This is pretty much our situation now, though, but slightly improved because we can usually get in as a sidegame as long as we have a few entrants.
The point I was trying to illustrate there was that, while Skullgirls certainly is under the radar, it is not
nearly as grassroots as Smash was, which means running a Skullgirls only or Skullgirls focused tournament more difficult. While the FGC hasn't exactly given much to Skullgirls, it's gotten a hell of a lot more then Smash ever did, which makes going full indie that much more difficult.
The first thing about this is that a hipster-fighting game major sounds awesome. Seeing Vsav played on a big stage while there's a bunch of Skullgirls, Yatagarasu, and Nidhogg setups sounds awesome.
It would certainly be very cool to see all the more unacknowledged fighters get there day in the sun, but it would be an absolute nightmare for prize money or stream sponsors, who I imagine would be more then a little hesitant to give money to an event that's entire purpose is to play games no ones heard of; not exactly a guaranteed haul.
The second thing is that we don't need to have numbers equal to EVO or APEX to run a good Skullgirls event, we would just want as much of the playerbase as possible to come out, play casuals, play in tournament, play bella ball, get food, and hang out. Hell, if it just matched the numbers at UFGT or NEC I would be happy, especially since the players who would be willing to come out to a Skullgirls Exclusive event would be the most dedicated ones.
I think you misunderstand; I'm not saying that all EVO numbers are the goal, but that if our theoretical 'Skullgirls Super Tournament' was to happen, I'd be shocked if it got anywhere near the amount of entrants that the EVO side-tourney got. Is that fair? No, it's not, but more people are willing to go to EVO because it is big, and even if they like Skullgirls then they are just less likely to head out to the Skull-a-thon then just head to the big place that's in the casino.
I'm all for Skullgirls moving into a smaller, more welcoming pond, but I don't think that a Skullgirls only major would get very far off the ground. It's one of those things that sounds easy when you say it, "Oh, we're not getting respected by EVO, so we'll just make our own series, with black-jack, and Nidhogg side events", but in reality it is
really hard to make your own tourney and get the word out, and even after that getting a good location and, most importantly, getting people to show up. Right now, if I had to give what I thought would be the best options, they would be
A) Keep up appearances at smaller events. Keep going to the Frosty Faustings and the Combo Breakers and other events like them, and move into there smaller pond so that we can be immortal top fish,
or, if the rest of you are dead-set on some new major, then
B) Hook up with the players of some other less well known fighting games and pray either one person throws lots of money at it or that several people throw slightly smaller increments of money at it.