Events like Genesis 3 and this weekend’s Big House 6, which have grown exponentially in the past few years, are both promising signs of this growth, as are attempts to make tournaments more sophisticated in how they treat top tier talent and the amenities provided for spectators. As D’Ron “D1" Maingrette, a Development Manager at Twitch, told me after the Abadango Saga tournament last month, the last five years have scene a lot of changes throughout the Smash scene.

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“Apex used to be the event that everyone looked forward to attending, whereas now we have a ton of major events to look forward to throughout the year, with EVO usually attracting the most attendees. Top players and personalities didn’t have the massive amount of faithful fans that they have today,” he explained. “Players are getting picked up left and right by teams, allowing them the opportunity to continue playing professionally, as opposed to players deciding to quit Smash because it wasn’t as profitable back then.”

You can watch Abadango and other top Smash players compete in today’s tournament on the VGBootCamp and Unrivaled Tournaments streams, with a complete schedule of matches available here.