Case Study

Thunder Smash Tournament Series

EVENT:

DATE:

May 5, July 28, and October 12, 2019

GAME:

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

CLIENT:

Produced by Thunder Studios and Thunder Gaming

Client Brief

Thunder Gaming set out to develop a tournament series for SSBU players and fans. The goal was to
encourage growth and awareness of Southern California’s local Smash communities and support them by
producing events and opportunities for both professional and amateur players.

Event

Runtime: 10 - 14 Hours Per Event

Each of the three events in the Thunder Smash series had a different
creative focus. The original Thunder Smash Tournament, hosted on Cinco de Mayo, was a winner-take-all extravaganza which saw Dabuz take home the $20,000 Grand Prize. Spectators who came to watch the action in person enjoyed a beer garden, food trucks, DJs, a free play area, and a Smash
community vendor alley.

Thunder Smash 2 was a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Invitational with top players ESAM, Dabuz, Salem, Dak Wizzy, MVD, Larry Lurr, and VoiD
competing for the top prize. This event also featured an
arcadian tournament where only unranked players could compete. The
arcadian had a $5,000 prize pool and saw some of Southern California’s best up-and-coming players compete.

Thunder Smash 3: Clash of the Pandas was a Global Invitational and
collaboration between Thunder Gaming and Panda Global. This event
hosted some of the best Smash professional players in the world, with
competitors from Japan, Australia, France, and Mexico flying in to participate. Takuma “Tea” Hirooka from
Japan was the ultimate Ultimate winner!

Broadcast

All three events were filmed and broadcast live using 4 broadcast cameras and 1 JIB camera running through the in-house control room at full capacity with graphics operators, replay operators, technical director, audio technicians, and streaming technicians. The broadcasts achieved the following viewership:

SMASH 1: WINNER TAKES ALL
13 hours TRT of programming averaging 20.5K concurrent views totaling 15.9M minutes viewed

SMASH 2: INVITATIONAL AND SOCAL ARCADIAN
10 hours TRT of programming averaging 12.5K concurrent views totaling 7.5M minutes viewed

SMASH 3: CLASH OF THE PANDAS
14 hours TRT of programming averaging 12.5K concurrent views totaling 10.5M minutes viewed

quote “A rare and appreciated aspect of the tournament was its level of production quality. The broadcast included multiple desks for commentators, a wide lit stage, multiple cameras, as well as analysts who would evaluate the highlights after each set.” TEMPO/STORM

Creative Development

Thunder created the Thunder Smash series in its entirety from conception to final broadcast. Tournament Organization was done in-house and included designing the tournament format, talent/ player invitations and travel, host procurement and travel, prize pool, and sponsorship opportunities. Thunder also developed the Run of Show which included extensive planning for host segments and transitions, sound editing, graphics, player transitions and interviews, and camera type cuts. All broadcast graphics (animations, lower thirds, full screen lobbies, game scores, and transitions) were created by Thunder. All three events were broadcast live from the Thunder Studios 4K Control Room on Thunder Gaming’s Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/thundergamingla.