I remember going to my first Melee tournament nearly three years ago. There were about 20 people there and a handful of setups in a tiny backroom. I’m not going to lie; at the time I knew very little about how technical Melee could be. However, after going to this tournament I was definitely intrigued.

For years I had followed Major League Gaming (MLG), watching Counterstrike and Halo matches, but I never stumbled upon Melee. After going to my first tourney, despite how small it was compared to the numbers of people at local tournaments today, I knew that I wanted to go to more and eventually compete.

The next tournament I went to was the first Kings of Cali. At this tournament I learned of the mysterious “Dr.PeePee”, now known as “PeePee M.D.“, and the legendary “Ken” a Survivor of Melee (if you know what I mean) in addition to the ever-present “TheCrimsonBlur”. Kings of Cali was also the first tournament where I saw a stream set-up.

Streaming was a new means of entertainment that for me only applied to Netflix and YouTube. Prior to this tournament, my only source of professional gameplay was streaming on YouTube, not a live feed from a website like Twitch. However, Kings of Cali was the first time where I really became aware of people streaming on websites like Twitch that had live gameplay—from people’s homes or at tournaments. Of course, Kings of Cali also demonstrated the larger appeal Melee had compared to the first tiny local I had attended, as it was a much bigger regional gathering.

Since attending the first Kings of Cali, it’s hard to think of a large tournament in Southern California that hasn’t been streamed. Therefore, with the prominence of streaming at Melee tournaments it was only a matter of time before Melee would change and adapt its tournaments for streaming.

There really is not a reason why Melee shouldn’t change for streaming. After all, streaming means growing the Smash community, raising money for more tournaments, and allowing people internationally to watch amazing Smash matches, among other positive reasons. However, exploring how Melee is changing because of streaming is an interesting concept to delve into.

To me, the events that transpired over the last several weeks have demonstrated how melee is evolving in relation to streaming.

The evolution first became apparent to me while attending Paragon: Los Angeles. The two-day event had a schedule that I hadn’t often come across, starting doubles at the end of day one. Doubles, at almost every tournament that chooses to host it (EVO for example doesn’t officially host), features doubles first. I believe doubles is usually first for several reasons:

1. Most people consider doubles a side-event, with singles being the main event.
2. Doubles gives time to set-up for singles brackets, the main event.
3. Doubles gives players time to warm-up and socialize.

There are many other reasons, but these are the top three reasons that I believe doubles are typically first at tournaments.

Nonetheless, Paragon was the moment where I realized that streaming is and will be shaping eSports tournaments. I don’t think that changing for streaming is necessarily a bad thing; in fact, I believe streaming has the potential to solidify and move eSports into the mainstream market. I began to focus on steaming’s relationship with melee because I wondered why doubles was at the end of day one at Paragon. The main, and really only reasons I could think of were related to streaming.

My general theory as to why doubles would be last at Paragon comes from the belief that there is less average viewership for doubles compared to singles, as evidenced by Twitch and Twitch chats. Therefore, by streaming singles first, viewers who would normally wait for the main event (singles) may become engaged and stick around for the whole stream, instead of waiting to watch singles later in the day. Therefore, the stream would hopefully gain viewers quickly rather than gaining viewers slowly who were really only waiting for singles. This concept only works with the theory that people would become so hyped from singles bracket that they would stick around during doubles. Therefore, having doubles last served as a potential way for maximizing viewership.

This theory is kind of similar to how many channels will air the Super Bowl and then premiere a new show or popular show afterwards, with the idea that people will be riding the hypetrain after the Super Bowl and stick around to see whatever delectable program follows. However, when it comes to Smash I really can’t confirm this was the reason why doubles was last, but to me it does seem like a good reason to have doubles last if your focus is on stream viewership.

With this in mind, I do believe it is an interesting transition period that competitive Smash is going through. For instance, Paragon, like many other tournaments, was very concerned with having quality commentators as demonstrated by their google doc schedule. This is typical of most other tournaments and streamers, I mean commentary is sort of a necessity if you don’t want a dull or awkward stream. Anyway, this is just one example of how important streaming has become to Smash tournaments.

I believe that the entire Paragon schedule was significantly influenced by streaming.

Day one it is slightly less obvious, aside from having three different streaming productions for the three different Smash games that were played at Paragon. (Melee: Video Game Boot camp, Smash for Wii U: Versus Gaming Center, and Project M: Project M Central). I believe day two is a lot more demonstrative of Smash’s relationship with streaming. The organizers of Paragon planned a schedule in which there was the least amount of overlap for each Smash game. With the most critical overlap taking place during Project M Top 8 and Smash Wii U’s Top 64.  There are other reasons for having a schedule like this but I really believe stream viewership is one of the largest determining factors. As demonstrated by selecting and running professional streams for each game, attempting to have high quality commentary, and investing so much energy into a near optimal stream schedule.

Paragon is only one example of streaming increasingly becoming important in the Smash tournament scene. Another example of this is the recent debate on player privileges. At the most recent Mayhem tournament, “MacD” decided to try out a new process in which top 8 players were automatically slated into the top 32 bracket for the tournament. This idea spawned from discussions within the Melee community about how top players were finding it difficult to remain focused during tournaments and eventually felt exhausted at the end of the tournament.

The idea, which spawned from various discussions on Melee It On Me and SoCal Melee Facebook Group, to me really demonstrates how Smash is changing and streaming is a definite factor. The idea behind setting aside top players in order to optimize their play would directly influence the quality of a stream. Rather than having exhausted players competing late at night, they can rest up, focus, and play at their best during the top 32 bracket. Basically making for more optimized play, thus creating a more entertaining stream, or at least opening up the possibility of a more entertaining stream.

The examples presented so far are all very specific. Larger examples such as, the dozens of streamed tournaments, the ability for top Smash players to make money from streaming on Twitch, and the increasingly large audience that Smash now receives on stream all demonstrate how Smash and streaming are further entwining.  I may be pointing out the obvious, in stating that Smash and streaming are now closely related. However, I do think it’s interesting to look at how Smash is being affected by streaming. Additionally, it will be interesting to see how Smash will be shaped by streaming in the next few years. I think Paragon, and the most recent Mayhem are small examples of the Smash community gradually changing. A year or so from now it will be interesting to see how top players will be treated and what aspects of tournaments will change in general to accommodate streaming Smash.