Streamer and Super Smash Bros. Melee supporter Ludwig Ahgren is hoping to make Supernova 2025 one of the must-see Smash Majors in history by flying out pro players to the tournament.
On May 6th, 2025, Ludwig tweeted on X that he wanted to help make Supernova 2025 the ‘biggest Melee tournament ever’ by offering free registration for the bracket and even flying out top players who are ‘really good but can’t afford to go’. He would also add $10 to the prize pool himself for every registration.
Ludwig and Supernova 2025 Partner Up To Promote Super Smash Bros. Melee Esports
Supernova 2025 tweeted a promotional video on May 6th that claimed it was the ‘world’s largest Smash event’ but wanted to get even bigger. The tournament organisers announced: “To take things to the next level, we have joined forces with Ludwig and Mogul Moves.”
Formerly known as Super Smash Con, Supernova 2025 is a Washington DC-based Super Smash Bros. event that’s been around for over a decade. It includes tournaments for Melee, Ultimate, Brawl, Nintendo 64 and even modded iterations of Smash. It also has fan activations, friendlies, the iconic Combo Contest and hosts an award show.
In the past, tournaments like Supernova have been criticised for having crowd-funded prize pools. Oftentimes, TOs will rely on merch sales and registration fees to build up a small prize pool for pro players, usually not even enough to cover a flight to the trip. This has usually been put on Nintendo for not supporting the esports scene like other fighting games with developer support.
As Majors have continued to shut down due to a lack of funds, Ludwig has stepped up in an attempt to grow Supernova 2025.
Last year’s Melee prize pool at Supernova 2024 was just $9,050 (~£6,773), with the winner getting almost half of it. Compare this to other fighting game events like the $2.5m Fatal Fury tournament at the SNK World Championship or Capcom Cup 11’s $1m grand prize for the Street Fighter 6 champion, and you can understand why the Smash community has been struggling to grow in comparison.
It’s too early to know what the Supernova 2025 prize pool will be, but Ludwig is hoping that this will be a big upgrade for the Melee scene. It’s unclear if the other Smash games will get the same benefits or if they will remain at lower prize pools.