Panda Cup Online Qualifiers Announced – Full Details and Registration

The Panda Cup is the first Nintendo-sanctioned circuit for Super Smash Bros. This is a new type of tournament for competitive Smash and it’s already shaken things up. The in-person qualifiers are well underway, with multiple players already qualified for their spots at the finals. However, the Panda Cup Online qualifiers are another route to the Finale.

More details of the online component of the Panda Cup Circuit have just been announced. This is it’s all going to work.

Panda Cup Online Qualifiers

The Panda Cup Online Qualifiers are going to be a different type of competition for the game, letting players compete without attending the major in-person tournaments. There are going to be a number of these held in-game throughout the build-up to the Panda Cup Finale. The winners will move on to face the winning players from the circuit’s offline majors, like Onin and Sonix.

North American tournaments are going to be take place in July, August, and September. These will whittle players down until the winners take their spot at the final in December. The online qualifiers start with early rounds where players are competing in matches on a regional leaderboard. The top 96 ranking players get points towards their spot on the leaderboard. Each region has four of these online qualifiers. After that, the highest ranking 32 players move into the online finals.

The online finals for these tournaments are played in a double elimination bracket, with all matches best of five. The winner of each of these brackets gets their spot at the Panda cup Finale. Players can sign up to take part in the event here if they live in the relevant regions.

Panda Cup Online Schedule and Regions

This is the schedule for the finals and regions for the Panda Cup Online Qualifiers. Although, there will be earlier rounds for qualification.

• Heartland – October 15
• Mexico – October 30
• Mid Atlantic USA – October 16
• Northeast NA – November 5
• Northwest NA – November 6
• South Central USA – October 23
• Southeast USA – October 22
• Southwest USA – October 29

Panda Cup Circuit and Finals

The Panda Cup Online qualifiers are going to give more players a chance to join the circuit. While the prize pools at the new circuit have disappointed some, the tournaments offer a chance to claim the winner’s spot for an official event. This is basically unprecedented and even with some disappointments, it makes the circuit a bigger deal.

The qualifiers so far have yielded some interesting results. So far in the Panda Cup, we’ve seen some new players win and with new characters. There have already been finals consisting of Ice Climbers facing Steve, and even a Sonic qualifying. The Panda Cup Online qualifiers are going to increase the variety of characters even more. While the qualifiers are taking place with a better connection than standard online, Smash isn’t known for its great netcode. Some characters are better balanced online than others.

These factors are bound to make the panda Cup Online qualifiers unique. We might see characters who don’t normally dominate the higher tiers offline see more representation. In terms of the final Panda Cup Finals roster we eventually see, this could make for an interesting and diverse group of players facing off.

Smash Ultimate has a lot of tournaments ahead, especially with these online qualifiers. More and more new players are hitting the top of the game’s skill level and winning majors. While active development is over for Smash Bros Ultimate, this is one of the most interesting times for its competitive game.