Overhype I say... that's why I wouldn't be hangin' around in a Smash forum, majority of them would be those cocky guys, and there are some who are godly, etc. Iono, its just not worth goin' to the Smash Boards, I wouldn't be suprised if the money is for Halo 3, but I think you'd be correct in sayin' that it would be for Smash seeing how it created more hype and PROBABLY more sales then Halo 3. (from seeing a comment earlier about 2 copies a second or something like that.)
No no, that's Melee, not Brawl. Brawl's competitive scene is still in its infancy, Melee's been going strong in competitions since 2001 and onward. I'm mostly thinking I might be mixing the prize money with that of MvC2 but I think MvC2 might actually have been higher with something like 30,000 in prize money. The fighting games community is crazy for money, seriously. Some money MATCHES (not tournaments, just matches between two guys) hit up $3,000 and such sometimes.
Smashboards are a kind of mixed bag tho yeah, you do get the LOL FINAL DESTINATION FOX ONLY guys sometimes but a lot of them are generally helpful and don't really let tiers and tournament victories dictate how they play, this is especially true for the best of the best who are generally really cool guys to hang out with. It's a different kind of world but it's not as cocky as some might think, it's just that they generally disfavor the "scrub" mentality that some things are set to be done one way and that using glitches or disabling stuff is somehow against the game designers' intents, which has nothing to do with how a game can be played at a high level.