It goes without saying that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s amiibo metagame is one of the most unique competitive scenes of all time. On the surface, the idea of raising a fighter and sending it away to do battle is highly accessible — and indeed, for tournaments that allow file submission, you don’t even need to attend the actual tour to see your Figure Player’s results! Unfortunately, hosting and entering file submission competitions requires the use of amiibo Powersaves, and while they aren’t all that expensive, it’s an additional barrier to entry nonetheless. For the longest time, we had no choice but to host file submission tournaments — that is, until Nintendo added amiibo compatibility to online Battle Arenas. You would think the struggles of hosting amiibo tours would end there, but that isn’t the case: Battle Arenas are actually quite difficult to work with, and for a variety of reasons.
Continue reading The struggles of hosting a Battle Arena amiibo tournament