VGBootCamp co-founder and event organizer Calvin “GimR” Lofton shared his belief that the Smash World Tour can coexist with the North American Super Smash Bros. circuit hosted by Nintendo during a Reddit Ask Me Anything on Friday.
“We really believe both can coexist as circuits, especially since ours is more of a global focus,” GimR said in the AMA. “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to unite the Smash community as best we can.”
In November of 2021, Nintendo announced a partnership with Panda Global to host a North American Melee and Ultimate circuit in 2022. However, neither organization has revealed any more information about the circuit since the initial announcement.
Conversely, VGBootCamp announced the 2022 Smash World Tour along with several platinum and gold events on Wednesday. The 2022 Smash World Tour will officially kick off on March 17 with Virtuocity Smash Open in Doha, Qatar.
You heard it folks! Virtuocity Smash Open will officially be joining the Smash World Tour 2022 as a Gold Event, and will be the very first stop on the World Tour!@smashworldtour
What are you waiting for?! Register for the event now!https://t.co/RstHYezpZq pic.twitter.com/2tqaoIB9ef
— Super Smash Bros. Qatar (@SSBQatar) March 10, 2022
As it stands, the Smash World Tour is not associated with Nintendo. In addition, GimR said he has not heard any information about Nintendo’s circuit with Panda Global. Even so, he said he’d be willing to not only coexist with the Nintendo circuit, but also collaborate with it.
“We’d be more than down to chat to see how we can make that happen,” GimR said in the AMA. “We think more investment and resources put into the Smash scene is a net positive.”
More about Nintendo and the Smash World Tour
GimR also noted in his AMA that tournaments that have joined the Smash World Tour are non-exclusive. As a result, if Nintendo opts to partner with grassroots organizers for its circuit, results from those tournaments could count toward both the Smash World Tour and the Nintendo circuit.
Additionally, GimR acknowledged that the Smash World Tour excluded certain events because their organizers declined to participate. These include Genesis and The Big House, which will both return with offline events this year.
However, GimR clarified that their exclusion from the circuit was not related to streaming rights. Beyond the Summit streams both Genesis and The Big House. In addition, Beyond the Summit-owned events, like Smash Summit and Mainstage, are not part of the Smash World Tour. Nevertheless, GimR said tournaments don’t have to be streamed by VGBootCamp to be part of the circuit.
Finally, GimR confirmed the starting date for silver events is March 12. Although opt-ins won’t open until March 15, TOs will be able to retroactively opt in any events that happen this weekend. As a result, majors like Collision 2022 and Glory 2.0 could still potentially qualify as super silver tournaments for the Smash World Tour.
