Nintendo Announces Super Smash Bros. Ultimate East and West Japan leagues

The competitive Super Smash Bros. scene has become one of the most popular esports in the world of the fighting games even without any major support from Nintendo as other fighting games have from their developers. However, this lack of support for the world of professional Super Smash Bros. will be ending in 2019 with the new entry of Ultimate, as Nintendo has officially announced that it will be organizing a Japan East and Japan West League for the upcoming title of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. 

The Japan East and West League will be apart of a tournament series for the highly anticipated title called the Smash Ball Cup with Season 1 for both leagues beginning in January of 2019. The West League will be located in Osaka and will be broadcasted on OPENREC.tv, while the East League will be located in Tokyo and broadcasted on Nico Nico Live Broadcasting. 

Both leagues will have items turned on for official matches which will likely be a center of controversy for the competitive scene of the franchise, as many players feel that items insert too much randomness into the title and dilute its competitive nature. 

SMASH BROS ULTIMATE LEAGUE/CIRCUIT IN JAPAN ANNOUNCED?!?!?

— Tempo ZeRo (@zerowondering) November 24, 2018

Two of the top players from both the Super Brawl Smash Brothers SPECIAL Premium Fight Tokyo competition at the Nintendo Live 2018 event and the Kyoto Games event will be selected to compete in the new leagues for the latest entry in the massively popular Nintendo fighting game franchise. Nintendo will also be scouting for players to join the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Japan East and West leagues at the Jump Festa tournament taking place on December 22nd to the 23rd. 

More information regarding the schedule and other areas of the newly announced Japan East and Japan West Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Leagues will be announced in the near future. 

(cover photo courtesy of Wccftech)