Safety violations at hotel force Smash Bros. tournament to change venues

After a Fire Marshall shut down the Apex 2015 event being held at a hotel in Secaucus, New Jersey due to safety concerns, the Super Smash Bros. tournament was been moved to another location.

The event was cancelled at the hotel on day one of the tournament before the first match could be started, after a fire alarm was pulled at 9am, resulting in the evacuation of the hotel and the fire department arriving on scene.

Instead of finding a fire in the Clarion Hotel where the event was being held, the Fire Marshall discovered various fire code violations. Due to theses safety concerns, the event had to be moved to another venue.

Earlier in the week, the hotel faced another problem when the roof of its three-story garage collapsed, causing a small snowplow and its driver to fall through the upper level.

The violations found by the fire department ranged from vehicles parked in the fire lanes (likely due to the garage collapse) and the hotel failing to acquire the proper permits to required for events with over 500 attendees.

Apex 2015 is the largest Smash Bros. tournament in history, and the three-day event is expected to drawn around 1,000 and 2,000 players and spectators.

Along with four Smash Bros. console game tournaments, Ultra Street Fighter 4, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Guilty Gear X, Killer Instinct and Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire tournaments are also to be held.

The Apex 2015 event was moved to the Garden State Convention Center in Somerset, NJ and kicked off today, thanks to Twitch's efforts at arranging the new venue.

You can watch the tournament streams through these links: Main Stream, Secondary Stream.