Streamer and content creator Ludwig Ahgren has decided to run a charity tournament as his own way to help give more attention to the Super Smash Bros. Melee competitive scene after Nintendo shut down The Big House Online with a cease and desist last week.
In just a few days since the Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 3 was announced, Ludwig and the community have put together a prize pool of nearly $45,000 that will all go to a charity of the winner’s choice.
Most of the money came from Ludwig’s Twitch channel. He put up an initial $10,000 of his own money for the event and decided that all of his Twitch donations until the end of the event on Dec. 20 will also go to the prize pool. His initial projection was for LACS3 to be around a $20,000 tournament just like LACS2, which was the 10th largest prize pool in Melee history at $25,001, but it quickly blew past that number.
Fizzi, the developer behind Melee’s online mod Slippi that was the catalyst behind the Nintendo cease and desist, is also donating $2,500 to the pot. That puts the total prize pool just two days after being announced at a minimum of $44,500.
And because this tournament is partially being used to provoke a response from Nintendo, Ludwig has confirmed that he’ll run the event in January if a cease and desist does come in.
“I don’t give a shit,” Ludwig said. “So I’m going to run my own tournament on Slippi. And look, maybe they will cease and desist me, maybe. But if we are running a tournament that is sending $10,000 to charity for some sweet, beautiful, orphaned children around Christmas time, then it wouldn’t look really good, would it?”
LACS 3: Charity Edition is set to run on Ludwig’s Twitch channel on Dec. 19 and 20 with the prize money going to a charity of the winner’s choice, though there will likely be multiple donations to different organizations with a split payout. You can expect almost every big name in the Melee community to compete, including Hungrybox, Axe, and dozens of others who have already said they’re in.
