Building up to early 2008’s biggest game launch — that being the March 9th retail debut of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, of course — Nintendo and Best Buy are teaming up to put on a tournament series to find out who is the top Smash Bros. brawler in all the land. Well, maybe not all the land, as there will only be four regional tournaments (NY, LA, San Fran and Boston), but you get the idea.
At each regional stop (the first being this Saturday in LA), the first 256 attendees will receive $10 Best Buy gift cards and free entry into a one-on-one, single-elimination tournament. Then, the four regional winners will meet in one final brawl at the Best Buy store at 622 Broadway in New York during a special Midnight Madness Launch event on March 8th leading into the 9th. When the dust settles, the champion brawler will be awarded a crystal-coated, Brawl-themed Wii console, a home theater system, and a copy of the game. The three runners-up won’t be left out, though. In fact, their prizes won’t be much less than the grand prize. All three will win Wii consoles, extra Wii Remotes, copies of Brawl and Best Buy gift cards in decremental values (second place will get $1,000, third place $500, and fourth place $250). See, not too shabby at all.
Hit the jump for specifics on the regional tournament dates and locations.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament List:
Feb. 16
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Orpheum Theater
842 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Feb. 23
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Ten15 Folsom
1015 Folsom St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
March 1
Doors open at 3 p.m.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Olden Hall
100 Institute Road
Worcester, MA 01609
March 8
Doors open at 5 p.m.
Best Buy (NOHO)
622 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
“Super Smash Bros. is one of the world’s most popular game franchises because it draws in characters from across the Nintendo universe and beyond for some all-out fighting fun,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing. “Super Smash Bros. Brawl has extreme appeal among our core audience, but these tournaments are a great way to get new fans involved as well – before the game is even available in stores.”
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Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
that is awsome.im going to be the first in line.im going to beat everyone with fox or falco or pretty much everybody.
I cant wait until the day of the tournament so i can beat everyone
SSBB has sold 840,000 in it’s launch week in Japan, getting to a million after eleven days. And with expectation at a fever pitch it will definitely launch at number one in America and Europe. But will it be one of the biggest games of 2008?
Just so everyone knows, the tournament at WPI is in a building called Olin Hall, not Olden Hall. We have an Alden Hall (which is cool; you should check it out), but no Olden. Didn’t want people to get here and have no idea where to go.