GameSided
Fansided

Update: Major Smash Bros Tournament Apex 2015 On Abrupt Halt

By Daniel George

facebooktwitterreddit

UPDATE: Apex 2015 is unstoppable. The Team Apex Twitter account has announced a new venue. With thanks to Twitch, Apex tournament play will resume on Saturday at the Garden State Convention Center in Somerset, NJ. Let the hype re-commence!

ORIGINAL: The amount of work required to hold a major gaming tournament, from concept to actuality, takes a lot of work. Organizing hundreds of people to converge in one area requires expertise, research and a bunch of phone calls to be made. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking to hear that major Super Smash Bros. tournament Apex 2015 has been postponed due unforeseen circumstances that involve a fire alarm, snow, a hotel and the local authorities.

Details surrounding the sequence of events leading up to halting Apex 2015 are based off of reports from people on Twitter at the scene, so please take the following with a grain of salt.

More from News

Taking place at the Clarion Hotel Empire Meadowlands in Secaucus, New Jersey, Apex 2015 tournament pool play was in the early stages across both Super Smash Bros Melee and Wii U. Prior to today’s events, part of the parking lot garage had been damaged by snowfall in a recent storm, as indicated by picture reports. However scary that may be, Apex staff were allegedly informed by hotel staff that the venue was safe enough to proceed with scheduled tournament play ahead of time.

Then, sometime this morning, a person had falsely tripped the fire alarm, causing fire marshals to show up to the Clarion Hotel. Upon inspection of the false alarm, inspectors noticed enough damage to the building necessary to deem them unsafe. As such, both ballrooms holding Super Smash Bros. events have been closed, with organizers unable even to retrieve equipment. Because of this, tournament proceedings have grinded to a halt.

We’re not talking about overzealous fire marshals trying to stop the fun; photos taken on the scene of Apex 2015 show intense structural damage to roofs of some of the rooms. It puts a damper on the proceedings that saw Nintendo help sponsor the event and slate to bring Splatoon demo early access to all participants at the venue.

Unfortunately, as inspectors are unaware as to the extent of the damage, updates are unofficial at this point and will be over the few hours at the time of writing this post. Team Apex are planning to update attendees and Twitch viewers at roughly 2-3 PM EST later today, hopefully with the announcement of backup plans for Apex 2015. Another venue so soon is likely out of the question, and having to rely on backup strategies for hosting a fighting game tournament is an unfortunate truth facing organizers.

Here’s hoping for the best.

More from GameSided

Looking to write about video games? Join us at GameSided! Contact me to apply or if you have any inquiries/tips: daniel.george@fansided.com.

Home/News