Nintendo is hosting an invitational tournament for two Nintendo Switch titles this year, Super Smash Bros. & Splatoon 2.
The Super Smash Bros. Invitational Tournament will be held on June 11th and June 12th, while the Splatoon 2 World Championship starts on April 21st with qualifiers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Austrailia, and Japan. We should hear more information regarding Nintendo’s E3 plans at a later date.
During last year’s E3, Nintendo focused some of their attention on a Splatoon 2 international tournament, which helped bring Splatoon 2 to the competitive scene. The tournament was hosted inside of the Los Angeles Convention Center during E3, where E3 attendees could cheer on their favorite team during competitive matches.
IGN spoke to Bill Trinen, Senior Product Marketing Manager, about these announcements, and his perspective on the “esports” side of things:
“We look at the Invitational from both a tournament perspective and a play perspective. We plan on showcasing high level, world-class play with Super Smash Bros for Switch, and we also plan on showcasing the game in a way that highlights how fun it can be for players and different ways that players will enjoy playing the game. I think that’s something that’s a bit unique to Nintendo’s approach to these types of tournaments.” Bill Trinen stated. “We try to design them in a way that’s welcoming to both people who are really into the esports side of things, but also to people who maybe don’t spend as much time watching esports but are still interested in seeing fun competitive play.”
The Nintendo Switch version of Super Smash Bros. isn’t the only game in the series to receive competitive support from Nintendo. If you recall, Nintendo held an invitational tournament for Super Smash Bros. For The Nintendo Wii U at E3 2013, nearly 6 months before the official release of the game. Additionally, Nintendo has supported competitive events, leading back to 2013 where EVO held a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament, where professionals came together to compete.
“The reality is that Smash Bros. already has its own competitive scene, and it’s a scene that we’ve tried to continue to support in a variety of different ways, and we’ve seen a lot of growth regarding the number of players and viewership. I think those tournaments are really good at focusing on the competitive scene.” Trinen said. “For E3 and with our own tournaments, we’re trying to look at how we can bring that same competitive fun to a larger audience. As we start to do some of that, we’ll see some of that larger audience bleed back over into the competitive scene and the tournaments themselves.”
E3 is scheduled to take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 12th, 2018, to June 14th, 2018.
Source: IGN
