MKLeo and Tweek, two of the best Smash Bros. Ultimate players in the world, have been dropped by their teams, T1 and TSM respectively, and the esports scene is worried it may present a growing problem for the future of the game.
Smash Bros. Ultimate isn’t a largely profitable esports compared to the juggernauts like VALORANT, League of Legends, and Apex Legends.
Even within the fighting game scene, titles like Street Fighter and its $2 million USD prize kitty at Capcom Cup outstrip Smash Ultimate and the $100,000 high watermark the Nintendo title’s prize pools have hit in the past.
Now, two of the best players, Tweek and MKLeo, are currently free agents. For context, both are the top two highest earners in Smash Ultimate, according to stats site EsportsEarnings. Considering their lofty titles, it would seem like an interesting decision for T1 or TSM to let either of them go, let alone both. However, it can be attributed to a number of things.
The obvious is the closure of Beyond the Summit. Beyond the Summit, also known as BTS, has provided Smash Ultimate with its highest prize pool tournament—Smash Ultimate Summit 3—which garnered around $159,000 USD. It was won by Tweek, one of the free agents we’re talking about. Due to this shutdown, it’s likely Smash Ultimate will take time to recover before they see another tournament with such high prizes.
Seeing this closure probably scared off potentially interested organizations from investing in the scene, as a huge chunk of prize money just went down the drain.
Another possibility is esports as a whole is suffering some kind of recession. Huge organizations are falling left and right, including The Guard having a massive layoff spree and FaZe Clan firing 20 percent of its workforce. The current economy of the U.S. isn’t really in a good spot currently and it’s starting to trickle down to the industry.
However, the Smash Ultimate community is remaining hopeful.
MVD a Smash Ultimate top player also had something to say about the current landscape of the game, suggesting it was “dark times” for the popular FGC title. It’s important to note this statement also applies to the recent controversy over Steve getting banned due to a new broken tech that was discovered.
T3 DOM, another top player, also thinks that the game would be fine in the long run.
Smash has never been a franchised or mainstream competitive esports. It’s always been grassroots which means that it’s not centralized to a single circuit. This also means that even though there are a lot of downs happening in the scene, it will never die unless the passion of the players themselves runs out.
And if there’s one thing about Smash players, they’re a passionate bunch.
