Up and coming players use nationals to gauge their growth, while newer players love the idea of competing in the same bracket as the pros and seeing themselves on stream.

On the flip side, other eSports build their infrastructure around professional players and teams. Large tournaments for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends are invite-only, and the process to qualify is rigorous. The end product of these events are exciting; The top teams are all well-prepared to perform at their peak, preparing specific game plans against other pro teams. They have the luxury of being able to focus on a select few players rather than thousands in a random set of pools.

Top Smashers have complained about having to play through consecutive 8-12 hour days at nationals. Upsets arerare in early rounds of pools and are often seen as a formality for top players to slug through. Since tournaments are so large, these pools can last such a long time, having players be on call for the whole entire day or risk being disqualified from the tournament in a moment’s notice.

Pre-planned events like Salty Suites get attention © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Moving Up Ahead

Smash Brothers continues to grow in both viewership and attendees year after year, but as an already-large game, the biggest question is how the community can sustain its growth. Tournaments have become increasingly expensive with expectations running higher than ever. Genesis 3 provided an exclusive Top 8 auditorium style venue, and the slowly looming expectation is that other tournaments need to have the same. As