Recently acquired by Sony, EVO, one of the biggest fighting game championships in the world, has announced that Smash Bros. will not be present during the 2022 edition, as during the online editions.
It is on Twitter this weekend that we learn the news, EVO (Evolution Championship Series) will not host competition on Super Smash Bros. This year, when he returns to face-to-face in Los Angeles. The previous two years because of the Covid pandemic, EVO had to hold its tournament online and in this format, Smash Bros had not been present during the competitionprobably because of its highly criticized online mode by players of the game. This year, while the tournament returns to face-to-face, Smash Bros. for the first time in 15 years in Nintendo’s fighting game history.
In this press release, we find these words from the EVO:
Since 2007, we’ve seen some historic Smash Bros moments at EVO. We are saddened by Nintendo’s decision not to continue that legacy with us this year. In the years to come, we hope to once again celebrate the Smash Bros community with them by our side.
The EVO was in the past the biggest tournament in the world on Smash Bros.this decision from Nintendo so seems at first glance insane. However, different factors come into play here. First, in March 2021, the EVO was acquired by Sony, a direct competitor of Nintendo. This point alone can therefore call into question the holding of a Smash Bros tournament within it, the two companies having a very old rivalry. But above all, we learned at the end of last year the birth of a partnership between Nintendo America and the organizer of PandaGlobal tournamentsintended to bring an official American circuit to Nintendo’s fighting game, which was supposed to happen during the year 2022. However, we still have no news about this partnership to date.
Wednesday, March 9, theEVO will also hold a live announcement on its Twitch channel which should give us more details on its 2022 edition. We will therefore unfortunately not count not Smash Bros among the present licenses.. It would therefore not be surprising to see news coming very soon from Nintendo regarding its new official circuit on Smash Bros.