Nintendo has been spotted on the sponsor list for this year’s Evolution Championship Series. This would be a major step by Nintendo to embrace not only the fighting games community specifically, but competitive gaming as a whole.
The spot was shared on Twitter by D’Ron Maingrette, chief marketing officer of Apex, the Super Smash Bros.-focused eSports league which serves the NYC area fighting community.
Sponsoring EVO would be a huge step towards embracing the esports community for Nintendo, which as early as last July put the kaibosh on the Super Smash Bros. Melee livestream from EVO 2013. According to EVO co-founder Joey Cuellar, Nintendo wanted to shut down the Super Smash Bros. competition altogether.
Nintendo gave their first, concrete signs of embracing the eSports community by holding a Super Smash Bros. Invitational tournament at E3 this year. The event took place in the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, the traditional venue for their annual E3 press conference.
