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Nintendo Smash Bros. NA open tournament has players competing for a chair

It's not exactly a prize that'll have people leaping out of their chairs.
Ozzie Mejia
Ozzie Mejia
2

As the competitive Super Smash Bros. community seeks to establish its place in the esports world, they continue to do so without Nintendo's blessing. Meanwhile, Nintendo has opened up registration for its own Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament, which is set to take place later this month. Its prizes are... slightly lesser than what one would expect, but at least there's a chair on the line!

According to the official landing page on Battlefy, the NintendoVS North American Open April 2022 tournament for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is open to all players in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This will be an online tournament, so all eligible players will need to have an active Nintendo Switch Online account. The rules also state that entrants must have "easy and regular access to a consistent, reliable high-speed internet connection," which probably goes without saying given that the Smash Ultimate netcode isn't especially good.

The Grand Prize for the tournament will be 10,000 My Nintendo Gold Points (valued at $100 USD), a gaming chair ($359), a gaming headset ($99), a NintendoVS North American Open April 2022 trophy ($150), a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate jacket ($75), a backpack ($50), and a Nintendo Switch carrying case ($20). The full prize package is valued at $853. What makes this newsworthy is that it's a paltry sum compared to what's offered by the Smash community, whether it's the large monetary sums being floated around in the Smash World Tour 2022 (check out the trailer for that below) or the higher prize pools offered at third-party regional events. For Nintendo to offer such a small prize package seems... almost cheap. Heck, on top of everything, we don't even know what kind of chair this is! The rules don't specific a brand or anything. The page just says "Gaming Chair." It could be a random hodgepodge of parts. It could be The Homer of chairs. Who knows?

The other way of looking at this is, if the bigger names in the competitive scene are skipping this event, as one might expect given its paltry payout, maybe this is a good way for up-and-coming names in the community to get their feet wet. Sure, the competition will be fierce, but it's reasonable to expect that it won't be as fierce as it could be.

What say you, electronic sports aficionados? Is this a fun diversion or is it another example of Nintendo not understanding the esports phenomenon. Join the conversation in the comments and be sure to check out what's coming up in esports throughout the year by checking out our esports tournament schedule.

Senior Editor
Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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