On Jan. 30th, safety marshals were called into the Clarion Hotel, where the Super Smash Bros. tournament Apex 2015 was taking place. They discovered, due to the recent snowstorm that hit the north-east, the hotel's ballroom was no longer up to safety standard. The tournament's fans and participants were forced to evacuate the building.
But that didn't stop Apex.
https://twitter.com/xD1x/status/561220815635886080
Today at Garden State Convention Center, Smash Bros. fans are gathered to watch hundreds of competitors duke it out in four different games in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, from its original Nintendo 64 release in 1999 to its most recent release Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U which came out in Nov. of last year. Their Melee tournament this year hosts over 1000 competitors, making it the largest Melee tournament on record, while their tournament for the fourth game in the series hosts 800. Today is the last day of the tournament.
Apex 2015 is the sixth annual Apex tournament put on by Team Apex, a tournament organization group who helped push the progress of e-Sports and bring competitive Smash playing to the Tristate Area of the United States. This year, the tournament is being co-sponsored by Nintendo Entertainment - a first since Team Apex started holding tournaments in 2009 - who used the opportunity to let attendants try out Nintendo's new game Splatoon.
Along with Smash Bros., tournaments are also being held for the fighting games Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ultra Street Fighter 4, Guilty Gear Xrd and Killer Instinct, as well as one tournament between Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Saphire - two games that are compatible with each other in multiplayer.
While the the tournament is still taking place, (it's streaming right now. You can watch it here) moving from the Clarion Hotel to the Garden State Convention Center has created complications. At around 12 p.m. this afternoon, Team Apex sent out a tweet encouraging people to volunteer to help coordinate the event. At 10:49 p.m. last night, D1, one of the commentators for the event, warned Apex attendees not to make too much noise outside the lobby of the Doubletree, saying too much noise anywhere else could them all evacuated.
https://twitter.com/apex_series/status/561915274858102784Have you been watching the Smash Brothers tournaments for Apex 2015? Let us know what you think about them in the comments section.