Nintendo Will Officially Sponsor The Next EVO Fighting Tournament

[Steven Bogos]

Nintendo Will Officially Sponsor The Next EVO Fighting Tournament

Nintendo has come a long way since 2013's tournament, where it actively tried to shutdown the Super Smash Bros. Melee stream.

If you had told my 15, or even 20-year-old self that Nintendo would be officially sponsoring the world's biggest fighting game tournament in 2014, I would have laughed at you. But, that certainly seems to be the case, as e-sports caster D'Ron Maingrette has just revealed the list of official sponsors for EVO 2014 via Twitter [https://twitter.com/xD1x/status/485875484849614848], and there's Nintendo, joining the ranks of Twitch, Mad Catz, and more.

What makes the news so surprising is that just last year, at EVO 2013, Nintendo actively tried to block the Super Smash Bros. Melee stream [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125837-Nintendo-Tried-to-Block-Evo-Streams] of the event, and only reneged when met with waves of internet outcry. The attempted blockage was a particular slap in the face to Smash fans who raised $95,000 in EVO's official charity fundraiser just to have the game at the event.

But, Nintendo has turned over a new leaf. At E3 this year, it invited professional Smash Bros. players to play at its Super Smash Bros. invitational tournament [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134101-Nintendo-Hosting-Smash-Bros-Tournament-at-E3-Ditching-Press-Conference], and has been increasingly opening up to the competitive community since the snafu at EVO 2013. Here's hoping that it continues this trend of changing its stance on unpopular policies, and finally puts an end to its backwards region-locking policies.

EVO 2014 will be held during July 11-13 at the LVH Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and will be played with the Xbox 360 as the main platform, rather than PlayStation 3. Joining Super Smash Bros. Melee will be Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Killer Instinct, Injustice: Gods Among Us, King of Fighters XIII, and BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma.

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/xD1x/status/485875484849614848/photo/1]

Permalink

 

[RicoADF]

Nintendo has been doing alot well recently, which is saying alot as I'm someone who's never had a Nintendo console until I picked up my Wii for $8 2nd hand to play gamecube games on. The Wii U however is looking like a sale in a few weeks once I get my tax return

Cudos Nintendo, cudos

 

[Smooth Operator]

Seems still in line with old Nintendo to be honest, the only reason they are pissy when anyone plays their games publicly is because they are not in control or taking a cut. So they jumped at the head of the curve here and made sure if anyone plays anything they are at the helm of it all, while apparently convincing people everything has changed over night.

That is pure evil genius right there.

 

[Grape_Nuts]

Glad to hear the PS3 is no longer tournament standard. Lots of players were complaining about its 2 frames of inherent input lag messing up their game. Even if that's no longer the case, many players seem to believe it. At least now they can no longer use that as an excuse.

 

[WendelI]

I hope this means no more gay-tripping. if Nintendo acknowledges the competitive player base then hopefully they pull back on their anti competitive decisions they made in brawl such as the fore mention tripping.

 

[Steven Bogos]

I hope this means no more gay-tripping. if Nintendo acknowledges the competitive player base then hopefully they pull back on their anti competitive decisions they made in brawl such as the fore mention tripping.

It's already been stated multiple times that tripping won't be in smash 4

 

[Mr. Q]

Not surprised by this turnaround, given that Nintendo is trying to crawl its way back after the lackluster sales of the WiiU. Just hope an exec doesn't pull any last minute douche-baggery to fuck this up.

 

[cikame]

It's nice when a company does something other than take your money, but there's always the feeling that it only happens when stars align and the businessmen accidently make a decision which is good for the community.

I hear the tree house thing they did at e3 was well received, and sponsoring EVO makes up for last years mistake, but how long before the stars move again and they're suing youtube users.

 

[VG_Addict]

So, between this, the "For Fun/For Glory" Mode in the next Smash, and the Invitational at E3, Nintendo is finally not only acknowledging the competitive Smash community, but embracing it.

 

[Irridium]

This really makes me wonder what Sakurai thinks about all this, since he hates competitive fighters and made Smash to be the opposite of them.

 

[DarthSka]

I'm glad to see that Nintendo is making more progressive decisions that line up with the times. Their previous decisions were pretty back-asswards, but better late than never. Hope they keep it up.

This really makes me wonder what Sakurai thinks about all this, since he hates competitive fighters and made Smash to be the opposite of them.

Well, considering there will be a competitive focused "For Glory" online mode in the next Smash as well as the fact that he made an appearance at the E3 tournament, he may not be a fan of the competitive scene, but he at least understands that others are and accommodates them too.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Makes sense to me. Put frankly, there are a lot of fighting game players who will be buying a WiiU purely to play the new Smash game and quite possibly nothing else. Why? Because of how well Smash did at Evo last year and how much acceptance Smash has found among the FGC at large ever since. Nintendo would be stupid not to align itself with Evo at this point. And, heck, every other company with a major game a Evo is a sponsor too. Really, this is only news because of how badly Nintendo bent itself over a barrel last year.

 

[TheNewGuy]

I hope this means no more gay-tripping. if Nintendo acknowledges the competitive player base then hopefully they pull back on their anti competitive decisions they made in brawl such as the fore mention tripping.

It's already been stated multiple times that tripping won't be in smash 4

Not only that, but there was no need to preface "tripping" with a homophobic slur like that.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

So how do i get smash bros on my 360 then?
Also is the version the wii u or the wii smash bros for the tournament?

 

[Roxas1359]

Well, considering there will be a competitive focused "For Glory" online mode in the next Smash as well as the fact that he made an appearance at the E3 tournament, he may not be a fan of the competitive scene, but he at least understands that others are and accommodates them too.

I honestly think that probably had more to do with Bandi-Namco helping out with the development of the game than Sakurai in all honesty. Bandi-Namco know how to balance the game to where it can be competitive, so I doubt we'd have seen the For Glory mode if Bandi-Namco weren't helping.

 

[Youthius]

Forgot that Tekken tag tournament 2 will be played.

 

[Strazdas]

Nintendo saw it cant shut down what it wants even when abusing laws like it does to youtube, so they decided to take a cut of the money instead. and people praise it for it.

Hmm i wonder how big EVO was that nintendo wanted to take a bite.

over 2 million unique viewers on UStream over the course of the event

Oh, right, a small one then.

 

[ShakerSilver]

Well, considering there will be a competitive focused "For Glory" online mode in the next Smash as well as the fact that he made an appearance at the E3 tournament, he may not be a fan of the competitive scene, but he at least understands that others are and accommodates them too.

So, between this, the "For Fun/For Glory" Mode in the next Smash, and the Invitational at E3, Nintendo is finally not only acknowledging the competitive Smash community, but embracing it.

Oh please, "For Glory" is nothing buy a joke. Competitive players play on a variety of stages, FD being just a counter-pick against Fox most of the time. It's like Nintendo just heard the "Fox only, Final Destination" meme and thought it was truth. If they wanted a REAL competitive friendly online mode, they would set up a stage ban system. Not that it really matters though, since most competitive players just play locally.