Calvin “GimR” Lofton announced Saturday that VGBootCamp’s next Super Smash Bros. major, Double Down, has been postponed. The Smash Ultimate and Melee major will now take place from July 8-10 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Double Down is the spiritual successor to Royal Flush, a Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U major that took place in May of 2017. It was originally scheduled for June 5-7, 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to its latest postponement, the event was going to happen from March 25-27.
Double Down is one of three VGBootCamp-run majors that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has affected. Previously, VGBootCamp postponed Glitch Infinite by a month due to rising Omicron cases. In addition, the tournament organizers of Genesis 8 moved their event to the weekend before another VGBootCamp event, Pound 2022, because of rising Omicron cases.
Double Down is being postponed to 7/8-10/22.
Given that Evo won’t have Smash, we ask the community to come together & support the event as The new Vegas Super Major!
Full Details (PLEASE READ IN FULL): https://t.co/XdrJYZcSXE
Reg Re-Opens at 7pm EST: https://t.co/doEMFG40fS
— GimR (@VGBC_GimR) February 26, 2022
More about Double Down’s postponement
Although COVID-19 cases in the United States are on the decline, Omicron-related concerns still impacted Double Down. GimR said that the team expected between 1,500 and 2,000 entrants. However, they were on pace for a much lower number due to the Omicron variant’s impact on people’s willingness to attend tournaments.
“At this rate we’re looking at 750 entrants tops which will put us in the red significantly,” GimR said in his statement. “Covid negatively affected our advertising cycle greatly. The problem is that we’re a month out and most people are just now ready to start attending events again. For most, a month is not enough time to plan to travel to an event.”
Ultimately, VGBootCamp made the call to postpone the event after their audio visual team canceled because of Omicron-related struggles. GimR also said the team has to pay their venue a penalty cost because of their decision to reschedule.
Following the recent announcement that Smash will not appear at Evo 2022 at Nintendo’s request, GimR urged the community to support Double Down as Smash’s premier Vegas supermajor.
