It’s almost the last weekend of the year. There won’t be another one until 2019. Many of us are currently preparing to sleep 48 hours straight before ringing in the new year which, if modern trends are anything to go by, will be “quite something,” at least if my grandmother were the one saying it. Regardless, there are still esports going on, providing a colourful, competitive constant in these otherwise uncertain times.
Most notably: there’s another Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament. Let’s Make Moves, a tri-state tournament happening in New Jersey, will pit some of the series’ best against one another on December 29, including Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby, Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada, and Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland.
The early days of competitive Smash Ultimate have been fun to watch. With a huge roster and faster movement speeds across all of the fighters, matches have often been wild and unpredictable.
At the same time, since most of the expanded roster hails from previous Smash games, players have had the opportunity to slip into old grooves, as Jestise “MVD” Negron did at a major earlier this month in which he didn’t drop a single set while playing as Metal Gear Solid’s Snake, originally introduced back in Brawl.
MVD isn’t playing in this weekend’s tournament, nor is Eric “ESAM” Lew, a player who lost to MVD in the grand final while playing as Pikachu. That means at this event there will likely be openings for other characters, including more heavies like Donkey Kong and King Dedede and an assortment of sword-wielding characters who have come out generally strong in Smash Ultimate’s burgeoning meta.
Pros have also been more apt to swap fighters mid-set in this early period, leaving space for upsets due to pocket picks late in a tense series. Who knows—maybe someone will clinch first place at Let’s Make Moves with a Mii Fighter.
Pools for doubles at the event will begin today while singles gets started shortly thereafter. Top eight play will eventually follow that with everything streaming live on the Twitch channel EvenMatchupGaming.
There’s also a Fortnite tournament this weekend hosted in person by organisers WSOE. I’d be lying if I said I knew what those letters stand for, but with $US100,000 ($141,907) on the line and some big name streamers hosting, the event looks for real.
Taking place on December 30 at Manhattan Beach in California, the tournament will be streamed live on WSOE’s Twitch channel.
Finally, the Chinese streamer group SCBoy is currently hosting its annual StarCraft II tournament, which is called Master’s Coliseum. Play began on December 26 and will run until the finals on January 9. This weekend will see Group D face off, which will include showings from big names like Eo “soO” Yoon Soo and Kim “Stats” Dae Yeob. Matches will start at 2100 AEST tonight and be streamed on Twitch here.
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