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Earlier this month, Nintendo unveiled its next gaming system, Switch. At the end of the trailer, a shot appeared of a massive esports arena filled with thousands of screaming Splatoon fans. Considering Nintendos complicated history with esports, this is the first time the company has directly acknowledged the scene. After years of neglect, Nintendo may finally be paying attention to esports.Evan Rocketek Towne, captain of Panda Globals Splatoon team, was surprised by the inclusion of a massive theoretical esports event at the end of the trailer. I think it definitely brings a lot of excitement and promise for Nintendo esports, he said. Splatoon is a game that with the right support can become even more competitive and just as fun to watch as it is to play.With Switch, it seems like gamers will more easily be able to take their systems on the go. If Nintendo can implement a proper spectator mode, then Splatoon could have a vibrant esports future.But the de facto Nintendo esports game has always been the Super Smash Bros. franchise. After Nintendo tried to remove Melee from Evolution 2013, the company has been mostly hands-off.Since the Evolution 2013 incident, Nintendo has been changing its tune. In 2014, it held the a Smash Bros. for Wii U invitational at E3, inviting top players like Evil Geniuses Kevin PPMD Nanney and Gonzalo ZeRo Barrios to compete on stage. It has also sponsored tournaments like Apex and Community Effort Orlando, providing event support. These actions caught the community off guard and led many to speculate that Nintendo may have grander esports aspirations. If it truly does, all signs point to how it plans to support Splatoon, the older Melee scene, and the more recent Smash 4 scene.Hungrybox, a competitive Melee player, has a closer relationship with Nintendo compared to other esports athletes. He was invited for the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U invitational in 2014, and played against Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime the following year in a trash-talk filled grudge match. Because he plays the older iteration of the game, he thinks whatever new Smash game Nintendo puts out will be the unquestionable competitive title. The dream would be a re-release of [Melee HD], but theres a lot of difficulty in porting such a complex game from 2001 and making it identical on a brand new console with a brand new engine and visual output, he said.The difficulties arise in the speed and complexity of Melees gameplay. Even today, players will lug around large CRT televisions because it affords higher refresh rates and lower input delay. High end gaming monitors still cant reach the refresh rates of CRTs. Even with the stubbornness of the Melee scene, theres potential for a new Smash game that appeals to both scenes. When [Project M] came out, it was truly an interesting time for the Smash Community. Youd have top Brawl players and top Melee players meeting each other in high level bracket matches, Hungrybox said.Project M was a fan mod of the third Smash game, Brawl. It removed many of the gripes the Melee community had with Brawl, and created a game that was faster and more competitive. While not a perfect game, it was the only one that was able to bring together both Smash scenes. But Hungrybox isnt as optimistic. An all-encompassing Smash 5 title does sound like a dream, but realistically it just seems impossible, he said.The real potential of an invested Nintendo would mean a proper circuits for Super Smash Bros. and Splatoon. For example, game dev Capcom has the Pro Tour, a tournament circuit in which Street Fighter V players can compete and earn points. The players with the most points will meet at the Capcom Cup, fighting it out over the lions share of $250,000. 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RIO DE JANEIRO -- There are few things in this world Ricky Rubio loves more than basketball, the electricity he feels when hes on the fastbreak, teammates running with him and a no-look lob pass just begging to be thrown.His mother, Tona, was certainly one of them.The point guard spent all of last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves watching from afar as Tonas body slowly succumbed to lung cancer, and there were times that he wondered if he should be playing at all.Sometimes at night during the season I was going through hell, Rubio told The Associated Press as Spain prepared for a showdown with the United States in the Rio Olympics semifinals Friday. Waking up in, who knows, Sacramento, in LA, in the middle of the night alone in a hotel and thinking, `Why am I here? Is it really worth it?When Timberwolves president and coach Flip Saunders died suddenly from lymphoma in October, it rocked the organization and Rubio in particular. Watching Flips son Ryan, an assistant coach on the team, grieve put a permanent pit in Rubios stomach, giving him the sinking feeling that he was getting a glimpse into his own future.Sometimes during video chats -- Tonas was the first voice Rubio wanted to hear after a win or a loss -- she would have to step away while becoming ill. He scrambled back home after the season was over and spent about six weeks with her before she died on May 25 at the age of 56.Anyone can say hes close to his mom, said Lucas Charte, Rubios close friend and manager. But when you see Tona and Ricky and how their relationship went, it was something else. There was a kind of connection between them. They were too similar. Ricky has a brother and a sister. Nobodys parent will tell you they have a favorite. But you could tell Ricky was Tonas favorite.Rubio has always looked forward to playing for the Spanish national team. He started practicing with them at 16 and sees his teammates as a surrogate family that helped raise him from a child prodigy into a trusted veteran.But when Tona passed, Rubio thought long and hard about pulling out of Rio to be with his father and two siblings back in Spain.At one point when everything happened, you think whats the best? Rubio said. Stay with your familly? Stay back home? Or sacrifice one more time everything for one goal, which is the gold medal, and dedicate it to her.ddddddddddddRubio tore the ligaments in his left knee at the end of a promising rookie season in 2012, causing him to miss the London Games that summer. He watched his beloved teammates fall to the United States, 107-100, in the gold-medal game. On his first day of rehab, Rubio vowed to physical therapist Andre Deloya that he would bring him to Rio four years later. Deloya never mentioned the promise again, but when it came time, Rubio had the tickets ready for him and his wife.One promise kept. One to go.Spain started the tournament 0-2 and Rubio was not playing well. Tona was not there, and he could not get her absence out of his head.I had a lot going on in my mind. It started with doubts. I started wondering if all the sacrifice was worth it, he said. I put a lot of pressure on myself, like Ive been doing my whole career. At one point I decided to forget about all the pressure and just play for fun and do my game and enjoy what I do.He has gradually settled in, and Spain is humming heading into the rematch with Rubio at the controls. In the first two games of the tournament, Spain was outscored by six points in the 28 minutes he was on the floor. In their last three victories, they have outscored their opponents by 67 points in Rubios 59 minutes.The mighty Americans -- winners of 50 straight games in international tournaments -- have shown some rare vulnerability in this tournament, emboldening challengers like Spain and Australia.It would mean everything for us, Rubio said of a win on Friday. It would mean the world. I remember watching Argentina beat the U.S. in 2004 and I think maybe the same story that Argentina wrote with the `Gold Generation, we can write, too.Rubio wants to win for Spanish fans after falling short against the U.S. in the gold-medal games in Beijing and London. He wants to win for teammates Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro and Jose Calderon, who may not have another Olympic run in them.Most of all, he wants to win for Tona. ' ' '