintendo is not affiliated with the Smash World Tour, although the league references its hopes to collaborate with the developer at some point: “As of now, The Smash World Tour is not associated or affiliated with Nintendo or Nintendo of America – though we hope to team up with them in the future! One of our goals with the Tour is to offer a unified way for Nintendo to directly support the competitive scene.”
The Smash World Tour official rulebook states Beardog Events LLC as the league’s Tour Producer; the company is presumably the cooperative of VGBootCamp and Super Smash Con.
Esports Insider says: For the first time, Super Smash Bros. events will be linked through an overarching circuit, similarly to how other competitive fighting games such as Tekken and Street Fighter are structured. The Smash World Tour represents a monumental moment in an entirely community-driven esport, in which the packaging of dozens of events may offer some incentive for Nintendo to finally get involved.