On Jan. 30, thousands of fighting game fans gathered in Secaucus, New Jersey for what turned out to be the largest “Super Smash Bros.” tournament of all time. Not only was this one of the largest tournaments for the new “Super Smash Bros.” game for the Wii U, with more than 600 entrants, it was also the largest tournament ever for the classic Gamecube game, “Super Smash Bros. Melee,” with more than 1,000 entrants.
Other popular fighting games like “Street Fighter 4” and “Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3” were featured, but with this turning out to be the largest “Super Smash Bros.” tournament in history, all eyes were on Nintendo’s flagship fighting game.
Unfortunately, disaster struck later in the day with the pull of a fire alarm after snow from a recent storm collapsed the roof of one of the convention center’s ballrooms. Luckily, nobody was harmed, but the convention center had to be evacuated, leaving all in attendance stranded in the harsh cold of New Jersey, yearning for some hard hitting “Smash Bros.” action.
Before the day had passed, the tournament planners had already found a new venue for the tournament: The Garden State Convention Center in Somerset, New Jersey.
Tournament goers flocked to the new venue and started up the tournament again as soon as possible. Due to the delays, the “Super Smash Bros.” finals were pushed back to Super Bowl Sunday.
By 9 p.m. Sunday, the smashing was well underway. While the Seahawks and Patriots were busy bruising each other in Glendale, Arizona, Marios and Captain Falcons were beating the ever-loving whoo-haw out of each other, fighting for their chance of “Smash Bros.” glory and an $18,000 prize pool.
At its peak, nearly 200,000 people were streaming the tournament live over the Internet, the most people to have ever streamed a “Super Smash Bros.” tournament. And just after 2 a.m., this most historic fighting game extravaganza came to a close.
Competitive video gaming has become increasingly popular in the past years. In South Korea, professional “Star Craft” players are as popular as all-star athletes are in America. It’s doubtful that you will see bros walking down Fredonia in professional gamers’ jerseys anytime soon, but it is entirely possible that sometime in the future, professional gaming could become just as popular as professional sports are today.
