Apex 2015 Moves to New Venue, Kicks Off Today

I feel bad for the guy unseen behind the held hand in the middle.

So hyped! This is the first year I'm watching Apex live.

@SebPlays LOL

I'm excited to see what the hypes about. I've played a few times now, twice with 4 players for an evening. It just felt like a chaotic mess to me. I am not ruling out that me and my friends just stink at this. Hopefully watching some actual good players will inspire me to give this more play time.

Just want Splatoon info at the moment.

Melee? Really? Done watching the mess that is Melee. Play the newest version as the main attraction at the tournament.

To understand Apex one must first watch the Smash Bros Documentary Series on youtube. After completing all 9 eps. there is no way you wont watch every Apex competition from here on out.

Oh crud! How did I forget about Apex?! Oh well. I'll watch it when I get the chance.

@bobbypaycheque "Done watching the mess that is Melee."? LMAO! How is it a mess? My fanboy detector is going off the charts!

Also, they're playing EVERY Smash game at the tournament, not just Melee. Wow, so delusional.

@bobbypaycheque They also stream Smash 4. Check TeamSpooky channel on Twitch.

@bobbypaycheque Smash Bros. 4 isn't exactly tournament material by comparison...

Just found out Isai won't be competing in Smash 64.... Well, if he's not at the tournament he can't get hit!

@White-Wash Wow, after watching that... I really am impressed with what these people accomplished. I am also disappointed with Nintendo's corporate attitude, treating events such as EVO 2013 as bugs to be squashed, going after the data, regardless of who may be involved in it. It's one thing to go after a giant like Google, but it's another to go after a much smaller target, even if they are monetizing from game coverage. Good to see the appropriate folks changed their minds for Apex 2015.

@CapeSmash None of the Smash games are really tournament material, but Melee least of all.

@PlywoodStick It is a much more balanced and competitively fair game though for sure. If one must play a Smash Bros. game at a tournament Smash 4 should be it.

@Azooooz Thanks for the tip.

@bobbypaycheque I would argue that Project M holds by far the most potential for longevity and competitive viability, since it is evolving as time goes on, due to being a mod. Meanwhile, the mainline series is forever stuck with what they start out with- the community is unable to rebalance anything that could use a touch-up. The Smash community has proven to be a much better steward of mechanics evolution than Nintendo.

Of course, Nintendo is intent to make sure Project M is not used in big tournaments if they can help it. They don't want people to realize that their new baby right out of the gate has already proven to not be competitively viable by comparison to Project M, an unofficial product, despite the never quite complete state of Project M. (Although, judging by Nintendo's actions in the past, it might be safe to assume they not only don't care about the competitive viability of the series, they would prefer it to not show up in professional tournaments at all...)

@PlywoodStick Project M is very good for sure, but just doesn't feel like a proper Smash game to me. It is in a way too precise and feels more like a fighting game rather than a brawler. I love fighting games like Street Fighter etc. but Smash is a four player party brawler. I think Project M lost me when it made Smash into a fighting game, something by the admission of the game's creator that the Smash games were never meant to be. I honestly do think after putting a whole lot of hours into Smash 4 that it really is the best. It isn't perfect, no game really is (vanilla SF4 comes to mind), but it has a good sense of physics in the game and has characters that play at a slower pace that are still good. It's hard for me to put in words but playing Smash 4 with another person who is an experienced player feels right. I of course am not a 'pro' but I honestly couldn't care less what 'pros' think of the game. I don't want Nintendo to make Smash games for a few 'pro' players, I want them to make the unique offering that is a mix of fighting and a 2D brawler party game that is Smash.

@bobbypaycheque I agree that Nintendo's Smash 4 team certainly succeeded in that regard, for non-tournament play.

Watching Apex 2015 now, though, I feel that Melee is still the most technically advanced tournament brawler in the series. I think the difference in crowd reactions between the two titles speaks for itself: Smash 4 commentators and crowd are more subdued, Melee commentators and crowd are more excited and loud.

Part of the appeal of designing a game to allow for huge skill barriers to exist on the way to the top is the game's ability to carry on as a spectator sport. For example, Blizzard has had a recent spat of forcing the entirety of their newer games to be balanced around more accessibility for beginners. Despite that, they wisely opted not to dismantle Starcraft 2- it's metagame roots are firmly carried on from Starcraft 1. Starcraft 2 would not have become one of South Korea's main national televised sports if the entire game had been forced to become more accessible for the beginner, which would have screwed up mechanics evolution, as Nintendo did with Brawl and Smash 4.

Brawl tournaments are dead in the water at this point, and I wouldn't be surprised if Smash 4 tournaments become dead in the water when Smash 5 comes out. If Apex 2015 is any indication, I think Melee tournaments will live on.