Nintendo Official Smash Bros Pro Circuit Unveiled – New Tournament

Super Smash Bros
November 19, 2021
Jordan Ashley

Nintendo is one of the oldest and most distinguished names in gaming, but in esports they have a spotty history. The company has launched titles like Smash Bros and Splatoon, both with great esports potential. However, they rarely follow up on this potential themselves, instead of leaving the job to the wider esports community. While Smash Bros is one of the most popular fighting games, Nintendo doesn’t often move into competitive gaming. Nintendo have recently made a decent move forward with the Smash bros themselves. A Nintendo Official Smash Bros Pro Circuit is going to be launching in the coming months This is how it’s going to work.

Panda and Nintendo

Nintendo Official Smash Bros Pro Circuit

Nintendo is entering into Smash Bros esports for itself, partnering up with Panda Global. Panda is already a bigger part of the Smash Bros community, organizing their own frequent and smaller tournaments. However, this new event is going to be a step forward. They will be officially partnered up with Nintendo for the event. This makes it a rarity as one of Nintendo’s only entries into esports themselves.

The two companies will be running an officially licenced pro-circuit for the game. This should naturally attract all of the top Smash Bros pros out there. The event isn’t going to be beginning until 2022, so details are a little sparse at this early stage.

The event will have qualifiers hosted in-game. However, organizers are hopeful that the eventual pro circuit events will be taking place both on and offline. In-person events for the game should be taking place as part of this tournament too.

Players will first play in qualification founds. This will be followed by competing in finals for the regions and find an eventual winner.

Why Now?

Nintendo official Smash Bros Pro Circuit does come as a bit of a surprise to those who follow the community for the game. The developer has always had a frosty relationship with esports communities. In recent months, it has been at its lowest. Smash Bros Ultimate has had its final update. While that’s not the end for tournaments, Nintendo just recently issued a cease and desist to The Big House for their own Smash Bros event. Essentially, it looked like Nintendo were cracking down on esports events.

Nintendo has tolerated the Smash bros competitive community and occasionally worked with them to promote newer titles. However, this new Nintendo official Smash Bros Pro Circuit is a big move. They will be directly involved with the tournament, and for once play a very active role in some of the top-level tournaments. Why exactly they’ve chosen to do this after they shut down development is the title is a bit of a mystery.

An official esports event for Ultimate and Melee is a big deal for Smash Bros. The timing is strange, and some pros have reason to not entirely trust Nintendo here. They have cancelled Splatoon 2 events at basically no notice just to avoid a hashtag being used in the past. If they can commit to this event and actually become a bigger part of the competitive community though, this would definitely be a big deal for Smash Bros esports.