Despite being a near 7-year-old game, Smash Ultimate is having its biggest tournament ever in 2025 with the world’s best players all attending. However, it also has a baffling $0 prize pool despite the level of competition.
On May 4, Smash Ultimate players from across the globe will travel to Japan to compete at Kagaribi#13.
Kagaribi is already one of the top events on the Smash calendar, as many of the world’s most elite players such as Acola, Miya, Hurt, Zackray, Shuton and Asimo hail from Japan, but this next installment is a different breed.
This will be the most stacked Smash Ultimate tournament in history, beating out Genesis, EVO, Supernova (Super Smash Con), and more. But unlike those events, the winner of this won’t win any money.
Kagaribi#13 becomes Smash Ultimate’s first “Superpremier”
Given the tournament’s prestige, it’s not uncommon to see some players from Europe and North America travel to Japan for it.
However, for Kagaribi#13, everyone is here.
Aside from the aforementioned Japanese stars, the world’s top player, FaZe Sparg0, will also be in attendance. And he’ll be joined by an Avengers-caliber group consisting of MkLeo, Zomba, Tweek, Sonix, Light, Glutonny, Riddles, Kola, Luugi, crêpe salée, Shadic, and more.
In fact, given how stacked this event is, LumiRank, the Smash ranking service, has had to create a new tournament tier just for it: Superpremier.
Given all this hype, you’d think there would be a huge cash prize for the victory, right? Nope. It won’t matter if you finish first or go 0-2; the only thing on the line is bragging rights.
This is because of government regulations against gambling, which date back many years. But why can a tournament like Capcom Cup 11 put up a million dollars as a grand prize while being hosted in Japan, but a Smash tournament like this has no money on the line?
Well, Capcom Cup is an invitational event, one where every attendee has their travel paid and is guaranteed to win at least some money. Kagaribi, meanwhile, has entry fees and an open bracket. So, because people have to pay to enter the tournament, it’s directly viewed as gambling. But those entry fees are essential when it comes to keeping the event organizer afloat.
It’s 3000 yen (around $20) for domestic players and 4000 yen (around $27) for international players. With this tournament potentially hosting thousands of competitors, eliminating that entry fee would be a loss of tens of thousands of dollars for the organizers, not including how much it’d cost to create actual prizing.
While there are a number of ways people skirt about Japan’s strict gambling laws, there isn’t a viable course of action for this tournament and the way it’s structured. In order to keep the bracket open and welcome all players, the prize pool has to be nothing.
Still, with Smash 6 highly anticipated and rumored to be in development on the Switch 2, this could very well be the first, and last, Superpremier of Smash Ultimate’s run.
As such, capturing this title, even without any prize money to show for it, will cement the winner’s place in the history books.
