While it has always had its place at Super Smash Bros. Melee events, Melee doubles has grown in prestige and popularity in the past few years, with dedicated teams forming specifically to compete in team events. With the quality of play also drastically improving for Melee doubles, the TO team behind Genesis have decided to nurture this part of competitive Melee with a brand new circuit.
Titled Fuse, this circuit is set to run for the first half of 2017, with teams gathering circuit points to lead to an eventual invitational held on Evo Sunday, to make up for Melee’s absence at Evo 2017’s Sunday finals. There will be a minimum pot of $5,000, with $2,000 going to the winning team. Similar to circuits like the Capcom Pro Tour or the Killer Instinct World Cup, events in the Fuse circuit are divided between Premier and Major events, with teams earning points based on their performance at said events. The three Premier events are Genesis 4, CEO Dreamland and another as-yet-unannounced event, while the six Major events are BEAST 7, Full Bloom 3, Smash ‘n Splash 3, HFLAN and two other events which are yet to be confirmed.
Hey Melee,
We heard you love Doubles.https://t.co/ZEJYIc3lMK
FUSE: a Melee Doubles Circuit!#FUSEmelee pic.twitter.com/WEuJmFupAf
— GENESIS [#FUSEmelee] (@Genesis_Smash) February 18, 2017
Seeing as this is a circuit to celebrate Melee doubles, teams earn points as a unit, rather than players individually earning points. To take BEAST 7 as an example, where SFAT did not compete with usual partner PewPewU, but with dizzkidboogie; in order for the BEAST points to count, SFAT would have to lock dizzkid as his partner, which would forfeit his Genesis 4 points, acquired by competing with PewPewU. The opposite is true, so SFAT will not gain the points he won at BEAST if he chooses PewPewU as his partner. The main point of Fuse is to celebrate the achievement of static teams, rather than just rewarding players who partner up with the next best player to guarantee easy points.
All teams must be locked before the final Major in June, with the ability to gain more points stopping around two weeks before Evo. The top eight teams will be invited for the Fuse finals, to be held somewhere in Vegas at a time which should hopefully not clash with finals for Smash 4 or Street Fighter V. So, if you are at all interested, get a partner and start practicing your team play! The prize pot may rise via crowdfunding, so teams could be earning quite the pretty penny should they take the whole circuit.
Sources: Genesis_Smash; Melee It On Me