2GGaming Smash Bros events dropped and how it impacts the scene

Esports News
October 12, 2021
Jordan Ashley

2GGaming are one of the bigger Super Smash Bros organizers. For a while now they’ve been running Mega Smash Mondays and other events giving loads of competitive opportunities to Smash Bros players. However, the organizers have just announced that they’re cancelling the Final Stage competition and postponing all of their future events.

This is a bit of a loss to Smash Ultimate competitive, it comes at a weird time too, with the final DLC character for smash pushing the game back into headlines. So why is Smash competitive drying up now? And what does 2GGaming Smash Bros events being dropped mean for the future?

2GG Drop Smash Event

2GGaming Smash Bros Events Dropped

This week saw the news come out that 2GGaming Smash Bros events are being dropped for the foreseeable future. This feels like weird timing coming at the end of Smash Bros’ new content on the Switch, but the causes for this delay go back a bit further. They will be taking events on a hiatus for some time, but their biggest tournament to date was already working under a big delay.

The 2GGgaming organization is notable in Smash Bros for hosting both a team and esports events. They particularly came to the forefront during Smash for WiiU. They were probably one of the highest quality organizers for that fame, really helping it to build its unique scene outside of melee. While Ultimate has had success across the board, 2GGaming still deserve their recognition for this. That’s why it’s a shame they’ve been forced to put current events on hiatus. These are the main events they host for Smash bros:

  • 2GGT – 2GGT is a bimonthly event that plays relatively locally. It culminates in bigger tournaments.
  • 2GG Championship Series – This is a circuit competition with multiple stages and individual events. There’s a full $100,000 pot for this circuit which is pretty high for Smash bros, having broken the all-time record in the past.
  • Mega Smash Mondays

On top of these, they also held smaller events like Wednesday Night Fights and Hollywood Action Tuesdays. However, all of these are now going to be going away for quite a while.

 

The Final Stage was set to be a pretty big Smash Bros event. It was scheduled for March 2020. Naturally, this meant a pretty big delay once Covid prevented in-person events from taking place. While many in-person events have returned, Final Saga has been the victim of pretty fast-changing mandates to behaviour for events. So, 2GGaming have eventually decided to make the delay/cancellation indefinite. In their statement on the delays, they said there is no current timeline for the return to normal, so they’re unable to continue to plan for newer dates for the tournament.

Hopefully, the 2GGaming Smash Bros events can return in the future. However, at the moment there isn’t a plan on the table. Events are cancelled without a current end in mind.

Smash Bros Competitive Future

Smash Bros Ultimate has been hit hard by the lack of in-person events, just like most fighting games. However, the game’s scene has returned to a stronger state in recent months with a good few tournaments taking place. 2GGaming is one of the bigger names in Smash Bros and it is a shame they won’t be continuing. However, this isn’t the end of the road for Smash Bros Ultimate esports.

The title is just about to get its last DLC, this is a highly requested character from fans and a great way to close the book on the Smash Ultimate roster. The game currently has an amount of content that no one would have expected prior to release. Smash Ultimate’s competitive scene has fared quite a bit better than other fighting games during Covid. Despite Nintendo’s efforts to block better online play, in-person events quickly got back off to a good start. The game’s competitive scene is active and growing again. Once fighting games can return to full strength, then more Smash Ultimate events will likely come to fill this void.