Tournament:Apex

Apex is an ongoing tournament series, held in New Jersey, that has attracted worldwide attention. The series was founded by Alex Strife, and has featured some of the largest Smash tournaments to date.

The Apex series started in 2009 with Apex 2009, mainly featuring Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Melee, as well as other side games, including the Brawl mod Brawl+. In 2010, Apex 2010 was hosted, once again featuring Brawl and Melee, as well as brackets for Smash 64, Brawl+, and Brawl-.

After a year-long absence, the Apex series returned in 2012 with Apex 2012, where it became an Evo qualifier event, leading to massive Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Super Street Fighter IV tournaments. Apex 2012 hosted the largest Brawl tournament of all time (with 400 entrants), as well as what was then one of the largest Melee tournaments (with 318 entrants), and the largest All Brawl tournament. It had the most attendance of foreign players in a United States tournament since Zero Challenge 3. It was also the first Apex to feature qualifiers, with a "Road to Apex" circuit featuring Melee and Brawl tournaments across the globe that gave players seeding points, which has been continued with every Apex after it.

In 2013, Apex 2013 was hosted, featuring the third-largest Brawl tournament of all time (with 338 entrants), the then-second-largest Melee tournament of all time (with 336 entrants), and the then-largest Smash 64 tournament of all time (with 96 entrants).

In 2014, Apex 2014 was hosted, featuring the then-second-largest Melee tournament of all time (with 629 entrants), the second-largest Brawl tournament of all time (with 370 entrants), and the then-largest Smash 64 tournament in the United States (with 157 entrants). It also included the Brawl mod Project M for the first time, and was the largest Project M tournament at the time (with 382 entrants).

In 2015, the sixth tournament, Apex 2015, was hosted, and it featured the then-largest Melee tournament of all time, with 1,037 entrants, making it the first individual game event with over 1000 enterants. Smash 4 was also introduced to the series, with around 700 to 800 entrants for its first tournament. However, due to numerous allegations of abuse and harassment, Alex Strife stepped down as the TO of Apex 2015, which proceeded without him. While the tournament was also sponsored by Nintendo of America, it was further marred by complications during the event. On day one of the tournament, the original venue was found to be unsafe and lacking the required permits, and was shut down by the local police and fire department. The tournament and all the equipment was then relocated to a new venue, secured with the help of Twitch, and the entire first day of Apex was virtually lost. The previously three-day event was condensed down to two days, leading to many delays in scheduling, and several hundred entrants were disqualified from the bracket after being unable to show up to the new venue.

The catastrophes of Apex 2015, combined with criticism of previous Apex events, as well as Alex Strife's departure from the community, have stained the reputation of the tournament series; the Apex tournaments have consistently been viewed as being poorly run and managed by inexperienced TOs. While Apex 2016 was hosted by a new team of tournament organizers, it attracted much diminished interest compared to the previous years despite being a three-day event. Melee singles shrunk to a regional-scale event, with only players from the Northeast in attendance, while only a handful of top Smash 4 players travelled to the tournament. Both events, especially Melee, were eclipsed in entrants by Texas' Low Tier City 4 the same weekend.

List of tournaments

• Apex 2009 - May 9th-10th, 2009
• Apex 2010 - August 6th-8th, 2010
• Apex 2012 - January 6th-8th, 2012
• Apex 2013 - January 11th-13th, 2013
• Apex 2014 - January 17th-19th, 2014
• Apex 2015 - January 30th-February 1st, 2015
• Apex 2016 - June 17th-19th, 2016

External links

• Apex website
• Apex YouTube channel