For new and old players alike, it can be tough to figure out what tournaments are going to take place each weekend. Sometimes, big events simply fly under the radar. These articles are meant to help spread awareness about big events you shouldn’t miss this weekend, in no particular order.

Smash Conference United (Link)

Florida’s first Smash Ultimate major is happening this weekend, January 5-6. The event is advertising a 14,000 square foot venue, and a $1,000 pot bonus. It will be streamed by MVG League. While there is a Melee side event, Smash Ultimate is the main attraction, and will be streamed from noon to 7:00 P.M. EST on Saturday. On Sunday, Doubles is scheduled to run from noon to 4:00, then singles will start back up again. Top 8 is scheduled to begin at 7:00.

This event has been hyped as the return of Tempo Storm|ZeRo (PGR100 #1) and FOX MVG|MKLeo (PGR100 #3), as well as drawing many out-of-state top players to compete. Other players it will feature include GRV|Dabuz (PGR100 #4), Samsora (PGR100 #22), PG|MVD (PGR100 #31), W2W|Mr. E (PGR100 #37), and C2F|DarkWizzy (PGR100 #95), alongside many others. These are simply the players who have been officially announced by the team running the event, as the entrant lists are not public yet. I’m sure much of Florida’s top talent will also be in attendance.

2GG’s SoCal Chronicles (Link)

2GG’s return to Smash begins with this one-day super-regional tournament on January 5th. It marks the beginning of the SoCal Ultimate League, and has reached its cap of 512 entrants. The event will take place from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M. PST, and will likely be streaming the entire time on 2GGaming’s Twitch channel. It will feature Ultimate Singles and Doubles, 3v3 Squad Strike, and Battle For SoCal, a crews side event made up of 5-person teams from each subregion of Southern California.

As for players, SoCal Chronicles will feature the region’s best. This includes players like Larry Lurr (PGR100 #8), CLG|VoiD (PGR100 #11), Elegant (PGR100 #27), falln (PGR100 #29), Armando (PGR100 #47), eM Zenyou (PGR100 #61), K9sbruce (PGR100 #62), and much more of the region’s unranked talent. There’s not much out-of-region presence, but there will be a group from Arizona including 4Mana|Stroder (AZ PR #2), SS (former AZ PR #3), and others.

Valhalla II (Link)

Valhalla II will be a huge European major to kick off the year for both Ultimate and Melee. Nearly 400 entrants will be coming together in Copenhagen for this important event. Friday will feature a Project M side event and the Battle of the Boroughs, a 3v3 event. Saturday and Sunday will feature singles and doubles for both Melee and Ultimate, with both games billed equally as the main events.

Valhalla II is an important tournament in part because of the top Melee talent that will be competing. [A]|Armada (MPGR #3), TSM|Leffen (MPGR #4), Demise|Trif (PGR #29), [A]|Android (SSBMRank #44), DJ Nintendo (SSBMRank #76), and many other known Melee players will be competing for the first time. How they’ll perform against Europe’s top Smash 4 talent is a big question. Some of Europe’s best will be in attendance, including orKs|Glutonny (Euro #2), cyve (Euro #4), iStudying (Euro #10), Light (Euro #15, not the New England one), Meru (Euro #18), Ramses (Euro #21), M (Euro #36), and many others, like the BSD Crew (cFive, Izaw, and VyQ), and top commentator Virum.

Other events:

Orion 2019 in New York on January 5th doesn’t have enough entrants to really be considered a major (around 100), but there’s lots of top talent there. Among these are ANTi (PGR100 #14), Light (PGR100 #43), Sinji (PGR100 #85), LingLing (NER #8), Raptor (former NYR #7), and more. (Link)

Kumite In Tennessee 2019, taking place over the entire weekend, will be a major for many fighting games, and Smash Ultimate is included in the games being played there. There’s nearly 160 entrants and some strong regional talent, such as Sonido, TheReflexWonder, NovaPixl, Dr. Copter, and Pelca coming down from Massachusetts. (Link)

Locals! The most important thing you can to for your Smash scene is to make it out to your local tournaments and support your scene. I’d pay attention to interesting results at locals too, as it’s where many top players are forged. For example, BlazingPasta has recently taken 3 Philadelphia tournaments over players like Mr. E, 6WX, and Sandstorm. Keep an eye out for things like this!

I’m incredibly hyped to see how these events play out, and I hope this article opened your eyes to one or more tournaments you weren’t planning on watching this weekend.

– Badger