by Dylan “OMD” St. Clair

In many situations, issues comes to light when a figurehead addresses it in some way, shape or form. Monday night, Tafokints got the ball rolling on an issue that could lead to something bigger: a Smash Championship.

Stemming off many players saying that they are wearing down due to the number of tournaments and the traveling that it takes to make each one, Tafo’s tweet got the support of some notable players.

But is this the route to a little more focused Melee? Here’s the way I see it.

The Dilemma(s)

To me, one of the two parts to this dilemma is the definition of a National.

When looking at the list of National Tournaments provided by SmashWiki, 17 tourneys are listed that have been finished in 2015, as well as six more events that have yet to happen. And to me, not all 17 felt like a National, especially when its numbers are the defining factor.

While some tourneys like Get On My Level and Smash ‘N’ Splash were great events from a viewer and attendee perspective, both had one thing in common: just one member of the Sinister Six entered. That’s not to say that talent was hard to come by either. Both were filled with notable names in the Top 25 from a number of regions.

I don’t think that’s an issue though.

This week at work, I was describing Melee to a coworker who had never been exposed to the scene. So I’m describing the tourneys, the depth of Melee and the community as a whole. But sometimes you have to compare the main topic to a much more relatable thing so that what you are presenting is something understandable. I pulled that card during the slow hours at work.

“Melee is like the PGA Tour,” I told Brandon. “The tour has events and tournaments nearly every weekend. But players like Tiger Woods, the big names, don’t compete in every event. They don’t have to.”

Never thought I would be looking at it that way, but it’s fairly accurate. Some players, like Mew2King, are at every event they possibly can attend. Then there’s PPMD, who has competed in singles twice the entire year and finished first and third. The same goes with tennis. As I got in the car after I had closed up at work, I thought about the comparisons a bit deeper and came to the realization to solve this problem.

Tennis has Grand Slams and golf has the Major Championships.

The Idea

If you travel for Melee or know the scene, you know which tournaments are of the most importance. Names like Evo, The Big House, CEO, BEAST and Apex stick out in everyone’s minds, along with the classics like Pound and Genesis (which is now to be revitalized) and the newcomers like DreamHack.

They are known to be on a higher plane than nearly every other tournament, but what puts them at that level? As of now, the big draws are the money, attendance and top-rate competition. But what if there was more.

My proposal to solve the issue is to declare that four events be our Major Championships, our Grand Slams. (And from this point on, I’ll address them as Grand Smashes, due to m  not finding a solid name for what to call these four. Keep tossing out ideas). Each of these four tournaments will hold significance in that they are considered our premier events.

Now one might look at this idea and think “I know that I’m not going to be able to make any of these because I can’t travel to (fill in city/country hundreds of miles away) four times a year.”

My answer is simple and nearly already in place: use four set-in-stone Nationals in four major regions in each of the four seasons.

The Midwest is fairly easy, with The Big House in the fall. In the summer, Jebailey’s influence with and around the Smash community has grown since hosting us in 2013, so CEO sounds like an appropriate event to represent the East Coast. To the west, one might consider Genesis 3 as a possible event to fill the need for winter. Which gives Europe the opportunity to host their Grand Smash in the spring, where DrømmeLAN 4.5 was hosted this April. BEAST could be an answer to the need or if Melee continues to be an event with DreamHack in 2016, it could be fill that role if they desired.

The Possible Lineup

TBH5_v1 ceo Screenshot (8) dreamhack-logo-2014-banner

 

That leaves one event out of the picture. The granddaddy of them all. The tournament that some considered the savior of Melee, Evo. This is not in any way me firing shots at Evo. It is a phenomenal tournament and holds the viewing records for Melee. Winning Evo is considered difficult and different due to the 2-out-of-3 setting and is one of the few Smash Majors this year to not have Best-of-5 for all of Top 8, a near-staple in the competitive scene. Some people aren’t sold on the worth of an Evo win compared to the rest of the Smash majors.

And those two reasons are why I’ve set it apart from the other four. Evo deserves to sit by its lonesome. It is a series of such prestige that its champion deserves to have a title of his own.

 

The Problem (or What Could be Seen as Problems)

I can already see some of the counter arguments to having a “Grand Slam” system. One in particular is that attendance and the worth of those smaller nationals like I’m Not Yelling. “Why would the top players want to go to a tournament that doesn’t have the same value as one of the Smashes?”

That argument is already present and it isn’t a problem. There’s always money on the line for each of these events, from a 25-50 man local to a 200 player regional. That doesn’t prevent any big-name player from wanted to go now. What’s to stop them in the future?

Another argument that could arise is the definition of a Grand Smash and why I have the power to denote certain events more important than others. My choices aren’t set in stone. I’m just a journalist and a scrubby player with an idea. I only made the logical choices and what seems fair to the major regions (sorry Japan and other countries with ever-growing communities). Like I said earlier, those tourneys are placed above the others already.

Finally, the fear that fans might face is the idea of no long being grassroots. And that’s not the case or my point at all. Every tournament has their own experienced and valuable TOing staff, another reason why I mentioned three well-established events. I left Europe’s open to debate, seeing that they have had successful events from multiple TOs and without seeing Dreamhack’s success. This isn’t to break down the grassroots. This is just something to elevate the scene a bit higher.

But I don’t think that’s the extent of what season play should look like. After Big House in October, there’s still two months to use…