Update [Fri 24th Jun, 2022 17:00 BST]: The first round of The Panda Cup Circuit starts today at Daytona Beach and the CEO Fighting Game Championship.This is the first stop in a series of eight tournaments that lead up to the finals in Los Angeles in December.
From today until Sunday 26th, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players will be duking it out to see who will qualify for the finals.
If you can't attend the event in person, don't worry, you'll be able to watch all of the matches on the official Panda Cup Twitch right here. The stream will start around about now, 12pm EDT, today and will go on until 10pm EDT. But here's the full streaming schedule for the whole weekend.
- Friday: 12 - 10pm EDT
- Saturday: 10am -10pm EDT
- Sunday: 12 - 4 pm EDT
You can find out the rest of the circuit dates, including details about the tournament, in our original story below.
Original article [Fri 27th May, 2022 13:15 BST]: The absence of Super Smash Bros. from Evo later this year is a bit of a downer for some. Nintendo officially withdrew from the huge fighting game tournament earlier this year, months after Sony bought the Evolution Championship Series. That doesn't mean fans will have to miss out on some smashing action this summer, though.
The Panda Cup has been officially announced — an official Nintendo-licensed North American circuit that will pit 32 of the best players of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Melee against each other across multiple dates.
Kicking off on 24th June at Evo rival live at CEO, the circuit will make eight stops before stopping in Los Angeles for the Last Chance Qualifiers and the finale, which will determine the best Ultimate and Melee player out there. There will also be online qualifiers for Ultimate. starting in July through to October, with dates yet to be announced.
- 24th to 26th June: CEO (Daytona, Florida)
- 1st to 3rd July: Get On My Level (Toronto)
- 29th to 31st July: Smash Factor 9 (Cholula, Puebla)
- 30th September to 2nd October: Lost Tech City (San Antonio, Texas)
- 7th to 9th October: The Big Hours 10 (Detroit)
- 28th to 30th October: Let’s Make Moves (Miami)
- 12th to 13th November: Saving Mr. Lombardi 3 (Irvine, California)
- 18th to 20th November: Dreamhack Atlanta (Atlanta)
- 15th December: Panda Cup Finale Last Chance Qualifier (Los Angeles)
- 16th to 18th December: Panda Cup Finale (Los Angeles)
While Nintendo is licensing the tournament, it is "not a sponsor, co-sponsor, or administrator of this tournament". Over $100,000 dollars are up for grabs, and the prize pool will be split between the winners of the Ultimate and Melee tournaments.
You can find out more about the Panda Cup over on the official website.
Will you be watching any of these events? Are you glad to see a new, official Smash tournament? Let us know in the comments.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 18
THANK YOU! This was announced some time ago, and the lack of updates made me worry that Nintendo pulled out of the agreement.
Finally some news on this
The lack of news made me think that it’d probably been cancelled. Was happy to hear yesterday that its actually happening
Interesting to note that it quietly noted that Nintendo isnt supporting the circuit’s prize pool or production. The only connection it has is in name.
Did they run this through popular streamer Ninja first?
I am still so happy about this. I'm glad that Nintendo is not only officially supporting Ult but also Melee.
Smash Bros Melee should be remastered
@LiNeR Since this is the first one, my guess is that they want to see how Panda handles the whole thing, and also see how well-received is the tournament.
@LiNeR
Nintendo giving actual prizes for tournaments will never happen under current leadership. But maybe in the far far future.
Nintendo really should consider hosting their own yearly tournament. Yeah I know they do one-offs from time to time, but they should do a big nation-wide tournament yearly for their most competitive games.
I'm not a huge "competitive" game besides Games Done Quick, but this sounds interesting...
This is good news, but I don't think it's in anyone's best interest to have two circuits going on at the same time. It just feels completely arbitrary how some tournaments are a part of one circuit and not the other. And the best part of a circuit is that the whole year comes down to one finale, but now there's two finales one week after the other, which is very confusing and anti-climactic. I just wish they thought this through and instead tried to plan together with SWT to make something that's best for the community.
Wait, a round is in Mexico?
Oh wow!, But..., I am in my job, and some far the location, oh well...
I'd almost forgotten about this, haha. Maybe I'll tune in.
Shame what someone said earlier about Nintendo not supporting the prize pool. Marss stated recently that even a top-8 major finish isn't enough to cover most people's travel and lodging at the event. I'd like to see the competition that would be fostered if there was substantial money to be won.
Could you imagine them doing this via NSO? Haha...all the disconnects..lag spikes...desynch...now I'd watch that just to see the anger.
Was pretty amusing when the Tetris world thing was going on and they kept getting disconnected and the announcers had to play down the fact their online service is laughably bad.
While this is cool, I like the Smash World Tour better. But even the SWT is heavily US focused despite it's name. Hope enough Japanese top 10 players make it through.
Lock up your daughters, the Smash community is in town.
I've been to CEO a few times (not for Smash tho) and it's a really fun time. The broadcasts are usually high quality as well. Great atmosphere.
Wasn’t the big house tournament the one they closed down in 2020? Funny how that works
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