Popular esports event production company, Beyond the Summit, is branching out this year with Summit tournaments forSuper Smash Bros. UltimateandMortal Kombat 11. Normally this would be seen as a positive look for these games with big streaming numbers to boot, however, some top players had some choice words to say about the exclusive events.First, a bit of clarification for those who aren’t aware of whatBeyond the Summitis and it’s uniqueness from other esports events. Summit is basically an invitational tournament series where big esports players of a specific game spend a few days playing matches and other events pertaining to their scene. The event ditches the stereotypical stages and conventions for an intimate house setting, however. This means matches are literally played in living rooms, players lounge around behind commentators and play other miscellaneous games. The series also doesn’t have a live audience whatsoever, going for a streaming exclusive event.About half of the invitees are chosen based on either placing or popularity, while a select number of spots are left open for vote-ins. Voting is up to fans who can purchase merchandise or donate to the prize pools. The number of votes is then determined throughout various deadlines, where players slowly get voted in over a few weeks. Players who have the lowest number of votes after a round of voting are also eliminated from the next round of voting, adding more pressure to campaign for votes. Some Summit events include games such asSuper Smash Bros. Melee,Dragon Ball FighterZ,DOTA 2, and others.Now whenSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatereceived the Summit event treatment, the initial players invited included a mixed bag ofMeleeandWii Uplayers alike. Of course, you had your big hitters like Nairo and Zero but other players like Leffen (2018 Melee Evo Champ) and Mew2King made the cut as well, stirring a little divide in the community. And after the last set of invited players were determined by Genesis 6 results, the madness of voting season began. And after the first round of voting, renowned topMeleeplayer Mango was voted into Summit by a large margin of votes. Meanwhile, a top player of bothSuper Smash Bros Wii Uand earlyUltimate,Tweek, was eliminated with not enough votes – spiraling the Smash community into social media debates and takes. This all didn’t help with Mango being himself and playing a little devil’s advocate for the whole situation.
Tweets from players and community members alike ran like crazy today in the wake of all of this, and you can probably catch all of this drama by just searching “Summit” on Twitter for more. However, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate wasn’t the only community going at it today with Summit. TheMortal Kombatcommunity had a field day as well following the announcement of aMortal KombatSummit even called “Mortal Kombat 11 and the Summit of Time”.
Though this would sound like a great chance for theMortal Kombatcommunity to flex a little and get some extra spotlight, one top player’s tweet spun a whole new Summit debate:
And then tweets came pouring in response to Tweedy’s tweet:
No matter what side you are on in these debates, BOTH of these Summits are sure to bring in extra viewership with all of this free publicity these communities are pushing out.
TheSuper Smash Bros. UltimateSummit event is set to take place on March 8, with voting happening in the meantime. You can keep up with all of the voting and event details on theirSmashGG page now. No official page yet forMortal Kombat 11’s Summit, but details are sure to come up as we get closer to the game’s launch.
